When your brand is attacked online, whether it’s counterfeits, impersonations or copyright infringements, we recommend a swift and structured programme as the essential way to minimising reputational damage and protecting your sales and revenue.
Step 1: Assess and Verify the Threat
Best Practice Actions:
Speed and accuracy are vital at this stage to prevent spread and escalation.
Implement Monitoring Tools:
- Start using tools such as Mention, Brandwatch, Google Alerts, or Hootsuite, and any other platform-native alerts. These can also be used on your behalf by agencies or suppliers to track brand mentions, logo usage and keywords typically associated with your brands. Some of these tools also allow for alerts, responses and even actions to be automatically set up enabling 24/7 monitoring.
- What to monitor for: Brand mentions that are actually fake brand accounts, an increase in negative or suspicious reviews, phishing attempts, counterfeit listings, sudden spikes in negative mentions of your brands, or impersonation profiles on social media.
Verify the Threats:
- Put in place a map of official brand channels and platforms and cross-check suspicious content and mentions pointing to non-official channels.
- Look for patterns: check if it’s an isolated incident or part of a coordinated attack, this helps to assess the risk level.
- Consult your internal legal, compliance, and intellectual property teams if infringement or legal risk is suspected by sharing the evidence gathered.
- Assess the credibility of the source, or unofficial channel and the potential impact it is having on your brand.
Gathering Evidence and Documentation Checklist:
- Take screenshots of all counterfeit and impersonation content to timestamp where and when it was occurring.
- Save URLs and direct links of the offending material with the screenshots.
- Record timestamps and dates of discoveries separately in a spreadsheet in case they disappear.
- Note all user profiles or account handles involved, including link.
- Document the platform being used (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, eBay, Amazon) and any unique identifiers.
Step 2: Contain and Respond
Best Practice Actions:
Respond promptly, but ensure all internal teams are aligned with responses before going public.
Reporting Content:
- Make sure your brands are registered so you can use official reporting tools on the platforms: Facebook (report page/profile/post), Instagram (report profile/post/story), X/Twitter (report tweet/account), Amazon/eBay (report counterfeit or infringing product listing).
- Keep track of each platform’s takedown or IP infringement process to ensure completion. Keep reference numbers for follow-up with the platform.
Internal Alert:
- Share a notification with internal teams of any brand attack detected, any actions in place and any immediate next steps needed.
Public Statement Template:
- We are aware of unauthorised/fake content relating to our brand circulating online. We are working with the platform to remove the infringing content and are committed to protecting our consumers. Please contact [customer support details] if you have questions.
Prioritise Responses: Ensure that there is a public response when:
- The issue is going viral or trending.
- Influencers or media are involved and sharing infringing content.
- There is visible customer confusion or risk of harm.
- Otherwise, resolve quietly to avoid amplifying the threat.
Engage Affected Consumers:
- Directly message or comment to reassure and guide any affected consumers.
- Update FAQs and support on your official channels with clear instructions for consumers.
- Offer dedicated contact points for those impacted.
Step 3: Review, Learn, and Prevent
Best Practice Actions:
Treat every incident as an opportunity to improve your defences and team readiness.
Post-Incident Review Questions:
- What worked well in the monitoring, detection and response processes?
- Where did the process break down or slow down?
- Were escalation and approvals fast enough?
- Did all teams know their roles and what was expected of them?
Update Playbooks & Training:
- Revise response procedures and training materials based on lessons learned. Schedule regular drills and refreshers for the key teams involved.
- Ongoing Prevention Tactics:
- Regularly or ongoing audit brand mentions and listings across platforms.
- Provide continuous staff training on new and evolving threats and reporting.
- Educate consumers on how to spot fakes and report issues.
- Send legal notices and proactively request takedowns where appropriate.
Build Relationships:
Establish contacts with platform IP teams and join industry groups. This helps speed up future takedowns and responses.
The Importance of Speed, Transparency, and Improvement
Effective brand protection relies on acting quickly, communicating openly with both internal and external audiences, and continuously sharpening your processes.
By proactively monitoring, responding decisively, and learning from every incident, you build resilience and safeguard your brand’s reputation in the digital age.
A rapid, organised response can help protect your brand’s reputation and build trust with your audience, even in the face of online attacks.
SnapDragon
Follow us on LinkedIn
Want to see how SnapDragon’s AI can protect your brand?
If you would like to explore how SnapDragon can accelerate your online brand protection, get in touch to schedule a demo. We would love to show you what’s possible.
