SOCIAL MEDIA
“A FRAUDSTER WHO WANTS TO GAIN CREDIBILITY NEEDS ONLY TO BUY SOME
FACEBOOK LIKES AND HE OR SHE IS FREE TO COMMENCE A SCAM.”
problem before the brand owner is, thanks to the viral nature of social media. Consequently,
social media monitoring is
becoming one of the most important weapons used by organisations big and small in the battle against online brand abuse. Brand owners have to protect themselves not only against cyber criminals who set up copy-cat social media personas with the ultimate aim of fraudulently taking cash through false pretences, but also against reputational damage from what people post about the brand. A Facebook post that contains lies and
damaging comments about a brand can very quickly attract Facebook “likes”, either through legitimate users or those purchased in bulk. A tweet can pass around the world via retweets or hashtags in a matter of seconds, which makes the monitoring of what is being said, where and when, incredibly diffi cult. Adding a feature on a network that is used by
one in fi ve people around the globe today and which will give dissenters an immediate voice is a massive concern. You could argue that it is fundamental to the internet and a basic human right of freedom of expression and speech, but there also have to be mechanisms to ensure that it is not used maliciously by those who want to profi t from damaging the reputation of others.
www.worldipreview.com
Gripe sites At the same time that brand owners are raising concerns about changes to how social media networks refl ect sentiment, developments in the domain name space have also caused many organisations to cry foul. T e .sucks new generic top-level domain (gTLD) was being prepared for launch in late March, despite concerns raised by brand owners since it was announced in June 2012 that there had been an application for the TLD. While the registry behind .sucks, Vox
Populi, has sold the vision of the TLD as “a place designed to help consumers fi nd their voices and allow companies to fi nd the value in criticism”, few organisations so far, based on media reports, can see the positive side of the domain name, especially coupled with a very high registration cost in the trademark sunrise period. Time will tell whether the gTLD will succeed or not. T e ever-expanding digital world
undoubtedly off ers huge opportunities for brand owners to quickly and cost-eff ectively reach new customers across the globe, but it also poses some big headaches for which the only real answers are centred on allocating more of the marketing budget to brand protection.
Stuart Fuller is director of commercial operations at NetNames. He has experience in brand protection, both in retail and corporate re-sale markets. He can be contacted at:
stuart.fuller@netnames.com
World Intellectual Property Review May/June 2015
67
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