DATA & CREATIVITY A WINNING CONTENT FORMULA

Stacey MacNaught Tecmark @staceycav

I WAS PART OF A TEAM OF PEOPLE INVOLVED IN THIS DISASTER…

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“WTF IS THAT?” I HEAR YOU ASK…

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THAT IS A TERRIBLE PICTURE THING WE CALLED AN “INFOGRAPHIC”

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YES, THERE’S A DINOSAUR ON IT.

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AND NO, I DON’T KNOW WHY.

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THIS WAS A LESSON IN HOW NOT TO DO CONTENT.

For the record…

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For the record…

My Nan liked it.

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THE 5 STAGES OF CONTENT FAILURE.

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STEP 1.

You have this amazing idea. Literally amazing. Possibly after a few beers.

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STEP 2.

You convince your client/boss that this will be the most wonderful piece of content ever and you get the budget.

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STEP 3.

You invest hours/days (weeks?) into graphics, dev, research, pretty things…

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STEP 4.

You launch your beautiful piece of content and you send emails to as many people as you can.

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AND….

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STEP 5.

You work out how you are going to salvage something from this…

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STEP 5.

You work out how you are going to salvage something from this… Or apologise and hope it goes away.

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We had to change.

We had to get smarter.

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THESE DAYS WE’RE DOING STUFF LIKE THIS…

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Link and citation building with surveys

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Garden and home security survey

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British Business Dreamers Survey

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Browsing for holidays while at work survey

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An old school one (2014) still working for us…

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June 2015

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June 2016

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155 more links.

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155 more links.

NO MORE WORK

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Link and citation building with proprietary data

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Quick and low cost coverage, citation and link opportunities

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Link and citation building with FOI data

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Quick win local and regional press links

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Using data to create content that answers questions and wins customers

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Exists only because keyword data suggested a need

All of those examples have something in common.

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They all have their origins in

DATA @staceycav

Winning with data.

So, let’s talk about

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NOT WINNING

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NOT WINNING

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WINNING

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WINNING

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WINNING

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Link building with data

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100s of projects since 2011

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resulted in great coverage and links

Most

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fell completely and painfully flat

Some

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Others…

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So, we did a bit of analysis…

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NOBODY REALLY CARES ABOUT DATA

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DATA, WITHOUT STORIES, IS JUST A LOAD OF OLD NUMBERS

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What is “good data?”

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Credible.

Good data is….

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Timely.

Good data is….

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Impartial.

Good data is….

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Transparent source.

Good data is….

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Where can you get it?

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£££ Surveys with Responses

@staceycav

h"ps://directory.esomar.org/

£ Surveys with Responses

@staceycav

Freedom of Information

@staceycav h"p://www.whatdotheyknow.com

Freedom of Information

@staceycav h"p://www.asktheeu.org/

Proprietary Data Examples

@staceycav h"ps://jawbone.com/blog/jawbone-up-data-by-city/

Proprietary Data Examples

@staceycav h"ps://www.kickstarter.com/year/2014/data?ref=yir2014

If you really can’t source your own data…

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Existing Public Data

@staceycav h"p://www.staCsta.com/

Existing Public Data

@staceycav h"ps://www.google.com/publicdata/directory

Existing Public Data

@staceycav h"ps://www.gov.uk/government/staCsCcs

Existing Public Data

@staceycav h"ps://datahub.io/dataset

Existing Public Data

@staceycav h"ps://knoema.com/

BUT…

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News outlets don’t publish “good data.”

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They publish compelling stories.

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“To hell with facts! We need stories.” - Ken Kesey

stories.

The single biggest job you have with data is to find its best

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But what makes a good story?

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•  Timely •  Relevant •  Unexpected •  New •  Close to Home •  Human Interest

Good stories are…

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Timeliness and Relevance

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The reason you don’t pitch Christmas stories in February or money saving tips to Tech Crunch.

Unexpected

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Dog bites man… Not News

Unexpected

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Man bites dog? NEWS!

(via @neilbarraclough)

New

Close to Home

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The reason that the Paris attacks got more European coverage than equally deadly atrocities in Africa or the Middle East.

Human Interest

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h"p://www.mediacollege.com/journalism/news/newsworthy.html

The number alone wasn’t publishable… The case studies (people) told the stories.

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The Linkable Asset

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The reason that a journalist would send their readers to your site.

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Disappointment.

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Sometimes, the linkable asset is simple

Raw data download

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Supporting visual asset

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A solution to the problem your story uncovered

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Don’t underestimate promotion budgets and time

We Use….

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We Contact Via….

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•  Email •  Social Media •  Phone

We Contact Via….

@staceycav

•  Email •  Social Media •  Phone •  Whichever method our contact

prefers

A Concise Version of our Process

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A FEW TIPS (FROM A LOT OF EXPERIMENTING)

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Buy consultancy time from someone working in journalism right now.

@staceycav

Sanity check your story before you invest too heavily in promotion or assets

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And then sanity check throughout…

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Have a backup plan Multiple questions/data items

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Don’t launch without a linkable asset

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Success or failure… measure, record, analyse and learn.

@staceycav

stacey.macnaught@tecmark.co.uk