Speaking Moylanguage #4: The Data Edition
Cognitive bias, GDPR, data and marketing, reporting, monitoring, listening, data visualisation
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the fourth edition of Speaking Moylanguage!
This edition is a thematic edition, focusing on data - how to read it, how to discuss it and what it means for communication.
This is also a collaboration, with my first guest contribution from Sam Lane, a Digital Communications Analyst at the European Parliament. We’ve also shared ideas, comments and research throughout - so many thanks to him!
A quick overview for the uninitiated:
The newsletter is divided into three sections - stories, ideas and skills.
The content is mostly shared in Google Doc format, with comments enabled.
Please leave comments, share more content, elaborate and ask questions - I do reply, read and appreciate them!
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1. Stories
Cognitive Bias and Reading Data
The human brain is imperfect. There are some common illusions and cognitive traps into which we regularly fall. In this piece, I share a few of these illusions and traps you should be mindful of when analysing and interpreting data.
GDPR and Political Campaigns
A couple of years ago, I listened to an episode of the Social Media and Politics Podcast in which Brendan Tobin, VP of Growth at eCanvasser, was interviewed about the impact of GDPR on political parties. I made a few notes and recently called up Brendan to bring them up to date. Here I share those notes and reflections.
2. Ideas
Future of Data in Marketing
WPP released a report in November of 2020 on the future of data. They predicted a data saturated world, where humans interact with data every 18 seconds and by 2030, saying ‘I don’t understand data’ will be the equivalent of printing emails in 2010. Here I tried to extract the most interesting points from a marketing and communication perspective.
Data for Social Media Reports
Everyone who works in social media communications has had to do it at some point - producing a big, impressive number to round out a report. But how do we actually use social media data to improve the way we work? How do we make sure it feeds into our strategies and has an impact? In this piece I explore the question of how to use social media data in a meaningful way.
3. Skills
Monitoring Vs Listening
One of the great benefits of social media is the ability to connect directly with your followers and understand their needs. In this piece, I explore two activities that can help you do that - monitoring and listening. When done right, they will not only improve your reporting, but they will give you a deeper understanding of your community and content in both the short- and long-term.
Data Visualisation
Open a newspaper, visit a Twitter account or follow a political debate these days and you will see data being visualised to explain our world - sometimes in a way that helps us understand, sometimes in a way that confuses or obfuscates. Sam Lane explores data visualisaion, looking at examples from data journalism and giving tips on how we can “paint with numbers” to clarify data and tell stories.
Some recommendations
Reads, watches and links from followers and friends:
Anca Scortariu’s thread on the EU DataViz Conference, sharing some of her highlights from last year - they’re looking for proposals and ideas until 21st May!
Diarmaid Mac Mathúna has just opened up access to the indiepics EU Comms Playbook on how to do European communications easier and faster.
Jeremy Herry recommends the 1972 classic “Public Opinion Does Not Exist” by Pierre Bourdieu.
Would you like to shape the largest European public communication conference with your ideas? The call for proposals for this year's edition of EuroPCom is now open.
Miriam Shovel recommends resources available from the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication. It includes guides on things like communicating risk, uncertainty and change for both internal and external audiences.
George Bogdan Batrin recommends “Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell” as a good overview of the state of AI today. Gives insights on the amazing possibilities and also identifies some overblown hypes.
European Campaign Playbook has recommended a short video intro to Suroweirki’s Wisdom of Crowds by Vuk Vukovic.
Tips from Lauren Foley on how to make your LinkedIn profile great.
RadioLab have produced a podcast on Facebook’s Supreme Court - the independent body of twenty jurors that will make the final call on many of Facebook’s thorniest decisions.