How to use data to supercharge your communications
As communications professionals, when trying to persuade our audiences, data is one of the most important assets we have. It conveys results, measures progress and identifies problems. Data has helped to solve real life challenges like predicting the weather, making industrial processes more efficient and creating new technology.
Here are a few tips for using data well, to help achieve communication goals and inspire audiences.
1. Wording
Data placed at the beginning can serve as an anchor point to influence the tone of the rest of the article. To get people to agree with a point, it can be useful to use words like “majority”, “large number of” and “significant” which imply other people agree with the point we’re trying to get across.
When discussing numerical data, it can be helpful to use counts instead of measurements. For example, “1 in 10 households flush wipes down the toilet” in contrast to “10% of households flush wipes down the toilet”. Using “1 in 10” in this context sounds exaggerated which the audience could perceive as misleading. However, measurements can be used to your advantage if you want to invoke positivity by playing up a small positive change.
2. Familiarity
If audiences are familiar with the type of data they are being showed, such as percentages and simple fractions, they are more likely to understand the message being conveyed.
Research shows that, depending on who the audience is, the data presented should be tweaked to be more palatable. In general, audiences appreciate accessible, easy to read data on matters that are important to them. For example, for most of us, counts, comparisons, charts are some of the most accessible types of data.
For a more academic audience , the format is less of a focus if the data presented is related to a topic they care about and can learn/gain something from. If targeting a business audience for example, include data that they can use for their own purposes.
3. Credibility
According to Survey Monkey, audiences are most likely to trust professionally researched and data backed content. That means people tend to believe messaging more or react better to content that uses credible data to back up its claims. Sources must be clearly cited and from a reliable source such as a reputable news outlet or tied to a case study.
Data is a powerful tool for communications professionals to reach new heights with their audience. It makes our communications and storytelling stronger. The best way to use data is to make sure it is presented a familiar format to the audience and easy to understand. We should responsibly use credible and clearly cited sources, and strategically word data points for the desired effect.