NAR addresses electronic advertising issues

Over the past few years NAR has changed the Code of Ethics several times to reflect the current emphasis on electronic advertising.  In most cases, those changes have either clarified that existing rules still apply to electronic advertising or have added new rules just for those formats.

For 2011, the NAR Professional Standards Committee has taken the unusual approach of loosening a rule to accommodate specific types of electronic advertising.  Standard of Practice 12-5 requires that a REALTOR® disclose the name of his/her broker in every advertisement.  As of January 2011, language has been added that says: “This Standard of Practice acknowledges that disclosing the name of the firm may not be practical in electronic displays of limited information (e.g., “thumbnails,” text messages, “tweets,” etc.). Such displays are exempt from the disclosure requirement established in this Standard of Practice but only when linked to a display that includes all required disclosures.” (emphasis added)

This means that to comply with the Code of Ethics it will not be necessary to state your broker’s name in every tweet or Facebook post, so long as each advertisement in one of these formats is linked to a “display” – such as your website or the relevant social media profile page – with that information.

It is extremely important to understand that this rule applies ONLY to required disclosure of the brokerage name contained in this Standard of Practice. Or to put it another way, this isn’t a free pass to ignore all the rules; it only lets you leave out your broker’s name in certain circumstances and only if you link from that short advertisement to a compliant location.

More importantly, this does not change the existing legal and regulatory rules for Pennsylvania licensees. PA regulations still require disclosure of the broker’s name and phone number in advertisements and the Internet Advertising Guidelines of the State Real Estate Commission have additional disclosures beyond those in the Code of Ethics.  In short, even if you’re complying with the Code by linking back to a compliant profile page, you may still be in violation of state rules by not having the broker’s name and phone number in the actual advertisement.

Also remember that if you rely on the amendment to Standard of Practice 12-5 you’ll need to be sure that the places you link to are all actually in compliance with the Code, laws and regulations.  A good first step to will be to ensure that all the necessary disclosures are included on your website and blog. After that, check all of your social media profiles in places like Realtor.com, Facebook, Twitter, Zillow and Trulia and make sure they comply.

Finally, if you’re advertising in a way that doesn’t comply with these rules – and some of you are – ask yourself “why?” What is to be gained by ignoring the rules and not including the required information?