For Best Results in Brand Safety, Be Transparent

Editor’s note: This piece is part of our Columnist Network series, which explores the tactical thoughts and actions from Adweek’s community of high-level experts. Today, Twitter’s Caitlin Rush illustrates the growing interest from marketers in platform transparency reports. Below, in her own words, she urges brands to take more responsibility for their online presence and safety metrics. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant”—so the saying goes, lauding the effectiveness of transparency and openness in weeding out bad behavior. Not only does transparency reduce the volume and severity of negative actions in the world, but it also incentivizes and rewards positive outcomes and facilitates trust—without which, the social contracts we rely on to function every day are in jeopardy. And while you can’t buy trust in the supermarket, companies from every industry need a foundation of trust with their customers in order to be successful. People need to trust the food they eat won’t make them sick, the cars they drive will protect them in an accident and the money they save in a bank will be there when they need it. In the technology industry, these trust requirements include privacy, security and psychological safety: Is my information being used appropriately? Are my data and accounts safe from misuse? Am I going to be protected from abuse and harassment? As tech, and social media in particular, has matured, we’ve seen the industry evolve its approach to building trust through increased transparency and accountability. Today, virtually every social platform publishes a transparency report in some form, providing insight into the health of these platforms with a look at how policies are enforced, platform manipulation is combatted and privacy is protected, as well as data on the information and removal requests received from governments. At their core, these reports exist to provide transparency and accountability to the people who use social media. As these reports evolve with new metrics, we’ve seen advertiser interest in platform transparency increase. It’s encouraging to see brands interested in the health and quality of their media partners as they look to make more responsible investment decisions with advertising budgets. And, thanks to initiatives like the Global Alliance for Responsible Media’s Aggregated Measurement Report, these metrics are becoming more accessible to marketers. How, you may ask? There are a few key takeaways for marketers when it comes to these reports. Here are three things to look out for: By focusing on policy enforcement metrics, such as prevalence or impression rate of violative content, brands can get a picture of the macro environment of their social presence—what is the relative presence of the “bad stuff” in the big picture? Looking at the volume of violating content removal can provide insight into emerging safety challenges.Observing trends in these metrics over time can provide a more holistic view of platforms’ progress and priorities related to health and safety, ensuring brand and media partner values are aligned.By taking the time to understand, review and ask questions about these reports, marketers themselves become responsible members of the advertising supply chain, as opposed to only voicing concern during acute incidents impacting their brand. There’s no doubt that work remains to be done, and platforms must continue their commitment to relentless progress in updating and enforcing policies to keep people safe online. Transparency will continue to evolve, providing increased accountability to all customers—both the platform users and the brands investing their ad dollars. Platforms will need to continue to build trust with brands via new metrics designed specifically for advertisers, in addition to the metrics reported specific to content moderation work. Ultimately, those policy enforcement metrics serve a much higher purpose to ensure platform accountability and responsibility for the safety of the people who use them, regardless of advertiser interest or pressure.

Columnist Network

For Best Results in Brand Safety, Be Transparent and Trustworthy

Twitter brings marketers into the fold on user safety and data protection

Caitlin Rush

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Caitlin Rush