Who is in charge on the internet? Mostly, it seems it’s the consumer. So how do you protect your brand when it’s in the hands of the consumer and the consumer is everywhere?
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Something has happened and what’s happened is the internet.
Well we all know its happened but its now up to business to work out ways to protect the brand and business in the digital age. There’s no going back.
The users are in charge, or the users think they’re in charge and its up to business to find ways to prosper in the digital age and minimise risk. You’ve got to have terms of use that do the job for you and balance power with the users and likewise you’ve got to be familiar with the terms of use of face book, twitter, all of the social media sites that you want to interact with because that’s what the users want.
Think broadly about brand. So it's not just registering your trademarks like you used to do; you’ve got to still do that but you’ve got to think about user names on Twitter... all of the social networking sites. You’ve also got to think about cyber squatters, typo squatters, there’s squatters everywhere, so think broadly about your intellectual property. Register your trademarks, register user names, register domain names and register variations.Don’t get carried away because you can’t do everything but just think a little bit broadly.
But IP’s there. Intellectual property rights are still there. Copyright is still there, so you’ve got lots of rights to back you up when things go wrong. Privacy now has to be seen as a two way street. We have thought a lot about privacy over the last few years and we’re used now to the idea that we have to respect the privacy rights of users. Absolutely. But remember the users think they’re in charge now and so with that comes responsibility and that takes us back again to the terms of use. Make sure your terms of use give you the ability to insist that users respect the privacy rights of others. All you to take down material. Allow you to make appropriate disclosures when its necessary of personal information. Recognise that you are out there now and you need a modern realistic approach to reputation management. Don’t obsess about pre‑moderation or post moderation for user content. Just resource for appropriate management of reputation risk.
We all know now that if user generated content is going to be up there and you don’t pull it down when you’ve heard there’s a problem, you’re going to have a problem and you can be liable. So your terms of use need to protect you but as well you need to have resources. You need to have a modern approach to reputation management, the users are in charge – or think they are. So don’t get yourself into a situation where you back yourself into a corner and you are seen to be negative and old fashioned.
The final point is to think internally as well as externally. You don’t just need terms of use for your users but you need policies and processes for your internal team. They need to understand that their participation in social media websites can have implications for your brand and your business and get that sorted in policies and processes and training that your people understand.
So they’re the top tips and good luck.
