Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting Reputation Monitoring and Management Search Engine Strategies San Jose 2006

.02 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting Overview About iCrossing What digital brand managers need to know - The Good - The Bad - The Ugly The bounty on brand terms How to get started and be proactive

.03 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting Founded 1998 by Jeffrey Herzog, CEO Origin in SEO (natural search optimization) market before Google popularized it Deep and proven experience in the fastest growing area of search: natural search Proprietary tools and technologies that have been continually honed since inception Largest Independent search marketing firm 225 employees, 6 offices (Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York, San Francisco and Scottsdale) Industry leadership with leading brand client base 25 of Fortune 500 are clients 2 About iCrossing

.04 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting We represent a world-class search client base 16 Clients

.05 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting Tool The iCrossing Approach: ○ Technology: Crawler-based data aggregation ○ Strategy: Human insight to interpret data and identify actionable tasks Brand Shadow

Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting What digital brand managers need to know Reputation Monitoring and Management

.07 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting What digital brand managers need to know Your Brand = Your Reputation What is your reputation in the following channels? Forums Blogs Websites Paid search Natural search Usenet Domains Etc.

.08 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting T H E G O O D Positive online brand perceptions can be powerful tools. They can provide insight into: ○ What people don’t like and actually like about your products, brands, and services ○ What people want to see from new versions of your products and services ○ How people are responding online to specific events or campaigns What digital brand managers need to know

.09 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting What digital brand managers need to know T H E B A D Malicious attacks take on many forms: ○ Copyright and trademark infringement ○ Negative or slanderous campaigns against the company, its brands, and its products or services ○ Unintentional negative publicity due to misperception or miscommunication ○ Accidental or intentional leaking of secret or sensitive company information and materials ○ Unlawful use or distribution of products through unauthorized distribution channels

.010 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting What digital brand managers need to know T H E U G L Y People place trust in search engines What an engine says about your brand has editorial credibility, like a newspaper (Even though the “opinions” of major engines are automated) Whether the info is true – or not

Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting The bounty on brand terms and domains Reputation Monitoring and Management

.012 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting The bounty on brand terms There is a bounty on brand terms ○ Search engines and affiliate programs provide incentive for third parties to capture brand traffic ○ Correct spellings ○ Typos ○ 99% of brand marketers are unaware or indifferent, and have not properly protected their brand ○ So 99% of this valuable brand traffic is in the hands of third parties

.013 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting Brand typojacking Site scraping Typo cranking Content theft Content scraped from search engine Theme: “matrix capital bank” The bounty on brand terms

.014 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting C A S E S T U D Y Federal trademark case Competitor’s site ranked highly for the client’s trademarked name in natural results Competitor abused trademarks (via engine scraping, framed cloaking, user agent cloaking, and domains) Client received major judgment, possession of all domains and websites The bounty on brand terms

.015 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting Brand and typo domains are at risk Domain-based search represents an estimated 10-15% of the entire search market Aggregators partner with search engines ○ Search engines run text ads on domain networks (Adwords, Y! SMS) ○ SE’s and domain owners split ad revenue The bounty on brand terms

.016 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting The bounty on brand terms “It’s a lot of money.” - Dr. Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, on how much Google is earning from brand typo domains. Revenue Magazine, Jul/Aug 2006

Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting How to get started in online reputation monitoring How to make sense of it all and respond proactively

.018 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting How to get started T H E B A S I C S 1. Start by asking the right questions 2. Brand terms are a great start 3. Become aware of everything that’s out there 4. Proactively manage the things you can control

.019 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting How to get started T H E B A S I C S 1.Start by asking the right questions What are the most common typos of my brand? How is my brand appearing in the SERP’s? Are my typo domains registered? If so, who has them? Are my competitors appearing on my brand term list? Are there any negative results under my brand name in the SERP’s? How big is my brand keyword space? Which sites rank for my brand terms and why? Which tools should I use? Which blogs, sites, and forums should I be monitoring? Is there any buzz on my company at all – is it positive or negative?

.020 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting How to get started T H E B A S I C S 2. Brand terms are a great start “Brand typos now exceed correct brand spellings, and the marketers who understand this value the most are affiliates [and traffic aggregators]”. Leann Prescott, Hitwise

.021 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting How to get started T H E B A S I C S 3. Become aware of everything that’s out there Knowing what is being said is a major step in effectively protecting and managing your brand online. - Forums - Blogs - Web sites - Paid search - Natural search - Usenet - Domains - Etc.

.022 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting How to get started T H E B A S I C S 4. Actively manage the things you can control Things you can manage (although may not completely control): Know who is appearing on your brand terms and why Have an SEO crack open a few competitor sites Maximize your visibility on the SERP for specifically targeted terms Maximize in both paid and natural results Host valuable brand content on multiple domains - Don’t throw away campaign URL’s - Start now, avoid the sandbox Identify other internal business units that can assist with content and linking

.023 CLIENT Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting How to get started T H E B A S I C S - D O M A I N S 4. Actively manage the things you can control Research all variations of your brand terms ○ Wordtracker, Inventory Suggestion Tool, log files Compare terms against.com domains in whois Acquire domains ○ Register all available (it’s only $8 a year!) ○ Buy from the registrant or on the secondary market ○ UDRP challenge

Brand Shadow – Online Surveillance and Reporting Rob Garner l Senior Strategic Planner Senior Strategic Planner iCrossing, Dallas, Texas Thank you.