DATA & CREATIVITY A WINNING CONTENT FORMULA Stacey MacNaught Tecmark @staceycav
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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
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h"ps://directory.esomar.org/
£ Surveys with Responses
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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….
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• 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.
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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.
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