Your Reputation is who You are...

This month the business world witnessed two disasters that made us remember the value of a company’s online reputation.

Many of you will have heard about Shells most recent catastrophe, falling victim a targeted Greenpeace campaign. If not, you can read about it here:    http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/technology/technology-news/shell-social-media-oil-spill-a-coordinated-online-assassination-20120719-22bpe.html

We first caught a glimpse of this ‘online assassination’ on Twitter; Greenpeace activists used an imitation website to sabotage the reputation of Shell online. This method is known as cyber- squatting, where users register a domain similar to a popular website, or a domain containing a trademarked brand, in order to either ransom the domain brand or to levy the popularity of the brand for their own gains. Greenpeace’s aim was to build a protest site which undermined Shell’s reputation, making people believe that it was the original Shell site. The site encouraged users to post captions to pretty arctic images, resulting in a deluge of ‘shell-bashing’ phrases. The site was so convincing, that many actually posted messages about sacking the ‘idiot’ ad exec who let people post these messages on the website. In a similar cybersquatting error, we saw a case of America’s largest lingerie company’s website Victoriassecrets.com being legally imitated by a small time brothel in Sydney. You can read more about it here: http://finance.ninemsn.com.au/newsbusiness/8507749/sydney-brothel-rebuffs-victorias-secret-domain-name-grab.

As we heard the news, it was shocking to believe that a few people with a computer could cause such damage to these industry giants.

Protecting against cybersquatting:

So what do we advise to keep your website safe?

· Register your domain and related domains and make sure YOU actually own it, not your web developers, or marketing company etc. Obviously you can’t register EVERY domain related to yours, but major ones are important. Don’t forget about registering ones for other countries too, oh and of course if you’re running a major campaign (like shell) is there a domain you can register for that too?
· If you suspect anyone of cybersquatting or attempting to take control of your domain, it is important to take action early. Be sure you know the registration details for your own site. This will keep you in control.
· If reported early, you may be able to take appropriate legal action to ensure no damage is done to your reputation.

Here at Frank Domains our domain gurus are dedicated to providing you with all the advice you need to protect your domain name and online reputation. If you ever have any questions, please get in touch.