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Big names respond to Twitter and Plurk
WITH many global brands such as Ford, Coke and Harvard Business School getting into it, blogging has gone quite mainstream, in the USA at least.
But the corporate world is now just waking up the world of microblogging, Twitter, Plurk and Spoink, if you like.
So when Exxon Mobil jumped into the fray last month, joining the conversation with millions of 'Twitteri' from around the world, there was a lot of excitement.
The only problem was, it wasn't actually Exxon.
It was a woman using the name Janet posing as an Exxon employee, answering questions about the direction of the company, where philanthropy resources are being spent, and even saying quite provocative things about the Exxon Valdez accident.
Exxon was caught off guard because the company 'didn't have their ears on'; it wasn't monitoring the internet and responding on behalf of its own brand.
But Exxon is not alone.
Research firm MarkMonitor has just released the Summer 2008 Brandjacking Index, which reports that such incidents of brandjacking of leading brands has reached an all-time high.
The quarterly MarkMonitor Brandjacking Index is an independent report that measures the effect of online threats to brands and analyses of how the most popular brands are abused online.
In addition to ongoing tracking of 30 leading brands, the summer report includes a research focus on online abuses of pharmaceutical brands, among some of the worst hit by brandjackers. The report shows that brandjackers focus their attention on 'cybersquatting' as a main activity.
Cybersquatting is when domain names containing a brand, slogan or trademark are registered by someone who has no right.
Incidents for drug brands rose 35 per cent for the year and bogus e-business websites for these drug brands rose by 66 per cent over the past year.
Growth in cybersquatting of mainstream brands continued with 428,617 instances during the second quarter of 2008. This trend in cybersquatting shows a 38 per cent increase compared with the previous year. The media and automotive industries continue to be targeted by brandjackers. The media industry experienced 41,797 instances of brandjacking in Q2 2008, a 17 per cent increase since Q2 2007.
The automotive industry experienced 27,600 instances of brandjacking in Q2 2008, a 60 per cent rise over Q2 2007.
Brandjacking in the fashion industry grew by 68 per cent over the year, the greatest annual increase of any category.
In parallel, the luxury industry grew at the greatest rate for the quarter at 30 per cent. Three out of four brandjacking sites are hosted in the USA, a 55 per cent increase compared with Q1 2008. Germany was in the number two spot with 5 per cent of brandjacking sites, while China moved from the seventh position to the third.
MarkMonitor searches approximately 134 million public records daily for brand abuse in domain data as well as American and international patent and trademark office data.
Here's the bottom line. Online identity continues to be a major weakness in online communications. There is no way to tell who we are communicating with is actually who we think it is. So it's crucial that organisations monitor the internet for mentions of their brands.
With regard to the Twitter incident, there is hope in the UK at least.
Britain is leading the rest of the world in regulating online identity by bringing in laws stating that stealth marketing practices are illegal. Online marketers must be transparent and state if they have a commercial interest or other relationship to any brands they are discussing.
The very least a company can do to protect itself is to have a social media policy in place to give clear guidance to staff members about how they may conduct themselves in the online world. This policy should detail on the consequences should anyone step outside the rules of good conduct. You may be convinced that Facebook, MySpace and blogging is irrelevant to your business.
But rest assured, your team is participating in these communities.
Do you know what they are saying about you?
>>Sherrilynne Starkie is the managing partner of Strive Public Relations, a strategic communications consultancy serving the Isle of Man. Visit her business blog, Strive Notes for frequent updates www.strivepr.com/notes or follow her on twitter.com/sherrilynne.
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Tuesday 07 February 2012
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