IAB releases best practices guidelines for social advertising

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has announced the release of Social Advertising Best Practices, the next step in its ongoing efforts to build the advertising infrastructure for social media.

It provides publishers, agencies and marketers with recommendations for the successful execution of social advertising campaigns.

The 'best practices' were announced at the IAB's Social Media Marketplace in New York, a conference that brings together industry-leading advertisers, publishers and platforms to tackle big issues and provide real-world, real-time solutions for leveraging social media.

''Social Advertising Best Practices'' includes:

• Key terms and definitions of the elements of a social ad and how social advertising differs from other online display advertising
• A library of examples of distinct advertising creative executions for a variety of marketing messages
• Recommendations for consumer policies on opt-in and opt-out procedures
• Privacy guidelines for publishers, agencies and marketers regarding data gathering, consumer disclosure and usage of consumer information.

''We have inventoried the vast array of resources available in social media and created a guide that publishers, marketers and agencies can use to build powerful dialogues between consumers and brands,'' said Randall Rothenberg, president and CEO of the IAB. ''This document is an excellent introduction to the conversation economy-where consumers have more ways to engage than ever.''

''Social media is one of the areas that our clients are most interested in, based on the audience size and high level of engagement. It is also one of the most transparent brand and consumer connection points that we have ever faced in marketing,'' said Curt Hecht, president, VivaKi Nerve Center ''The work of the IAB's UGC & Social Media Committee will assist in removing a level of complexity in bringing brands and people together.''

''Industry standards are essential to making social media easy, safe and scalable for advertisers,'' said Seth Goldstein, CEO of Socialmedia.com and co-chair of the IAB's UGC Social Media Committee. ''The new IAB framework is a critical first step in this direction and we are excited to help enable the next generation of social advertising.''

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is comprised of more than 375 leading media and technology companies who are responsible for selling 86 per cent of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB is dedicated to the growth of the interactive advertising marketplace, of interactive's share of total marketing spend, and of its members' share of total marketing spend. The IAB educates marketers, agencies, media companies and the wider business community about the value of interactive advertising. Working with its member companies, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices and fields critical research on interactive advertising.