Blackberry Fact Check - Will It Improve The Quality Of Reports About Blackberry

The BlackBerry Fact Check portal can’t exactly be considered as a revolutionary idea. Nonetheless, it is a good one and there are ways to make it better.

This is not exactly a portal. It is a category on their Inside BlackBerry blog where they add blog posts. The ‘Fact Check portal’ was announced by BlackBerry towards the end of June. They will post news and information about their products and services under their category. BlackBerry will also voice their opinions about theirs and others products on this portal.

The Fact Check gives BlackBerry an opportunity to reach its existing and potential customers with great content. But how they market it will ultimately decide the fate of this idea.

Since launching Fact Check, BlackBerry has posted several times under this category. This clearly shows that the company is interested in taking the service forward. In addition, these posts are getting read and shared on social media.

So, how can BlackBerry make it better? To start with, BlackBerry should let employees submit their ideas and post their fact check entries. This will enable them to move faster.

Rumors spread fast everywhere, but on the internet they spread even faster. A case in point is the BlackBerry rumor that Seeking Alpha spread during the first week of July.

On July 3^rd, there were several incorrect stories about Volkswagen acquiring parts of QNX. The original press release from Volkswagen simply stated that they were acquiring an R&D company in Germany. However, when the news started getting shared over the internet, it was as if BlackBerry was selling QNX.

The Volkswagen story was published by The Mail and Globe on July 3rd. There were no factual inaccuracies in their report. But their reports about Volkswagen sale also included talks about QNX.This encouraged some blogs to arrive at totally inaccurate conclusions.

A report published by Seeking Alpha was nothing but a bunch of lies. The blog also appeared to have some hidden agendas. Yet, the BB fact check post setting the record straight for Seeking Alpha didn’t go live until July 7. BlackBerry must have been aware that false rumors were being spread. Still, the company didn’t act fast. They took almost four days to react and clarify the facts.

If BlackBerry involves every employee in the company they will be able to speed up their reaction time. They will also be able to increase the content available on their blog. Every employee who would like to contribute posts to the blog should be able to do it.

BlackBerry does ask people to report false stories doing the rounds. However, there is no real mechanism on their site to report stories that need to be checked for accuracy.

If there is a visible button on their fact check portal, people will be able to report stuff easily. Also there should be at least one employee in charge of routing all ideas. If inexperienced writers and also those who have a habit of misreporting things knew that they would be held accountable whenever they reported trash, we will see better quality reports about BlackBerry in the media.