Grego Rosello and Julieta Poggio They posed together, holding hands. The networks quickly echoed and the content began to circulate without stopping. The romance flooded the traditional media itself, surpassing the borders of the social networks where the campaign began. But none of this was true. The romance was just a setup that pursued another end.
In short, it was fake news created for a campaign. Missing ChildrenOn Rosello’s shirt you can see the face of David Capria boy who seeks social organization. This example, which is part of a long list that occurs daily, serves to analyze the use of fake news in the digital marketing.
The resource of the fake news It is not limited to an image, but is used in text, videos, audios, among others. Situations or moments are recreated, where there are elements of reality that are amalgamated with the false. This conjunction, added to the interests of the target audience, are what make the created content quickly go viral on all social networks.
This rapid circulation of content resulted, in the particular case of this campaign, in more than 6 million views and an increase in the number of followers of Missing Children. This is the other part of the campaign, the real message contained in the story. One wonders whether these reproductions were actually due to genuine concern for the missing boy or just because of surprise about the romance.
This opens up another dimension of fake news, which is when the staging blurs the cause of a campaign. Based on the evidence of the increase in followers on Missing Children’s social profiles, we could conclude that the message got through. This was also supported by a subsequent action where it was explained that it was fake news and what the real motives of the campaign were.
What are the risks?
While it is tempting to trick the social media algorithm with fake content and thus organically reach thousands of people, this brings risks for brands or institutions. In fact, as early as 2016, Facebook recognized that it had a problem with fake content and began working to find a way to avoid it.
Among the main problems is the reputational damage that the brand carrying out the campaign may suffer. Your audience may become distrustful of your products or services if they see that you are resorting to false information. But the protagonists of the story can also suffer from this effect. If they are journalists or influencers with thousands of followers, they may criticize the initiative.
Another risk is that the effectiveness of the message is overshadowed by the fake news, meaning that only the staging is remembered and no attention is paid to the message that the brand wanted to convey.
There is a technological risk. Fake news can affect a website’s SEO ranking. Currently, search engines like Google can detect if a site generates fake news, which lowers its position in the results shown to the user. As a result, our site loses visibility and visits and is practically forgotten, surpassed by the competition.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the fake news They also require an ethical stance. As marketing and communication professionals, we must be careful about how we speak to our audience, what we tell them and how we do it.
Fake news can be an ally, if used with great caution, to attract the attention of an increasingly fragmented and dispersed audience. But first, you need to analyze all the possibilities that this can generate and make a creative effort to generate real content that contributes to building the brand.
Founder of THE B. DNA.
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
