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New Federal Trade Commission rules went into effect at the beginning of this month creating new disclosure standards for bloggers and other social media users. Basically if you’ve received a free product to give away, write about or endorse, you have to say so. The same thing is true if you’re getting cash to endorse something.

Business Week reports:

"For the first time, the revisions specified that bloggers, like mainstream media outlets, are required to disclose any "material connections" they have to a brand or product they write about. What’s more, the guides apply to any users of Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites where people may be paid to pitch goods to friends, according to Rich Cleland, assistant director of the FTC’s division of advertising practices. ’We felt it was necessary to address social media marketing because it has become the most significant new area of advertising,’ Cleland says."

For many churches, this probably isn’t that big of an issue. There probably aren’t that many big endorsement deals going around. But for some online ministries or popular blogs run by Christian leaders or pastors it could be especially when you look at small things.

I think the best example I have comes from another project I work on called Think Christian. It’s a blog that talks about current culture from a Christian perspective. We’re regularly receiving free books from various publishers. Right now, they’re just collecting dust on my desk. But if we did give them away, or do a review (especially a positive one), we’d have to disclose it.

I think this is a good thing. I always believe in transparency and it’s clearly Christian to be honest about what we’re doing.

So you can rest assured if Church Juice ever gets popular enough to receive free stuff to give away, we’ll let you know where it came from.