Monitoring social media for mentions of your company’s name, marks, products, competitors, or other relevant information can provide valuable marketing research and insight.
Whether to support customer service, gain pre-launch market data, track activities of competitors, or maintain your company’s good reputation, social media monitoring can assist with the gathering and analysis of a lot of information from many sources.
For example, social media monitoring can spot infringement of marks. Because they are usually free and easy to use, social media platforms are ideal for infringers. Username registration on these platforms is typically first-come/first-served, so creating usernames identical to or similar to your company’s word marks can be accomplished easily by fast-moving infringers. Sprinkle in some fake positive reviews and the likelihood of confusion in the market rises rather quickly.
A good social media watch service will monitor mentions of your company’s word marks not only on the major platforms (Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Threads, etc.), but also blogs, forums, review sites, and the like.
There are a lot of options available for social media watch services, with offerings and price points varying greatly. Thoughtful consideration of your company’s needs and goals will help you comparison shop and narrow down the choices.
Please note that if something in your company’s monitoring efforts raises concerns about infringement, first talk with competent counsel. Not all mark use on social media qualifies as infringement. Non-commercial and “fair use” of your company’s marks is permissible, though the lines between what use qualifies as infringement and what doesn’t often can be blurry.
An experienced IP attorney can help you properly evaluate your situation and take the right steps to resolve your concerns, while guiding you away from some potentially very serious and expensive pitfalls. Your attorney’s top priority should be to resolve the matter without litigation whenever possible.