We started the discussion in Part 1 about why I care about advertising and where my interest in disclosure began but now we are going to get into why YOU should also care about this topic. Join me as we journey back into United States History…

Back in the early 1900s, President Roosevelt created a government agency called the Bureau of Corporations in order to investigate and issue reports on the actions of businesses and how they were affecting the economy. The purpose of this bureau was to protect the consumer. When the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 (which we will come back to in just a moment), President Wilson expanded the Bureau to what is now the Federal Trade Commission.

So what does it mean to be an influencer in the sewing community?

From dictionary.com: An influencer is “a person who has the power to influence many people, as through social media or traditional media.” In our sewing community, that broad definitely applied to anyone with a blog, Instagram or Facebook account, or a YouTube vlog where products and/or services are shared with the followers of the account.

By this definition, you might be an influencer and didn’t even know it!

Recently on Instagram, I posted a (frustrated) reminder to disclose affiliate programs when sharing a pattern company or specific pattern. I stated that the affiliate relationship should be disclosed every time, in every location, that the person shares that pattern or company with the intent to direct traffic to their own affiliate link. This was followed up by a huge influx of engagement from my account followers who themselves had BIG questions about this topic. In general most of us (me included) are unclear on the actual regulations related to disclosure. Since I’m not an expert and may have been totally and completely wrong, I volunteered myself to do the research for all of us.