The essential oil (EO) company I represent recently released an updated compliance policy for all representatives. I discussed the basic federal guidelines in a previous post. If you missed part 1 in this series, you can read it here.

To prevent misunderstandings and misrepresentations, the EO company I represent has provided the following rules for all static websites and blogs (including YouTube):

• Remove all trademarked names and images
• No links to a corporate website, not even to my personal corporate-sanctioned replicated website
• If someone wants to know which brand of essential oils I use, they must request the information via email.

This answers my quandary discussed previously: Do I talk about the brand I love or do I talk about the research concerning Essential Oils?

Answer: Since I cannot talk about the brand on my blog, I am now free to talk about documented research. Or not. I have some restrictions there, too. I will address those in part 3 of this series.

What about social media sites such as Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+?

Answer:

1. I cannot use the trademarked company name as part of my social media account name.
2. I can freely share links and images from the corporate sites to social media sites as long as ALL content on my social media account is compliant (including comments).
3. I can post original images of trademarked/branded products to social media sites as long as I use compliant language and ALL content on my social media account is compliant (including comments).

So original images, such as the DIY herbal sleep pillow image shown below, must only show generic essential oil bottles if I publish them on my blog. However, I do have permission to use a branded oil bottle in the photo to share on social media.

No branded images allowed on my blog.

On the plus side, I now have another great use for empty essential oil bottles. Photo props!

Up next … the sticky issue of proper use of research studies. My business partner and I even get into ‘energetic’ debates when we talk about this one. Read part 3 here.