Hey, guys! We’ve been working our butts off here at TVM, and we’d like to share something extra exciting.
Jeff was on TV! Not once, but twice!
On November 6th, NBC10 released a short special featuring Jeff, as he discussed some simple, yet effective things we all can do to fact check the news we see online. This has been a public issue since the election and the Russian Facebook interference, and who better to turn to for social marketing advice than Jeff?You can find the two minute long interview on NBC10’s website, and if you haven’t already seen it, we’ll break down the basics for you.
When looking through your Facebook feed, it can be almost overwhelming with how many articles are being shared. The first thing Jeff recommends to do in checking the authenticity of these reads is to check the sources.
Checking an article’s sources is easier than you think. Just use Whois, a free search engine source locator, to see who’s publishing the content. Looking even further, Jeff asks for you to see what the URL ends with, whether it be a .com or a .com followed by an extension. The example Jeff gives makes it easy to see the difference between fake and real: “NBCPhiladelphia.com versus NBCPhiladelphia.com.co…The latter is a fake web address, but the former is the real web address. In other words, look before you click.”
Something else you can do? Check to see if the people posting these articles on your feed are real. Jeff explains that by using google image search, and searching for the profile photo of the person posting, will assure you whether or not the person is real or using a photo from some generic online image library.
Ultimately though, the greatest advice Jeff had to offer was short and sweet: “It’s about being discerning about what you share and the purpose of why you share it.”
This discussion carried out further when Jeff was asked by NBC10 to come back for another interview, which aired on December 3rd. The questions were similar, regarding we as citizens can do to spot fake news online, and Jeff suggested that the best thing we can do is, “to be a more responsible citizen. If we see that the plan is to divide us, and we know that we’re prone to feeding our pre-existing biases, then we have all of the awareness we need to be more responsible in what we share.”
As a team of digital marketers, we take this responsibility to heart. In the online world where messages can be construed, we take pride in being honest with our audience, and hope that you do too.
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If you’d like to speak with us about how to spot fake news online, the wide world of digital marketing, or any of our services feel free to reach out and contact us at [email protected] [email protected]
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