Knowledge Storytelling: Abilities and Components — Whiteboard Friday
5 min read
The creator’s views are totally their very own (excluding the unlikely occasion of hypnosis) and should not at all times replicate the views of Moz.
Be part of Lazarina on this Whiteboard Friday the place she discusses the crucial abilities and components concerned in information storytelling. Find out about information evaluation, and information visualization, in addition to the best way to talk wins and stability relationships with stakeholders.

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Video Transcription
Hello there. Immediately we’ll speak about information storytelling. All through historical past, we people have used tales to speak data, to cross boundaries, and to additionally relate to 1 one other. So at the moment we’ll speak about information storytelling and the way that can be utilized as a part of an web optimization or a advertising advisor’s position.
We will speak in regards to the 4 essential elements of knowledge storytelling and the talents that you simply want in an effort to create stunning information tales.
Knowledge Science

So the primary part of knowledge storytelling is information science. So information science is all about understanding what insights you wish to extract out of your information, but it surely’s additionally in regards to the technical abilities that you simply want as a advisor or a marketer in an effort to extract that information.
So it combines a bit of bit of knowledge evaluation. It combines a bit of bit of knowledge engineering. But it surely’s all about understanding what information you want in an effort to inform a superb story.
Knowledge Visualization

The second part of knowledge storytelling is information visualization. So information visualization is all about understanding the best way to visualize the info that you’ve got at hand primarily based on the insights that you simply wish to talk.
It is also about selecting the visuals that show you how to talk the narrative that you simply wish to your stakeholders higher. So this implies when you’ve got a selected information kind, whether or not it is numeric or text-based, it means selecting the visuals or in any other case the charts, the graphs, or tables that may show you how to to speak these insights to your stakeholders higher.

The Narrative

The third part is the narrative. So the narrative is all about how do you convey insights to your viewers. What’s most necessary right here is that you simply learn to talk wins, the best way to evoke feelings in your stakeholders, the best way to possibly create some urgency with the tales that you’re saying, and in addition the best way to talk the relationships between the tasks that you simply’re engaged on and the outcomes that you’re seeing throughout the information.
What can also be essential right here is to point out the trigger and affect relationship between the info factors, the tasks that you simply’re engaged on, and what the outcomes of those are.
Relationships

The fourth part, the large circle right here that sometimes folks do not actually take into account in information storytelling is definitely the relationships.
So once we speak about relationships, it is all in regards to the relationships that you’ve got together with your stakeholders. That is one thing that sometimes you will have to work on as you’re working together with your stakeholders. However what’s most necessary right here is to know your stakeholders. Who’re they?
What are their hidden motivations? Who’re they reporting in to? Or what’s an important final result for them for this explicit undertaking? It is also essential so that you can know earlier than you create a report or any kind of information story what success appears to be like like for that individual individual and how one can greatest bridge the hole between the present efficiency and their superb efficiency by the story that you simply inform.
So now that we’ve got all of those totally different abilities that it is advisable know, we will see the three essential elements of a profitable information story, and that’s to begin with the info. We all know that the info must be correct. It must be dependable. So what’s most necessary, when you find yourself your information, is to know particularly whether or not there may be any sampling utilized, whether or not it is a dependable information supply, whether or not the info is full.
So these are the form of questions that you ought to be asking your self every time you’re analyzing the info that you simply wish to current to your shopper. The second essential part and what we’ve got realized is that it is advisable have a really compelling narrative. So the narrative is a mixture between your skill to bridge the gaps between the info and the tasks that you simply’re engaged on.
But it surely’s additionally a mixture between who you’re reporting in to. So relying on who your viewers is, your narrative is probably going going to alter despite the fact that you’re reporting the identical information. The third part is definitely the visuals that you will use. Each time you’re selecting visuals, at all times take into consideration whether or not that is essentially the most acceptable strategy to current the data that you need to that individual viewers, as a result of despite the fact that generally you would possibly desire to current to the viewers in a sure means, like to illustrate, for example, a dashboard, which may not be the perfect vessel for this information and for this narrative for the actual individual.
Each time you’re selecting your visuals, it is essential not solely to consider the platform the place you’re storing your reviews and the way you’re constructing them, but it surely’s additionally necessary to consider whether or not you’re selecting essentially the most acceptable graphs and charts in an effort to assist the viewers perceive shortly what the specified actions after the report must be.
So every time you’re fascinated with your information, your narrative, and your visuals, click on on the hyperlink throughout the weblog publish as a result of there can be a guidelines there that can assist you by totally different questions on the best way to greatest arrange these three components once you’re constructing your information story. With all of that, we’ve got lined a lesson for information storytelling elements and abilities that it is advisable succeed.
Additional assets:
Youtube Video: Telling Stories with Data – What is Data Storytelling and How to Implement as a Consultant
Part 1: Beginner’s Guide to Data Storytelling for Digital Marketing Consultants and Analysts – Components, abilities, and elements of action-provoking information tales.
Part 2: Six Practical Ways to Implement Data Storytelling in Your Consulting – Actionable examples, suggestions, and greatest practices for implementing information storytelling.