NN: The good, the bad, and the clickbait

[View this email in your browser]( [NewsWhip]( The good, the bad, and the clickbait Hi there, Yesterday, we published our rankings for August 2018. We changed the way we ranked network publishers, but no matter — a [clear winner]( appeared in the numbers anyway. The Good: Overall, the top 25 publishers saw more engagements than last month. LAD bible and UNILAD continued their rise in the rankings, to first and fourth place. (LAD bible saw 2.3x the engagements this month! You go, Glen Coco!) Hyperpartisan websites also saw a boost in engagements from last month, hopefully quelling the speculation about censorship on the platform. The Bad: That above point could also be bad, if you’re concerned about the effects of partisan content, left or right. But then… free speech? It’s a mixed bag, for sure. The Clickbait: Viral content farms surged this month, appearing three times in the top 25. Among the top stories, many came from these sites. In fact, if you navigate to these sites, they are often poorly constructed, with some elements unchanged from whatever web design template they’re using. [NBAlovers.info]( for example, has nothing at all to do with any NBA acronym that we’re aware of, instead branding themselves “Animal Stories”. In the top 100 stories of the month, 59 percent came from legitimate publications and media outlets. This number increases to 71 percent across the top 200 stories. This suggests that while these clickbait stories do go "ultra-viral" one way or another, they don't subsist throughout what steadily drives engagement at lower but consistent rates. [Check out the full rankings here]( (P.S.: A hearty thanks to the New York Times’ John Hermann for his [shoutout]( yesterday. Thank you for selling out for us, John.) Just do it Nike has seen unprecedented social engagement following their #JustDoIt Kaepernick campaign this week, according to our data. The biggest spikes in engagement for Nike over the past three years have generally centered around diversity and social issues. The brand's other spikes in social engagements have come from dropping Manny Pacquaio after he made anti-LGBT comments, and for when the brand unveiled a product for Muslim women. Across every social channel, there have been emotional responses to the latest move. Here's a look at a couple of the different opinions from our Snapchat search in Spike. [(More info here!)]( As we heard from [various brand marketers]( this year, it's important to show your customers that your brand is human. But it only makes sense if a particular cause is authentic to your brand's core. We talk more about this trend in our guide to socially conscious brands. [Check it out here](. ​ The Top Stories of the Week: August 31st - September 7th There have been some stories that seemed to dominate our news feeds this week. But does the world agree? Below are the top stories on Facebook, from our [NewsWhip Spike]( platform. This week, we didn't see any clickbait in our top stories, as Facebook users shared stories around Nike, the New York Times Op-Ed, and Burt Reynolds. [To explore more of the top stories, check out Spike.]( How brands are taking on being socially conscious​ [Read here >]( 5 things to know about successful Snapchat and Instagram Stories​ [Read here >]( ICYMI: The 2018 guide to influencerr [Watch here >]( Noted - Nieman Lab shares how to create a culture of [listening]( to your fans (and ex-fans) - Instagram is working on a dedicated [shopping app]( - Digiday takes a look at the [state of advertising]( in IG Stories - Why the Washington Post and Reuters are [live-streaming]( on Twitch - If it’s ‘news’ on Twitter, is it ‘news’ [everywhere else]( That's all this week! If you were sent this newsletter and would like to subscribe, you can [do so here](. Let us know [on Twitter]( if you have any ideas for us to research. Have a great weekend, Gabriele and the NewsWhip team. [NewsWhip Spike]( [NewsWhip Analytics]( [Resources]( [Blog]( [Contact](mailto:%20hello@newswhip.com) Millions of stories, videos, and social posts are published each day, sparking billions of interactions. NewsWhip transforms this ocean of social data into actionable insights to inform your content strategy. NewsWhip products show you what audiences are engaging with in real time and what has performed best historically – in every vertical. Copyright © 2018 NewsWhip, All rights reserved. You're receiving this email because you opted in for the NewsWhip blog newsletter and updates. Our mailing address is: NewsWhip 47 Merrion SquareDublin, Ireland [Add us to your address book](//newswhip.us3.list-manage.com/vcard?u=f5077bc53c4be33ce14998bdd&id=6f54ba6e9d) Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](.