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Disclosure is a big deal in an era of mistrust. PRs should lead by example and disclose client interest in their social media activity.
[Disclaimer: The following does not constitute legal advice]
I’m sure we’ve all seen it: someone we follow in the PR industry sharing a brand campaign without any indication as to whether or not they were involved. Was it their campaign? Did their agency create it? Or are they just tweeting a random brand’s campaign out of genuine admiration?
I’ve been talking a lot about disclosure recently with regards to how PRs work with influencers, but PRs are often guilty – through either ignorance or design – of sharing client news and campaigns without giving an indication of their own interest.
Within the PR industry, looking at the PRCA’s code of conduct, for example, we can see that point 2.3 states that PR professionals “have a duty to ensure that the actual interest of any organisation with which they may be professionally concerned is adequately declared.”
And on social media declaration of interest can be as simple as inserting (cl) to indicate “client” or including disclosure in the text. For example, “My client [brand] argues that [opinion] on [@website] today. What do you think?”
As an industry we need to be squeaky clean on this and lead by example to avoid any accusations of astroturfing and to display publically that we understand best practice around disclosure.
So if you spot your team failing to disclose an interest, be sure to explain it to them.
Is this a problem you have encountered?