Say you’re planning a vacation. You do some research and find a glowing review on someone’s blog that a particular resort is the most luxurious place he has ever stayed. If you knew the hotel had paid the blogger hundreds of dollars to say great things about it or that the blogger had stayed there for several days for free, it could affect how much weight you’d give the blogger’s endorsement. The blogger should, therefore, let his readers know about that relationship.
Previously comp'd trips were considered (by some) part of the regular way of doing business and not requiring disclosure. The
new FTC guidelines now suggest that any communication about such, from a tweet to a full blog post, is considered sponsored content and must be disclosed as such.
It will be interesting to see how this is adopted within the community.