This document summarizes the risks of social media and provides remedies. It discusses how social media has increased risks from competitors, employees, and careless practices. Specific risks mentioned include brand association, executive indiscretion, employee messaging, activists, phishing and hacking, and impersonation. Remedies proposed include social media monitoring strategies, rules of engagement for responding to issues, and action strategies like responding to threats, removing threats, and burying threats through positive coverage. It emphasizes the importance of having a social media crisis team and continually monitoring to protect brands across sites.

1. Social Media’s Dark Side:Risks, Reasons & Remedies Presented by BrandProtect

2. Presented @ SMTWTO 2011 by Kevin Joy Vice President BrandProtect Richard McCann Sr. Director BrandProtect

3. Agenda Risks & Reasons to care The evolution of internet threats How Social Media has altered the game Considerations for evaluating threat risks and reach Remedies Damage control: An exploration of available remedies Protection planning: Tips on how to stay out of trouble Panel Q&A

4. So Social Media’s a great success… Twitter had 6,939 Tweets Per Second on New Years Eve Facebook has 3 Million Fan Pages 35 Hours of Video Upload to YouTube Every minute Sources: http://blog.twitter.com/2011/01/celebrating-new-year-with-new-tweet.htmlhttp://royal.pingdom.com/2011/01/12/internet-2010-in-numbers/

5. Now even a legitimate Business tool… “Social Media is now integrated into our campaigns” - Marketing “We show our thought leadership via our blog” - Senior Mgmt “Built out our LinkedIn profile so I can network” - Sales “We are responding to customers via Twitter” - Customer Service

6. But with so many voices… Employees Customers Investors Resellers / Partners Media

7. … who should I trust Employees Customers Investors Resellers / Partners Fraudster Media

8. Why this matters… Stronger brands make it easier to piggyback Creates doubt in the minds of consumers Generates the wrong brand image Even lowers morale and recruitment effectiveness Scams are surprisingly effective

10. Unauthorized association

11. Counterfeit

12. Pornography

13. Gambling

14. Fraud

15. Activism

16. Stock “Pump”& “Dump” Email (Spam) SEO Social Media Illicit Site Typo-Squatting Paid Placement Auction Sites Pop-ups Browser Redirects

17. Hey look, analysts were right! By the end of 2010, criminals will routinely use the Internet to extort funds from organizations, threatening to damage their corporate reputation by ensuring that routine online search requests will return negative or even libelous results……

18. $559 Million in Online Fraud (Source: The Internet Crime Complaint Center ) $221 Billion in Identity Theft (Source: Aberdeen Group) $400 Billion in counterfeit goods sold (Source: Havacscope.com) But Cyber Criminals are no longer the only threat. The emergence of Social Media and Blogs have increased the risk significantly. Threats can now come from competitors, dissatisfied employees or even just careless practices! The stakes are high and growing...

19. The Risks

20. What are the risks?

21. Brand Association 14

22. Executive Indiscretion Steamy video of a Merrill Lynch Banker Merrill Lynch Banker & Super Model Sex Vid May Get YouTube Banned in Brazil Uploaded to YouTube A steamy video of Merrill Lynch banker Renato Malzoni and Brazillian supermodel Daniela Cicarelli may get YouTube shut off in Brazil. A Brazilian court ordered the popular video sharing service YouTube, a unit of Internet search provider Google Inc., to be shut down until it removes a celebrity sex video from its site, a judicial clerk said on Thursday.Daniela Cicarelli, a model and ex-wife of soccer great Ronaldo, sued YouTube after a video of her apparently having sex in shallow water on a beach with her boyfriend was posted to the site.For days it was the most viewed video in Brazil. While you no doubt deplore this as much as we do, we’re sure that for purely informational purposes you’ll want to know if the video is still available on YouTube. And, well, we can’t say for sure. But we couldn’t find it. And we d Most Viewed Video in Brazil Brazilian Court orders it shutdown

23. Employee Messaging “Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work. “ FIRED Video of an electronics store employee mocking an iPhone customer - Made by a Best Buy Employee FIRED NOT FIRED

24. Activists 20,790 Followers 178,097 Followers Source – Twitter Feb 15, 2011

25. Phishing & Hacking Social Media accounts don’t match your security policies Phishing sites can be set up in seconds, identical to the real thing

26. Impersonation makes it easy Unavoidable Create an account in seconds Verified Accounts is BETA Perceived as legitimate voice Difficult to shut down

27. Twitter – Getting a verified Account Today you can’t! How do I get my account verified? This program is currently closed to the public. If you would like to send feedback, contact us via this form.. [Feb 2011]

28. How to divert traffic Pick a Trending Hashtag #SMWTO Pick a username that sounds official @SMWTOPhotos Get a Shorten URL (bit.ly) Get a catchy phrase “Check out pics from show” It’s that easy

29. Can’t Ignore it Consumer theft Ease of setting up a Phishing Site (5 mins) Growing volume of website malware Brand confusion. Who’s the official channel Traffic Diversion = Loss in Sales Loss in Trust & Reputation Rebuilding trust extremely challenging, 3+ years to recover Even if it is NOT your fault, customers will blame you!

30. Remedies

31. Social Media – Finding the threat Start with free tools Keep on top of recent changes Determine your needs Differentiate between tools and services Prioritize emphasis (e.g. PR vs. Fraud response) High probability the issue is already been posted.Waiting to be picked up.

32. Monitoring Strategies 99% Not Relevant Tough to cover the universe Focus on issues of greater likelihood of risk E.g. Fraud for banks, Counterfeit for manufacturers Focus attention on community of interest Identify influencers, key groups & sites Auctions, Images, Domains… 1% Actionable Intelligence

33. Rules of Engagement Pick your Battles Who, how many and how credible are they? Will the internet take your position for you? What remedies are available to you?

34. Action Strategies Turn the threat into an Opportunity Respond to minimize or neutralize the impact Remove the threat Bury the threat

35. Respond to the Site/post Weigh the risk vs benefit Have something valuable to say Stick to the facts Target key sites for pickup Get the conversation offline for direct contact

36. Remove the threat Identity Theft/Impersonation and IP Rights abuse Site takedown or content removal Defamation/image issues Continued monitoring, engagement and/or legal action Regulation violation/stock price manipulation Investor Relations response Don’t expect it to be instantaneous!

37. How do I remove a fake account Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, MySpace they all have different policies and procedures. Free download lists the current policies http://www.brandprotect.com/resources/Username-Policies.pdf Guidelines

38. Bury the threat More +ve news = lower –ve rank Ensure that any positive article is Digged, blogged, tweeted, RT’d, bookmarked, discussed a lot! Use 3rd party for assistance Reputation Defender Best done proactively, not after issue encountered

39. Recap – Protection Tips Set up a social media crisis team i.e. A representative from HR, PR, Legal, Mktg, etc Register your brands across key sites Continually monitor and take action More than just Social Media monitoring Coach and educate executives, staff, partners and other 3rd parties

40. Videos Played in the Presentation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xYaRpZhRV4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W09Mv9n-Y5g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH5R56jILag