@verifythis
VERIFY is a team of journalists combating the spread of misinformation on all platforms and answering viewer questions. Part of our mission is to provide a personal response to viewers and engage people individually — something TikTok has allowed us to do extremely well. The VERIFY TikTok team has created a unique style of fact-checking by using “greenscreen” explainers to break down what’s true and what’s false and illustrate why misinformation is spreading. Since launching in the summer of 2021, the VERIFY TikTok page has grown to more than 170,000 followers and 1.9 million likes.
Since launching in 2021, VERIFY has developed a specific style of video for TikTok utilizing the #greenscreen function to answer questions and explain complicated topics. Breaking away from the news-anchor norm, our hosts speak conversationally and use graphics, images and text on screen to present the content. TikTok suggests making short videos using trending sounds, but for our fact-checks, we found our voice through longer videos that stay true to the story and don’t utilize gimmicky trends. For an engaging audience experience, we respond to our viewers’ comments and create new TikTok videos that address their questions. Our team regularly revisits strategic decisions to adapt to audience expectations and the ever-changing platform. For example, we recently launched an additional series of weekly trivia to provide a new type of experience that is more fun and fast-paced.
VERIFY’s TikTok page has seen impressive growth since launching in mid-2021. We grew our audience slowly as we developed our strategy and entered 2022 with only a few thousand followers. Since then, we’ve seen exponential growth and hit 100,000 followers in September. We now have nearly 140,000 followers as of mid-December and our page has received 1.5 million likes. On average, our page reaches about 300,000 accounts weekly and we post between three and six videos each week. Our subscriber numbers put VERIFY among some of the top media organizations on TikTok worldwide.
VERIFY’s TikTok audience is supportive, smart and engaged. Our audience engagement on the platform is arguably the highest-quality we have across all platforms in terms of intelligent questions, conversations and feedback. We routinely hear praise from commenters, thanking us for providing deep dives into complicated topics and helping people easily understand what misinformation is spreading and why.
VERIFY’s TikTok channel has received publicity and praise, most recently in an interview with TVNewsCheck, which interviewed our hosts Ariane Datil and Casey Decker. They discuss how we honed the format, found our voice and developed our brand on the platform while continuing our mission to stop the spread of misinformation.
Click here to read the TVNewsCheck interview.