Creating Balanced Content: 6 Phases of Data-Driven Storytelling

Editor's Notes

• #5: - Cyrus Molavi - Product Manager of Flow - team collaboration software designed to help teams get organized and stay productive - Occasional contributor to The Modern Team - a publication about building exceptional teams - Today’s going to follow a story of one of the posts I wrote for The Modern Team, and share the steps I took to make it succeed
• #6: By the end of today, you can expect to walk away knowing these items
• #7: this was while I was in a marketing role. I wanted to contribute to TMT TMT was building a strong voice with high quality articles
• #8: Or in other words… Data-Driven Storytelling is content that is both entertaining and informative answers burning questions brings unique data to the table Three examples of blogs that do this well are here. OKCupid is probably my favourite: they grew an amazing following with their OKTrends blog by analyzing anonymous data from their dating platform and answered things like “what role does a man’s height play in their likelihood to be replied to?” and “how race affects attraction preferences” hard to think of any questions more burning than that. An example of unique data is Terapeak. Now they’re software for eBay sellers that provides transactional history of what’s selling on eBay and at what price. No one else has access to this data, so their content strategy naturally follows the data. They analyze hot items, and things like the relationship between Star Wars movie releases and the price of Star Wars collectibles. As for Priceonomics, I highly recommend you read their comprehensive guide to content creation. In it, they dive deep into using proprietary data to find your voice and deliver business results.
• #9: So with this post, the brainstorming process operated with a few constraints had to be about modern teams we had plenty of anonymous data about team productivity and we needed to vet ideas using SEMRush We got together for a weekly idea session to brainstorm ideas, and then first pruned them for editorial standards, then thought about how we might add our own data to the story, and then vetted the remaining ideas using SEMRush
• #10: As a way to confirm interest in a topic, and to forecast future traffic drawn in by a highly ranked post in search results, did keyword research. You can do that any time by heading over to SEMRush.com and typing your ideas in. The topic we went with was about finding the optimal team size for workplace productivity.
• #11: With the topic selected, I went into full research mode for the post. It took about 30 hours of concentrated work to create this post, including topic selection, research, and writing. (But not promotion.) The research portion was probably about 15-20 hours worth. I read academic papers, I familiarized myself with experts in the field, and I read pretty much every other top post on the topic. Most importantly, I took detailed notes with sources documented so that I could use them to write the full post.
• #12: With the topic that fit all the constraints being optimal team size, it was time to do original research using our own data. So I analyzed the productivity of teams using Flow. Flow is a team collaboration platform that helps people get organized and stay productive. You can plan shared projects and create and allocate tasks across a group of people. Then you can collaborate and tick off tasks as you work. The data I had access to could help me understand the relative productivity of teams of various sizes. So I looked at the number of people on accounts, and then calculated their total tasks completed per month and plotted it on a graph. It turned out that productivity falls off once teams get over a certain size. If you want to learn more about this topic, read my post from the Modern Team titled, What’s the Optimal Team Size for Workpalce Productivity? I’ll include a link in the followup toolkit for this webinar.
• #13: Honestly, the synthesis was the hardest part for me. I had something like 23 pages of notes from over 30 sources that I needed to turn into a meaningful story that answered a definite question. Adding stories makes things real. By giving examples to illustrate data, you help people identify with what you’re trying to say. I’ll never forget the day a few of my teammates at Flow took a roadtrip to visit some customers at their offices. We talked to them about a feature that was coming out soon, and tried to understand their needs and wants, and how this applied to how we had built our solution. On the drive home my team talked about the experience, and the recommendations we’d be coming back with. We felt so strongly about the problems we could solve for this team, and the challenge fired up our passion for building a better tool. The thing is, we are ALWAYS collecting feedback from our customers. Somehow, this session hit home with more impact. My feeling is that because the format was different, we felt differently about it. We sat facing our customers. We were there in person. We made eye contact, and we saw their expressions as they talked about their problems. We FELT the changes that needed to be made, and that feeling was very real. Anyways, all this is to say that data can make something painfully obvious, but unless your readers can feel it, the point will be weakened. Storytelling is one way we can bring feeling to our content to give it balance.
