SOCIAL MEDIA ENDORSEMENT POLICY
- Purpose and Scope.
Niteo Products, LLC (“Niteo”) is committed to transparency and honesty in all of its advertising messages and promotional communications with consumers. One of the most common ways to advertise and market products and services in social media is to use third party endorsements. Like other types of advertising, endorsements must be truthful and not misleading. Consumers must understand when a social media endorsement is sponsored by us.
This Policy applies to all agencies, independent contractors, speakers, writers, bloggers, talent, influencers, and any other individual or entity engaged in promotional communications on behalf of Niteo on social media or other non-traditional media. This Policy also applies to our employees and agencies who manage these individuals and entities and employees who promote Niteo and its products/services/brands on their personal social media accounts. For countries outside the US, Niteo considers many of the requirements in this policy to be best practices for engaging in social media. The Policy covers any activities under any Niteo owned or licensed brand, including Ozium, Folex, Faultless, Cyclo, Pennzoil, Pyroil and Motor Medic. - Defining an Endorser Covered by This Policy.
An individual or entity communicating on social media or other non-traditional media is covered by this Policy if its promotional messages about Niteo or our products/services/brands are sponsored ("Sponsored Endorser"). If the individual or entity is acting independently, it is not subject to this Policy.
A message is sponsored by us if we have a material connection with the individual or entity. A material connection is a tie to us which if known to consumers might make consumers question the credibility of the endorser or materially affect the weight consumers place on the endorsement.- Hire an agency to blog, post, or serve as a community manager on our behalf.
- Enter into an agreement with an individual to blog or post.
- Pay an individual to blog or post.
- Provide free accommodations or travel for a company event.
- Provide discounts, sweepstakes entries, or incentives.
- Provide free prizes for giveaways or sweepstakes.
- Provide free samples or services to review.
- Provide free samples after independent posting, creating expectation of more.
- Engage affiliate marketers to advertise, blog, endorse, or sell.
- Creating consumer programs offering free products/services or discounts.
- Providing incentives for consumer reviews.
- Requiring sweepstakes participants to post photos of products.
- Sponsored Endorsers Must Comply with Our Standards of Conduct.
Sponsored Endorsers must adhere to the following principles:
- Statements must reflect honest beliefs, opinions, or experiences.
- Statements must be transparent about their connection to Niteo.
- Make deceptive or misleading claims.
- Make claims not backed by evidence.
- Disclose confidential information.
- Engage in defamatory or infringing communication.
- Offer or solicit products on behalf of Niteo.
- Make offensive comments or create hostile environments.
- Use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, or offensive language.
- Promote unsafe activities.
- Posted guidelines and terms of use on any site where they post.
- Any additional guidelines provided by Niteo.
- Buying followers.
- Using bots to automate following, commenting, or liking.
- Disclosing a Material Connection Clearly and Conspicuously.
Sponsored Endorsers must disclose their material connection clearly and conspicuously. Consumers must be able to easily find, understand, and evaluate the disclosure.
Sponsored Endorsers must:
- Ensure disclosures are well‑placed and prominent.
- Avoid burying disclosures in bios, below the fold, hyperlinks, or hashtag clusters.
- Superimpose disclosures on images with sufficient contrast.
- Include disclosures in videos and descriptions, displayed long enough to read.
- Place disclosures before the “More” button on Instagram.
- Repeat disclosures during live streams.
- Disclose in the first post of a thread and periodically thereafter.
- Disclose even when only tagging a product.
- Verbally disclose during TV or radio appearances.
- Acknowledgment of Receipt and Review.
I acknowledge that I have received and read a copy of this Policy and agree to comply with its terms. I understand Niteo may modify or delete this Policy at any time.
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Date - Appendix A — Best Practices for Disclosure Language.
Statements should identify the nature of the material connection.
- Free products / PR gifting:
- I received free products/services/samples from [brand].
- [brand] sent me free samples to review.
- [brand] gave me this product to try.
- Thanks [brand] for the free products.
- Paid Sponsored Endorsers:
- I was paid by [brand].
- I was hired by [brand] to post.
- I have partnered with [brand].
- I am a paid brand ambassador for [brand].
- Travel and accommodations:
- [brand] paid for my travel and hotel to attend/visit/sample/etc.
- Prizes for sweepstakes:
- [brand] is providing the prize(s) at no cost to me.
- Incentivized consumer reviews:
- I received a sweepstakes entry/discount/coupon for making this review.
- I am part of [brand]’s program that gives me benefits.
- Reviewers on this page received incentives for their reviews.
- Personal relationships:
- I am a friend/relative/etc. of a [brand] employee or principal.
- General disclosures:
- Advertisement
- Sponsored
- Paid ad
- Ad:
- TV or radio appearances:
- [brand] gave me this product.
- I was paid by [brand] to…
- I am working with [brand] to…
- Unambiguous hashtags:
- #ad
- #paid
- #sponsored
- #[brand]ambassador
- #[brand]partner
- Avoid ambiguous hashtags:
- #sp
- #spon
- #thanks[brand]
- #team[brand]
- #ambassador
- #consultant
- #partner
- #adviser
- #collab
- Free products / PR gifting: