The recent Facebook fiasco to hit the Just Jeans Facebook page saw hoaxers set up a fake Facebook profile named Just Jeans and using the same profile picture as the official page to post offensive content to genuine fans, apparently on behalf of the brand.

This is certainly not the first time this has happened locally, with the Jetstar Australia page being targeted in a similar fashion in November 2012, and Flight Centre Australia falling victim to scammers today.

Experts have weighed in on these debacles with various remedies, from checking social channels more regularly to disabling comments entirely.

Looking at the facts of the Just Jeans crisis, and the recent ASB and ACCC rulings on user-generated content on branded social media sites, I would recommend against knee-jerk reactions such as disabling comments. The truth is that as long as a dialogue is open to consumers via social media, attempts will be made to hijack and redirect branded messages. That’s the (rare) downside. Shutting down all two-way communication will prevent this from occurring, but it will also transform your social media presences into static billboards, and remove the (far more abundant) upside of an open and transparent real-time dialogue with your customers.

The Just Jeans page was particularly vulnerable to attack due to the fact that, until yesterday when the crisis emerged, it had apparently not been updated since mid-November 2012, and was not being monitored throughout this time. This is clearly in breach of recent directives from the ASB and ACCC: “Following the Advertising Standards Board’s ruling [in August 2012] that Facebook pages were an advertisement, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has warned large companies that use Facebook to promote themselves should take misleading or inappropriate comments down within a day or less.” [http://www.smartcompany.com.au/legal/051187-accc-to-gives-smes-more-time-to-remove-false-and-misleading-comments-on-facebook.html]

Every brand in Australia should be well aware by now that their social media presences are considered advertising and that they are responsible for all content – official and user-created – within them. And that means 7 days a week and 365 days a year.

Will checking your social presences every day prevent hoaxes and crises from occurring around your brand? No – these are unfortunately part and parcel of social media marketing. What regular monitoring will achieve is a lower likelihood of mischief-makers seeing you as an easy target, and a shorter window for hoaxers to operate before you locate and react to the situation.