Company marketing strategies are evolving constantly to take full advantage of social media, but what about the potential disadvantages that these channels could pose to a brand? The focus for marketers has to be as much about protection as it is on promotion, as the pitfalls of social media could have significant implications to both marketing ROI and brand reputation.

Understanding the reality of the risks facing today’s businesses operating in this sphere is a vital part of protecting a brand online. As much as social media may provide the perfect platform for companies to build brand awareness and engage directly with consumers to showcase specific products and services, there are still associated threats. These include brand impersonation, brand fraud and counterfeit goods.

Impersonation is perhaps one of the biggest risks to brands, as imitators can misappropriate items such as copyrighted images, photos or trademarked brand names or slogans and use them to communicate with consumers. This can be highly damaging to the brand in question, particularly in terms of credibility and customer trust. Social media can also be used to mislead consumers through fraud or counterfeiting. Methods include setting up fake pages or profiles with the unauthorised use of copyrighted materials and/or trademarks in order to appear legitimate.

Top brand protection tips

Companies can survive and thrive on social media, what is required is a solid strategy that can successfully combat instances of brand misuse or misappropriation. The following points include a number of best practice approaches that could be incorporated into a business’s overall brand protection strategy:

Register

A brand should be proactively registered across both leading and emerging social media sites regardless of whether it’s a blog, microblog or social network page. Some social media platforms allow a company to prove its legitimacy through adding a ‘verified’ label to pages. If the platform does not offer a way to show pages are bona fide, the company’s main website should include information and links to its social media presence.

In addition, while a company may already have registered and/or recovered all of a brand’s vanity URLs, an organisation should also pay attention to emerging, special interest or lesser-known social media sites.

Monitor

One of the most important elements is the effective monitoring of the channels, which is no mean feat given the speed, volume and complexity of the content on these platforms. There are tools available on the market that can assist in automatically searching social media for unauthorised use of brands and trademarks. Scammers may be able to easily impersonate a brand – however, the key is to prevent those with ill intent from fooling consumers into thinking they are engaging with a brand, when they’re actually interacting with an imposter. Again, new sites crop up all the time, so this needs to be an ongoing process and requires constant vigilance to discourage repeat offenders as well as opportunists.

Act

Appropriate action should be taken if any misuse or abuse of a brand is identified. This could involve a number of approaches, according to the specific circumstances. Organisations can contact the scammer or impersonator directly to understand their motives and explain how this activity is in violation of their brand guidelines. Alternatively, brands may need to catalogue the activity and report the impersonator or scammer to the relevant social media site so that it can enforce its terms of service.

Repeat

New sites are appearing all the time so this has to be an on-going process. The social media sphere will continue to grow and businesses need to look out for emerging, special interest or lesser-known social media sites. A monitoring programme needs to provide constant vigilance to discourage repeat offenders as well as opportunists.

Every company can enjoy successful social media campaigns as long as they are aware of the prospective pitfalls on top of the well documented perks. Individual businesses can focus their resources on promoting their brand, alongside a carefully executed brand protection strategy that uses the latest tools and methods to monitor, combat and act upon any threats.

 

By Simon Whitehouse, Senior Director, EMEA at MarkMonitor. 

 

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