Your readers can, natch, WILL THEY<\/em><\/strong>, like my insatiable Labrador chowing down on her dog food bowl, consume big, gulping bites at big data?\u00a0 Or do they want nibbles?\u00a0 Do they want you to relate the data to something in their lives.<\/p>\n The biggest, scariest numbers in the world don’t mean a thing unless they move someone.\u00a0 Which of these moves you:<\/p>\n The answer is a no-brainer.<\/p>\n 2. Put a Face on the Numbers \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n This is a correlation to the first point.\u00a0 Numbers, even the most startling ones, need a face, a name, give the readers someone to care about.\u00a0 This comes down to anecdotes. Find them. Use them.\u00a0 They are your friends and the fuel for your data stories.<\/p>\n 3. Lies, Damned Lies and Big Data<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n All numbers lie<\/span><\/a><\/span>, to one extent or another.\u00a0 A more precise way to put it is that all data comes with an inbred bias.\u00a0 Yes, it does.\u00a0 It’s your job to ferret out the bias, shine a spotlight on it and then go about using it in the best, most precise way possible.<\/p>\n As long as your readers know where the bias is, they will be, natch, they ARE smart enough to filter it out and glean the value of the data from your writing and insight.<\/p>\n 4. Filtered Data<\/strong><\/p>\n And speaking of filters.\u00a0 YOU are the filter through which your readers consumes data.\u00a0 The reader trusts you otherwise he or she wouldn’t be spending precious time reading you at all.\u00a0 Do.not.let.them.down otherwise you’ll soon have no readers.<\/p>\n Readers are brutal in their fickleness.\u00a0 And they SHOULD<\/strong> be fickle.\u00a0 There are tens of thousands of other “voices” out there writing just what you’re writing.\u00a0 What makes you so special?\u00a0 It’s WHAT you write about and how you’re serving the reader by choosing those subjects.\u00a0 Do.Not.Waste.Their.Time.<\/p>\n Behind every boring, data laden clump of numbers are hundreds, thousands of interesting stories.\u00a0 You want numbers to matter to your reader then it’s up to you to forge that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Four Building Blocks of Data-Driven Storytelling http:\/\/wp.me\/pDznH-92 #gutcheckamerica #contentmaketing #ideas","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[42],"tags":[227,225,226],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","tag-big-data","tag-business-and-economy","tag-databases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gutcheckamerica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/photodune-4187216-idea-m.jpg?fit=1738%2C1151&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pDznH-92","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gutcheckamerica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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