SPONSORED CONTENT IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS
SPONSORSHIP RULES
According to Instagram's Help Center, when an influencer has a "branded content" post, their business partner must always be tagged in the post or the story. Instagram's definition of branded content "as a creator or publisher's content that features or is influenced by a business partner for an exchange of value" (Instagram Help Center).
Going into this more specifically, the Federal Trade Commission recently (April 2017) "remind[ed] influencers and brands to clearly disclose relationship," particularly on Instagram. They reminded influencers that if there is any "material connection" between the two (AKA payment or gift), then there needs to be a clear disclosure of that connection. They believe that hashtags that include #sp or #partner are not clear enough, as not everyone will understand that connection. The FTC also discussed that influencers need to keep their endorsement above the "read more" line on their posts, as most people will not click on that ("FTC Staff").
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In response to the FTC's admonishment, Instagram announced in June 2017 that they would add a "paid partnership with" subheading to sponsored posts and stories. The aim of this change is to make branded content more visible to Instagram's users (Spangler).​