• #14: The fun part of crafting an entertaining story is pulling in pop culture to attach what you’re saying to something your readers can identify with. In this post, I was able to fulfill my decade-long dream of referencing Temptation Island. Don’t ask me why, but I loved the absurdity of this series, and so bringing it brought me a little bit of joy and I hope it did for some of my readers. I probably made 5 more references after this one that somehow applied to what I was saying in the post. In the writing phase, I made sure to reference anyone I borrowed ideas from. This came in handy later, when doing outreach. I also weaved in my own proprietary analysis of the topic, so that I was not just regurjiatating things I had read elsewhere.
• #15: When adding media to your posts, it’s lawful and diligent to provide credit and not use licensed images. To avoid paying fees for images you think will add to the story, I suggest using Creative Commons search. It’ll bring up only images that are free to use with attribution. In my post, I used it to find this image of a no-look pass to illustrate how teams can get to a high level of performance once they before very familiar. The final step of the Polish phase was revisions. There’s not much to show here, but let me tell you, that once you have rid your piece of typos, and have crafted the full story and included all data, you’re not done. It’s important to get other eyes on it, and if you have access to an editor, they can do a world of good. Expect to do a full edit (which means possibly rewriting full sections, getting ruthless about unnecessary parts, and reordering the piece for clarity) before publishing. My piece probably got completely worked over twice by two guys I’m very priveleged to work with, Mark Nichols and Cameron Conaway. They’re the insanely talented guys running The Modern Team. They come from Literature and Journalism backgrounds and were able to bring my post up to the high bar that they set for themselves. When working with editors, make sure to be gracious and amenable to feedback and edits. It’s hard enough to convince someone to take a look at your work. Don’t make it any harder by being an uncooperative visionary--cede to the experts.
• #16: Time to hit the switch! When you’re ready, you gotta release your post out into the wild. Mailchimp has this great piece of delight built into their email campaigns product. They obviously have understood where anxiety exists in their users’ workflow, and have done something to create a little piece of joy into the experience. For blog posts, the nerves really shouldn’t be too crazy, because if you’re doing things right, the journey has only begun. https://d13yacurqjgara.cloudfront.net/users/187497/screenshots/1552347/mailchimp-button.gif
• #17: This is the phase of your content that determines whether all your hard work pays off. Promotion should make up at least half of your total effort for a piece. If you’ve put in the work to create a great, entertaining, informative article, then it should really fire you up to feel good about promoting it. There will be people who want to hear from you about it. They have interests in your topic and they want to share good content about that topic with their networks. Our approach here, and I must mention that this was handled by our content marketing manager, the aforementioned Cameron Conaway, was to start small and build out. It’s a bit like forming a bit snowball in a wide open field. You gotta start small by picking up a little bit of snow with your own hands, forming it, and then once you get to a certain size you can start rolling. But for most of us, there aren’t any hills around that we can use to take away the effort. It’ll keep getting harder to get more results, but as the ball gets bigger, more happens at once. So here are the details. Cameron is good about keeping a circle of people around him that are fired up about his topic. This list includes previous commenters, professional contacts who have connected with him elsewhere, and the internal team at TMT and Flow. The launch of the article starts with a personal reach out to these folks to check it out and share and comment on it if they are so inclined. Then with a little bit of backing on the piece, he reaches out to every person mentioned or cited in the piece. This list was made up of around 20 highly interested people who got a link and some kudos. They are typically happy to hear about the piece, and even if they don’t share it with their audiences, it’s a great way to make a connection. Now as the piece gets momentum, it’s time to give it the biggest, most predictable push of exposure: a promoted email. Here’s a peek at how we did it for this piece. We’ve since optimized the format, though, and Cameron has written about that, so I can point you in that direction after the webinar as well. With plenty of activity on the piece, it’s then time to start outreach. For each piece, Cameron prepares three lists of 50 people. Loosely based in tiers of influence. He then builds a relationship with those people by exchanging value with them on Twitter or elsewhere. When it comes time to promote the piece, he reaches out to them to let them know they might be interested. This step is not to be underestimated. It’s what separates those with dedication from those with dreams. Cameron’s work here can easily be a full time job, and it’s primarily his passion for relationships and belief in our content that keeps it alive. And make no mistake, it’s a giving relationship every time. He’s not a taker, because takers get weeded out and stop getting results. But if you want momentum, shares, views, relationships, followers, you have to believe, and you have to put in the effort to spread your work.
