Snap's news fact-checking may boost ad revenue (SNAP)

BI Intelligence

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Snap is employing an in-house team of journalists to fact-check news coverage on its platform, which should help it combat fake news, BBC reports.

These journalists evaluate the relevance and accuracy of users’ Snaps submitted to Our Stories before re-publishing them.

Our Stories is a collection of user-submitted snaps for big events happening globally. For example, the company received snaps on the Charlottesville events, and verified with local police to ensure the snaps were in line with what the company believed them to depict, before publishing the submissions. 

• Fact-checking news makes Snap an overall safer environment for advertisers. This is important for the company that generates nearly all of its revenue from advertising, and has struggled to build out hardware as a reliable source of revenue. Moreover, news is an attractive ad segment for Snap to target — news programming saw ad revenue increase 16% in Q2 2017, while the overall national TV market saw a 0.8% decrease in spending.   
• It also strengthens Our Stories as a media channel. Having trusted and accurate news can drive more users to view Our Stories, enabling the company to justify higher ad price asks. The channel has already seen strong growth in content submissions recently — snaps sent to Our Stories have increased 30% since the launch of Snap Map.
• And it helps Snap become a more trusted news platform. Garnering a more trustworthy reputation could push users to seek out more news information on its platform. Ultimately, this can translate into more advertising and TV news advertising dollars for the company because it can leverage its growing news readership base. Snap has already begun eyeing TV ad dollars — it recently added daily news shows NBC’s Stay Tuned and CNN’s The Update.

Trust is timely. In an era in which fake news is trending, and brands are pulling advertising from large publishers because they don’t want their messaging associated with offensive content, trust is a critical factor that brands consider when re-evaluating digital ad strategies.

Digital trust is the confidence people have in a platform’s ability to protect and promote the interests of its users. 

The Digital Trust Report, a brand new report from BI Intelligence, examines consumers’ perception of major social platforms. It rates Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn on security, community, user experience, and content authenticity and shareability. These insights help brands and marketers make informed decisions about where to spend their marketing and branding dollars.

All of the information in this survey comes from our proprietary BI Insiders panel, made up of more than 15,000 specially selected and recruited Business Insider readers. This panel is designed to be a leading indicator of what’s next in digital. The panelists are business and tech savvy, they have buying power, and they’re highly engaged. The survey revealed some fascinating insights into how millennials and decision makers view today’s most popular social media platforms.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• Digital trust has been shaken by a proliferation of malicious content and data breaches, which has significant consequences for brands that use these platforms.
• The top platform won by a huge margin on most attributes. Content on this platform is more likely to be viewed as forthright and honest, which increases the persuasiveness of ads and marketing messages that appear alongside it. This also creates ideal conditions for thought leadership and branded and sponsored content to flourish.
• The second-ranked platform was bolstered by users' confidence sharing content they find there. Users were most apt to share content they found there, which, together with its massive audience and high engagement, makes it the right platform to maximize reach.
• The social platform that finished dead last did so because of its abusive comments section and extremely annoying ads. Still, this hasn’t dissuaded people from visiting, as evidenced by the time spent monthly and massive user base. This platform also resonates more with older generations.

The Digital Trust Report is only available with a subscription to BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service. To access this report, plus hundreds of other deep dives into the future of digital, click here.