The Liquid HCG Diet's promotion efforts on Twitter have been deemed by the Electronic Retailing Self-Regulation Program (ERSP) to be, well, promotions. As such, they should follow certain guidelines including discontinuing certain weight-loss claims and modifying consumer testimonials, the industry organization has decided.

The company responded to this critique by making the necessary changes, ERSP also reports.

Social Media Crackdown

This episode illustrates the growing emphasis by consumer organizations and watch dog agencies on ad claims made in social media. Last year FTC expanded its rules to include bloggers or celebrities who are paid to make testimonial statements about a product. Basically, if they were paid to promote a product, they must acknowledge it, even if their promotion is merely part of a larger discussion in their everyday social networking.

ERSP is the electronic direct-response industry's self-regulatory forum, administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB) with policy oversight by the National Advertising Review Council (NARC). What caught its attention in this case were claims that may sound very familiar to anyone perusing weight-loss products:

· "Lose around a pound a day"

· "Lose 30lbs. in a month, it's easy and quick!"

· "Lasting results! Keep it off!"

What was different, though, is that many of these claims were made on Twitter on individual pages. ERSP decided that such claims are still considered advertising messages for the purposes of communicating general expectations about the product.