NBC News had a big initiative for TikTok in 2022: to grow young audience by being a trusted voice on the platform and create original content that speaks to the voice, tone and style of TikTok. According to a Pew Research study, more than 25% of young people get their news from TikTok. So we wanted to use that as an opportunity to expand the NBC News brand
As Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, we noticed an onslaught of falsified videos and misinformation on social media, particularly on TikTok. This helped clarify our mission as a trusted news brand on TikTok. With our colleagues across the organization, we verified, translated and gave proper context to video filmed on the front lines of arguably the first war to break out in the age of modern social media. In the early days of our coverage, we gained over a million followers in a single week and garnered hundreds of millions of views.
We have since covered every major breaking news event – both domestic and international – featuring verified user generate content, original reporting, explainers, breakdowns, live streams, and more. We created a series called #NBCDebunks featuring NBC News reporters identifying and debunking viral misinformation and extensively covered the 2022 midterm elections – including making election night race calls in key states.
NBC News has 4 million plus followers on TikTok, which is up more than +300% versus the end of 2022, and has seen over 1.3 billion views on TikTok in 2022, nearly 6x what it drove in the prior year. According to a study by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, NBC News leads news publishers on average views per TikTok worldwide.
