Scams & shams: The trouble with social networks

Barbara Rentschler, CMO at K'nex Brands LP, sees cybersquatting, online scams and false association of its brands on other sites as the biggest threats to the toy maker's brands on the Web. She uses a monitoring service to track and shut down cybersquatters and scam sites. Many sites that misappropriate K'nex trademarks are overseas, she says. Most aren't malicious: They're simply businesses that hope to become K'nex distributors.

With so many different brand threats to contend with online, it's important to have a coordinated strategy. Unfortunately, says Cyveillance's Carnall, many organizations take a triage approach, sending the issue to legal, IT or marketing. "They silo it," he says. But someone needs to be keeping track of outcomes and the overall impact on the brand, he contends. "You almost need a brand intelligence officer."

At Kodak, the buck stops at the CMO's desk. Hayzlett keeps communication flowing through what he calls online councils with every department in the organization, including IT, legal and human resources. "Everyone needs to work together and understand each role. We work as a team," he says.

Communication between marketing and IT is key. "The most powerful team would be if you connected the CMO and the CIO at the hip," Miller says.

Customers are often the first to notify a business of a problem, so listen to customer service lines carefully, says Frederick Felman, CMO at MarkMonitor. At WWE, it was fans, not staffers or a monitoring service, who first reported the Triple H imposter. "Take the complaints you get seriously," Felman advises, "and be prepared to act quickly."