Free sesh on AI for data analysis, pretty awful train data & the comms mistakes liberals make
Plus... Netflix Excels with new data drop and the (free) Orlo Tour hits Brizzle
HNY!
Am I still allowed to say that in February? How are the resolutions or changes going?
I decided it was time to embrace my fear (and loathing?) of gyms.
I’m doing okay, and enjoying the data side of it - a fancy machine measures my weight, fat and muscle every few weeks, and then I sit down with my trainer and we turn that into insight.
In my case, the main action to build muscle is to eat more! I can get on board with that.
This brings me to an interesting discussion with Behaviour Change comms experts about whether Dry January is actually effective in bringing about long term change in terms of people’s alcohol habits.
Doctor Lucy Mersh, resident psychologist at the Behaviour Change Network, draws on the evidence base and tells us: “Dry January does a great job raising awareness about excessive drinking, but temporary abstinence doesn’t always translate into long-term behaviour change”.
Lucy’s point reminds us that whatever your analytics might say about imitial campaign interaction and the ‘feel’ about how successful something has been, you need to be brave enough to go properly into the data and available evidence to find out if your work is having any real impact.
I spoke to the Behaviour Change Network’s Dominic Ridley-Moy just before Xmas about opportunities to use AI for data insights at all stages of Behaviour Change campaigns. You can rewatch it here.
NEW WEBINAR: How to use hallucinating AI for data analysis (13 and 27 Feb)
[Sign up here].
AI has the big potential to be used by comms pros to crunch data.
But this is not without risk to the organisation - and I say this based on my own experiments, where hallucination in results remains a big issue. The mistakes can be very subtle, and you don't know where they might occur.
So… how can we use AI productively but safely and confidently in comms in 2025? My February webinars will cover:
Use cases
Tools to consider
Pitfalls with current Large Language Models (LLMs)
Demo of mistakes it makes
Top tips for using GenAI in your work
Q&A
Human data literacy still matters for communicators, even in the age of powerful LLMs that can crunch 100,000 rows of data in seconds - have a look at this LinkedIn video post to see an example of why!
I’m running two one-hour lunchtime sessions to help you get to grips with this; Thursday 13 and Thursday 27 February. Sign up here.
Pretty awful: crap trains turned into dataviz
Deeper exploration of turning data into visuals is on my agenda for 2025. And after what can only be described as a sh*tshow over the festive period, what better subject to embrace than Northern Trains’ diabolical service data?
I found a pretty mind-blowing 115% increase in cancellations for South Manchester during the final month of 2024: 769 cancellations compared to 356 in the same period in 2023.
I’ve given my dataviz to my local community, and it’s being used to draw the attention of policy makers to the poor state of play with our trains.
Hopefully it helps make the case for action, combined with people’s powerful personal stories of late nursery pick-ups, missed medical appointments and time wasted.
What do you think of communicating headline messages using the waffle chart format?
Netflix Excels again with big data drop
Following on from the previous success of its ‘big spreadsheet drop’ in Dec 2023 (see previous edition of Data Communications Chronicles), Netflix recently released its latest super-sized spreadsheet of what people are watching.
Covering the first six months of 2024, it paints a really comprehensive picture of what people chose to watch on Netflix. The super-spreadsheet covers more than 16,000 titles, and more than 94 billion hours viewed.
What does this mean for comms pros?
The clever thing about this release is the sheer number of angles that can be derived from a fairly simple spreadsheet. Netflix knows that journalists are becoming increasingly data-savvy, and this approach appears to tap into that.
Variety ran a piece on it about the ‘British invasion in the first six months of the year’, whole a media consultant has used it to create a Netflix Kids Content Performance Report, pulling out useful content in this genre, from the main data sheet.
It certainly gives food for thought on what valuable and interesting data your organisation might be sitting on that could be released; to demonstrate success, enhance reputation or build engaging narratives.
To do this well your team will need a mix of data curiosity, comfort and literacy, critical thinking, strong relationships internally and externally, coupled with creative thinking.
Need support for your comms team to embrace data in 2025? Have a data-informed communications project in mind but need some expertise to get it moving? Drop me a line on alex@whetstonecomms.com.
Ex-Blair guru takes aim at ‘abstract’ liberal comms habits
There is a very interesting article from Peter Hyman in the The New European (£££) about how liberals can respond to the rise of populism. I thoroughly recommend it as a good long(ish) read.
Hyman lists what he calls 7 Deadly Sins that liberals commit, one of them being that the language of the liberal is too often abstract.
He writes: "𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐬; 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐨𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞𝐬. 𝐖𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐬, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐀 𝐩𝐥𝐮𝐬 𝐁 𝐫𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐂".
What does this mean for comms pros?
In the work myself and Darren Caveney do in the public sector, we use data techniques to assess your text content across social media and web sites.
On social media, we have sometimes seen 50+ word, multi-clause sentences that are ranked at graduate level and above. No-one sets out to write like this, I’m sure - but it is happening.
I’ve wondered if this is because those doing the communicating have a higher level of education, but have strayed into writing for their peers, rather than their audience?
Knowing that you and/or your team are writing in a way that isn’t accessible to everyone - and seeing contextual examples of what this actually looks like on your content streams - is a strong first step to ensuring your messaging lands widely and well in the future.
Drop me a line if you want to know more about how I can use data to help you to make your content more accessible.
Gert lush! On Tour again in Brizzle
I’m delighted to be on the road again in 2025 with the Orlo Tour, helping public sector comms pros understand the opportunities for using data and insight.
First off, I’m heading to Bristol for a free event on 20 March - you can sign up here.
These events give you the chance to build your network and meet brilliant minds from across the sector. Prepare to be inspired, challenged - and learn how to build genuine engagement and trust.
I hope to see some of you there - attendees from local gov, NHS and emergency services are already down to come along.
Data Communications Chronicles is written by Alex Waddington, founder of Whetstone Communications, which helps public sector and not for profit comms teams do more - and deliver more - using data.