I had the privilege of interviewing Michael Kiefer of BrandProtect regarding brand and reputation management.  Michael will be part of the “Brand and Reputation Management” panel at Search Engine Strategies Chicago on Dec. 8-12, 2008.

Paul Eident:
In what ways can the Web effect the brand and reputation of an organization?

Michael Kiefer:
Rights: Protect against intellectual property and ownership dilution
Revenue: Protect SEO, online traffic and channel effectiveness
Reputation: Erosion due to impact of customer experience beyond the corporate website

Paul Eident: How does your company, BrandProtect, manage an organizations brand and reputation on the Web?

Michael Kiefer:
By monitoring and managing Internet threats:

• Email scams
• Phishing & Malware

Dilution of Sales & Marketing efforts:

• Traffic Diversion
• Grey market and counterfeit sales
• Reseller/Agent/Broker/Partner compliance issues
• Unauthorized Endorsement and Association

Corporate Integrity issues:

• Defamatory discussions
• PR related issues
• Financial misrepresentations

Intellectual Property abuses:

• Domains, Trademarks & Images
• Leaked documents

Paul Eident:
When would an organization need to contact a brand and reputation management company like BrandProtect?

Michael Kiefer:
Pre-brand launch hopefully.  Tipping point data through brand lifecycle is valuable to many corporate groups.

Paul Eident:
Once a threat is discovered, what actions does your company take on behalf of your client to counter the threat?

Michael Kiefer:
That depends on the company and the brand.  Inside counsel and outside counsel. Take down, dilution, monitoring, C&D, WIPO arbitration, ect.

It’s always nice when a conference is in our backyard.  On December 8-12 2008, we will be attending Search Engine Strategies Chicago at the Chicago Hilton on Michigan Ave.  This will be our first year attending this event that is now in it’s 10th year in Chicago.  Hosted by an industry seasoned veteran, Kevin Ryan, the conference is geared towards both website owners and search engine consultants.  As of now, they have not listed the speakers. However, looking throught the agenda on their website it looks as if they have some very interesting topics.  The topics consist of basic search engine optimization techniques, as well as discussions on some of the latest trends in search engine marketing.

For the last couple of days I have been working on business documents that I want to collaborate on with co-workers.  There are several ways of doing this, but the best way I’ve found is using a Google Docs Document.  Now that I have used it with about a half dozen documents, it has become one of my favorite word processors.  It hardly feels like a web app.  Google has done an amazing job. It does just about everything I want a word processor to do and more.  While using the application I keep finding new features that I didn’t know existed. Best of all, IT’S FREE!

I’ve been a leach for too long. I am constantly learning from generous people who share their knowledge for free on the Web. However, I have neglected for too long to contribute some of what I have learned back to the community. As I type my first entry on this new blog, I am beginning to get excited about this endeavor.

As a company, we have committed to begin sharing what we have learned with the World. Since I spend a good portion of my time talking with business leaders about their Web projects, I’m going to discuss topics regarding the how to best use Web technologies to reach business goals. Matt and Jason may post on more technical aspects of Web application development and Internet technologies. However, we will not hold hard and fast to those roles. Matt, Jason and I have many years of experience in the Web development industry. We all have learned various aspects of this business from different perspectives. I believe that we all have a lot to share and hope you agree.