• #18: As initial promotion wraps up (even though you’ll continue to reshare and promote your piece moving forward) it’s time to review how your data-driven story performed. The key metrics we looked at were viewers, time on site, shares, comments, organic rank, and organic traffic. For this, we use three tools: SEMRush, BuzzSumo, and good ol’ Google Analytics
• #19: Using Google Analytics’ Landing Pages report, I was able to measure the size and type of traffic that was coming in. In this case, by narrowing down the results by Source, I could see that apart from Direct traffic, which was likely mostly from the email list, we we’ve brought in over 700 organic search visitors.
• #20: Then by using BuzzSumo, we were able to research the post, see its share count by platform, and then actually drill down to individual sharers with the “View Sharers” option for the post. This showed us that some key influencers were sharing the post. It was really cool to see that a premier thought leader on the Scrum methodology shared the post and got his following to check it out.
• #21: To get a sense of how the post was performing over time and climbing the ranks of Google search results, I used the SEMRush Organic Research Positions report. This told me whether we newly ranked for any related keywords, and how the existing keywords were changing over time.
• #22: So in terms of the juicy results, let me preface this by saying that this blog launched in September, and this post went live in October. So when you look at these, consider that it landed on a sparkling new publication.
• #23: Let’s look back at the journey we’ve covered so far, and deliver on the promise of 6 defined phases. We started by… The key pieces where data came in were - during topic validation, - the research phase as we brought in our own data, and - when we looked back at the results The key pieces where storytelling came in were - when we wanted to fit the topic to our editorial guidelines, - when we were synthesizing notes into a coherent structure, and - when we were illustrating the implications of data with examples
• #24: And let’s review our learning outcomes: - we learned how to validate topic ideas using SEMRush - we discussed the level of research required to take your content to -the next level - we discussed the balance data and story, and how data can help you find your voice - we uncovered a place for free images - we went over a snowball approach to promotion and - we used three tools to measure the performance of your efforts
• #25: By the way, Flow was used for everything required internally to make sure this came off. In Flow, we have a content calendar, as well as tasks for each post. We can discuss the status, and reassign next steps. If someone is needed to do a piece of the research, we can just make a task. It’s where I work, so we’re lucky to be able to use it day to day for our actual work. It’s used by all kinds of teams, like marketers, engineers, consultants, freelancers, and agencies.
• #26: TMT is a publication about exceptional teams. We have a fast growing following made up of people from leading firms like Disney, Invision, Posts weekly and include articles from our nationally recognized journalist, former business lead of MetaLab, an agency recently recognized by Forbes, and sometimes me or other guest posters. Some of the most popular posts include topics like why Flat Will Kill You Eventually, The Third Era of Management (why empathy means more than ever), and What an Unlimited Vacation Policy Really Means. If you’re interested in subscribing, head over to TheModernTeam.com For attendees of the webinar today, we’re offering your choice of one free ebook on either the topic of Team Management, Communication, or Startup Leadership. The ebooks contain some of our hardest fought lessons in their topics from experts in the space.
• #27: 1. Free eBook of your choice (Startup Leadership, Communication, Team Management) 2. Links - Cameron’s post about optimizing the list email - Guide to data-driven content - Great example of a blog that did it 3. Tools - keyword research and rank tracking - creative commons search engine - email campaign tool - results tracking tools - team collaboration for content calendar and task management To claim your ebook, or to get a session notes summary from me, simply indicate yes in this poll we’ll get set up for you shortly. I’ll follow up with session notes that contain a bullet list of important links from today’s presentation. You’ll get: - link to the original post, including the opportunity for a free TMT ebook - Cameron’s post about optimizing the list email - Priceonomics’ guide to using data for content - OkTrends for an example of great execution - Tools links for all the tactics shown here today: - SEMRush for volume and rank research - CCSearch for free images and media - Mailchimp for email campaigns - GA for results tracking - Buzz Sumo for share counts - Flow for content calendar, and project management
• #29: So it’s time for the poll: do you want to receive the session notes from me?