Tell Stories With Data

Whether you’re looking for clicks and mentions or authority and leads, nothing succeeds like data-driven content. From shareable infographics to in-depth reports, my data journalism helps businesses, non-profits and publications tell the data-driven stories that stand out from the pack.

Your data or mine?

With a unique combination of quantitative research, marketing and social media skills, I can not only get you the original data you need to rise above the fray, but also turn it into an irresistibly compelling story. Or I can work with the data you already have–like transaction data, social media metrics, app usage or customer feedback–to find the story that will win you new audiences and attention.

Data drives conversations

My content marketing projects drive social conversations because I bake the social strategy into the content. Each piece features tweetable links, bloggable excerpts and shareable infographics created by me or an independent designer. And it comes with a social media promotion plan calibrated to build your network and your brand.

The right form for your data-driven content

You can use data to power content like:

  • White papers, reports and ebooks that generate media attention and leads
  • Shareable infographics that present new insight
  • Blog posts in an authoritative voice
  • Presentations that make audiences take note
  • Social media shareables like charts or data factoids
Let's tell great stories together.

Data journalism for content marketing

Content marketers at the world’s most innovative companies and publications turn to me for data journalism that sets their content apart.
Here are some examples of my data-driven work.

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Power your content with data

Ready to start turning data into great, compelling content? Here are some of my top tips on how to tell great stories with data.

You can’t download sovereignty

You can’t download sovereignty

by | Jan 31, 2008 |

I waited for Tivo. I waited for iTunes video downloads — and I'm coping with its still-too-limited content. I'm even scraping by without Amazon Unbox. But THIS is the last straw:

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

Our friend Adam put us onto Pandora a couple of months ago. It is a deeply groovy, rapidly addictive web radio service that creates custom channels based on your musical preferences. It took just a tiny bit of feedback to get a great mix that plays a great range of mellow working tunes on one channel, a set of showtunes on another channel, and energetic hip-hop on a third. Most magically, each channel settles into that perfect balance of tunes you know and love, and tunes that you are thrilled to discover. For those of us who have ceded control of the radio to our children, this is a wonderful chance to explore musical genres that don't involve farm animals or princesses.

But once again, Canadian sovereignty has done me out of my online content. Part of me (the part that subscribes to Entertainment Weekly) wants us to undertake the digital-era equivalent of those currency schemes in which countries adopt the US dollar instead of going to the trouble of running their own currencies; let's just trade our precious intellectual property freedoms for a broadband hookup that delivers all the goodies available to our southern neighbours, and sign onto all the American I.P. laws so that what works there works here.

The other part of me (the part that subscribes to the New Yorker) is sick of being ingored by media companies that can't be bothered to navigate regulations they haven't written themselves. Yes, it's very convenient to get the laws changed when your mouse is about to go rogue, but sometimes companies have to figure out how to comply with laws instead of just writing new ones.

And the way I see it, there's no time like the present: with the majority of the US media empire stymied by a labour force that has recognized its own interests in digital media rights, their lawyers might as well turn their attention this way. Maybe we can catch their attention if we point out that the writers up here are covered by a different union.

Google docs: now in Safari

Google docs: now in Safari

by | Jan 31, 2008 |

I just discovered that Google Docs finally work in the Safari web browser. (Up until now, Mac users had to access their Google Docs via Safari.) I think we may have the iPhone to thank for this; all those iPhone users wanted mobile access to their documents! I wonder what else the iPhone will finally bring to the Mac platform.

If you’re not using Google Docs, this is a great time to start! Google Docs let you create, edit, store and share documents and spreadsheets; the word processor feels very much like Microsoft Word, and the spreadsheet editor like Excel, so you’ll be right at home. But unlike the desktop versions of those apps, Google Docs let you collaborate with your colleagues. Here are some of the ways we’ve used Google docs and spreadsheets in our work:

  • as part of a strategic planning process: brainstorming results in rows, participants in columns, with each participant marking their favorite ideas
  • manage our docket of clients and projects (one client per row, one week per column; each week we insert a new column and add notes, current status, and upcoming actions and status
  • capacity planning: clients and projects in rows, weeks/months in columns, to track upcoming hours required
  • document creation: one person drafts in word and uploads, others fill in their details/examples