“Fake reviews not only waste people’s time and money but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors,” – FTC Chair Lina M. Khan.
These powerful, yet impactful, words solidify the Federal Trade Commissions’ (FTC) stance on fake reviews and the steps they plan to take moving forward.
The FTC took a decisive step in the fight against fake reviews and deceptive testimonials. Announced on August 14, 2024, the new rule will be welcomed by businesses tackling transparency within their online reputation strategy.
What does the FTC rule include?
- Fake, or misrepresentative reviews: the rule prohibits businesses from using, creating, selling, buying, or promoting fake reviews. This includes those generated by AI.
- Incentivizing reviews: you are no longer allowed to offer compensation for reviews expressing a particular sentiment.
- Insider reviews and customer testimonials: one of the limits in this area is that, if a company insider writes a review, it must be clearly disclosed. Also, soliciting reviews from relatives has been restricted.
- Review websites: businesses must not misrepresent the independent nature of any review website they own that lists their products or services. go
- Review suppression: practices intended to avoid negative reviews are banned.
- Social media: the rule extends to the sale or purchase of fake followers, likes, or views used to artificially inflate influence.
Read the FTC update for full details
How this impacts your online reputation management (ORM) strategy
For brands relying on reviews to drive customer trust and local search visibility, the FTC’s crackdown makes it more important than ever to focus on authenticity and transparency in your ORM strategy. Here’s how:
- The floor is open: brands must rely on genuine customer feedback. Incentivizing fake reviews or suppressing negative feedback isn’t just unethical, it’s now illegal. This has long been a violation of Google and Yelp guidelines, but the FTC ruling introduces financial consequences for violators. Update any comms, internal policies and employees working in this area.
- AI for ORM, done right: while AI-generated fake reviews are prohibited, AI can still play a vital role in streamlining ORM processes, such as analyzing sentiment, responding to reviews at scale, and maintaining brand voice consistency.
- A real relationship: consumers expect honesty in the reviews they read. Proactively managing reviews (responding quickly and to every review, maintaining clarity, and prioritizing genuine relationships) builds long-term trust and protects your brand from regulatory penalties.
Prepare your brand for compliance
To stay compliant and competitive, ensure your ORM strategy aligns with the FTC’s new rule. Additionally, certain review platforms have further varying restrictions, like Trustpilot banning incentivized reviews and Yelp banning asking altogether, so ensure your strategy complies with every platform. Avoid shortcuts and focus on delivering real value through tangible customer experiences.
It’s crucial to ensure your review management practices are both compliant and easily understandable. The new regulation allows the FTC to impose penalties on businesses using deceptive reviews, making authenticity more important than ever.
How we can help
Rio SEO can help you navigate this new landscape with confidence. Our Local Reviews platform brings together all your reviews to monitor your reputation. Rio SEO can:
- Protect your brand: we offer expertise to help you manage your online reputation management correctly, from the get-go. Including asking for reviews in a compliant way.
- Build trust: consumers value honest reviews and responses—by partnering with Rio SEO, you foster trust and loyalty, standing out from competitors who may use underhanded tactics and neglect the human connection that comes from a genuine reply to a review.
- Manage reviews easily: from monitoring to flagging problematic content, we provide comprehensive tools to keep your reviews compliant and trustworthy.
The most important thing is, don’t panic. Many brands already foster a welcoming and trustworthy community, with robust online reputation management. So, changes will be minimal.
It’s a good time to kick it up a notch if you don’t have an ORM platform in place, and everyone should go over the FTC rule in detail to ensure they’re compliant.
