Like everyone else in the social media space, we've been closely following the Federal Trade Commission's recent changes to blogging policies and disclosures, as it revamps 20-year old guidelines. The FTC now requires all bloggers to disclose any products or services given in exchange for a blog post. We agree with a need for transparency and authenticity but express concern over many unanswered questions.

Bloggers have become a significant marketing phenomenon for products and services, based on what we call their "sphere of influence" -- the extent to which and how big an audience feels connected to them, follows their posts and trusts their perspective. Bloggers also have gained prominence thanks to how search engine algorithms highly rank and favor blogs.

With blogger's increased rise in audience and sway comes increased FTC scrutiny. While we laud the FTC for promoting transparency and any potential bias, their first change-up of the guidelines fall short. Here's why:

1. Value What about items that may fall into a grey area?

b. Or perhaps she gets a free sample of a new beverage at a local town fair -- along with 500 other people attending. Or a coupon to try that beverage free from a marketing direct mail firm. Disclosure?

2. Online versus Offline Regulation Though the FTC is tasked with balancing regulation and transparency, it has been reticent to extend, and enforce, the disclosure regulations to other media:

a. Product placements in movies: Will the FTC require disclosure each time brands feature prominently in a blockbuster movie?

c. Magazines and newspapers: Will the FTC require disclosure of press lunches, dinners, or trips? Thus, each "Travel Section" article would begin by alerting readers that the journalist was flown free to the Bahamas or other destination prior to writing an article?

The rise in power of Mom bloggers encourages debate about how they should be categorized. Are they personal journalists, brand enthusiasts, diarists or columnists? Many buckets emerge for multi-dimensional bloggers. Each rises on the strength of what they have to say, how they say it, and how they bring that passion alive with their growing audiences.

Prior to becoming a Mom blogger and CEO of Mom Central, I was an attorney and spent more than 10 years at Harvard Law School. This background has proved helpful when navigating the FTC guidelines and when working with legal departments across client brands. In our experience, most legal teams hesitate to leverage social media because of a perceived lack of control about what consumers will say to them or about them, particularly in the context of a regulated industry such as pharmaceutical, where all adverse-use mentions involve a full report to the FDA.

Mothers that stay home with children have an extremely difficult job. Cooking, cleaning, teaching, playing chauffeur and occasionally peacemaker can be all in a day’s work. That means a little leisure time can go a long way; hence the staggering number of stay-at-home Moms joining social media sites.

A Retail Advertising and Marketing Association study showed that more than 60 percent of stay-at-home moms are more likely to use Facebook, more than 42 percent are more likely to use MySpace and nearly 17 percent are more likely to use Twitter. That's compared to average adults – 50 percent of which use Facebook, 34 percent that use MySpace and 15 percent that use Twitter.

So what factors stand as the underlying reasons behind these trends? Staying in touch with friends and family has become easier with social media, and the concept spans generations. Instead of moms hanging laundry in the back yard and gabbing or burning up the phone lines all day, they can accomplish the same on Facebook or MySpace. Moms use social media for advice. Instead of living through “old wives tales” or taking a wild chance, Moms can seek out legitimate opinions from peers and experts on any subject. Nearly 94 percent of the Moms surveyed said they seek advice before buying products or services, and more than 97 percent said they give advice on products or services purchased.

Social media has a 24-hour per day availability. It proves very difficult to check or update various profiles during the day when kids need full attention, so Moms usually update whenever they find a free moment or late at night.

Social media trends will come and go as the sites develop and become even more integrated in our everyday lives. What started out as the meeting place for hip, young, Internet savvy young adults has become the new marketplace for the 35+ crowd. No wonder that marketers searching for stay-at-home Moms have turned their intense focus on social media sites.

Well Pepsi knows exactly how to properly leverage their online presence, and recently began their push towards an important target for them, African American women. In 2010 Pepsi will engage African American women through a number of vehicles, especially social media sites and community building. PepsiWeInspire.com features six themes: Love, Laughter, Hope, Joy, Beauty, and Wisdom. Each tenant has an African American celebrity as the featured blogger; so far actresses Raven-Symone, Queen Latifah, Taraji P. Henson, and singer Keyshia Cole offer their personal thoughts and have been featured in the campaign’s print advertisements. The “We Inspire” campaign proves to be a natural offshoot of Pepsi’s overarching and eternally optimistic “Refresh Everything” initiative.           

General Mills, J&J, and P&G all serve as pioneers in the wooing of mommy bloggers using social media, but Pepsi is the first company to specifically target African American mothers. A campaign centered around six positive themes, and asking a group of women to highlight encouraging stories from their lives makes for a strong increase in brand equity for this target market. If Pepsi succeeds with this campaign I expect a lot of other brands to jump at the chance to plan strategic social media tactics directed at a very niche audience. In the end, the real winners will be the consumers who become closer to each other, and ultimately the brands they love.

And then, once in while along comes a pitch from a PR team that surely must have started on Saturday Night Live. As I read this one, I looked around for Candid Camera- but I know the PR person pitching it and the agency she works at. So, it's the real deal. And it starts with Men in Briefs:

Solution: Men's underwear of course!

Thank you!

"Hey honey- HAPPY HOLIDAYS! I love you so much I've bought you underwear, new blades for your razor, and a brand new pair of toe nail clippers!