Fake news. The one term you have most likely heard over the past six months. This past December, we reported how search engines and social media platforms are dealing with fake news stories. As a digital marketing agency, we did not just want to stop at those two platforms. We have decided to delve deeper in the impact of fake news on advertising, brands, social media, and search engines.
The History of Fake News – Where and When Did It Originate?
Before looking into fake news’s impact on the digital marketing world, we need to take a step back and determine where and when fake news originated. Despite hearing the term, a lot more frequently, fake news has been around for over 500 years! The purpose of it was to invoke sensationalism and extreme behavior.
When the printing press was invented in 1439 by Johannes Gutenberg, there was no journalistic integrity. Papers would publish accounts from political and religious authorities, as well as, comments from sailors and merchants. Thus, the spread of propaganda was born and has continued to last for centuries. The term is additionally known as yellow journalism and has led to the start of civil violence and war.
After journalists began reporting off of verifiable sources, fake news subsided. However, the widespread reach of digital media led to a rebirth of fake news. It is increasingly difficult for search engine and social media algorithms to monitor the validity of the news articles they are promoting. With print numbers down, the credibility of websites is becoming increasingly questionable. This brings us to today and fake news’s impact on advertising, brands, social media, and search engines.
Fake News’s Impact on Advertising & Your Brand
Did you know that 62% of Americans use social media as a source of news? Combine this statistic with the knowledge that social media advertising spend has nearly doubled to $37 billion in a short amount of time. This means that while a large percentage of Americans are spending over two hours a day on social media, they will be seeing an increased amount of advertisements. What happens when fake news is increasingly prevalent on social networks? How will this impact your brand?
The short answer to the above questions is your brand has the potential to be negatively impacted through the spread of fake news. It is increasingly important to be vigilant about where you are sharing advertisements. Unless you want your target audience to question the validity of your ads, you should stay away from false statistics and deceitful images.
It is crucial that you are sensitive to the social and political issues on everyone’s minds this year. While you should not make a statement about your brand’s viewpoints of these issues, you will want to make sure that your message is as inclusive as possible. This is especially true in an era where questionable posts can quickly become viral and spoil your brand’s reputation. Instead of focusing on garnering the most clicks and impressions, you should center your efforts on delivering quality results and leads. This leads us to our next topic of discussion – fake news’s impact on social media and search engines.
Fake News’s Impact on Social Media and Search Engines
If someone lied to your face and you found out about it afterwards, would you still trust them? The same scenario is occurring on social media platforms and search engines today. After all, social media and search engines have been accused of propagating and spreading false news stories. This has caused the public to question the validity of the sites. Ultimately, this has caused these platforms to become extremely swift in assuaging the impact of fake news.
You can rest assured that social media networks and search engines, such as Facebook and Google, are taking this concern very seriously. Between allowing more user feedback to catch fake news articles and therefore stopping the spread of them and educating the public as to what a fake news story is, the effort to stop the spread is well underway.
This past March, Facebook joined a group of tech leaders, nonprofit organizations, and universities to found the News Integrity Initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to address the problem and provide solutions via educational opportunities to inform the public of what is fact-based.
Google has also taken extra precautions to not only stop the spread of fake news websites, but also fake news advertisements. In 2016, the search engine giant took down 1.7 billion ads that violated its policies, one billion more than 2015. Google is working very hard to place new measures of verification for news articles to prevent furthering fake news.
Do you want to avoid associating your brand with fake news? Kraus Marketing specializes in SEO and Social Media Marketing and can effectively create advertisements that are in-line with social media and search engines’ best practices and policies. We serve companies in the New Jersey and New York City area. Inquire about our services by calling (973) 998-5742 or contact us online.