What You Need to Know About Being a Data-Driven Communicator

Public relations is seen as a primarily creative field. The amount of times I’ve heard the joke “I don’t do numbers, that’s why I’m in PR” is more than I’d care to admit. While it is true that communications does not require quite the math aptitude necessary in other careers, the demand for communicators with a data-driven mindset is rapidly increasing.

We’ve all heard about the “Big Data Revolution” that is impacting industries all around the globe. Communications is no exception to the industries impacted by this constant need for more information. As a public relations major who also took on a concentration in statistics, this transition is nothing short of exciting. What better way to start your career than in an emerging area of expertise with enormous room to build upon?

I am currently working on the Owned Media team in the communications department for IBM. With the support from my manager and surrounding team, I have built a niche that focuses on collecting data from which I derive insights and recommendations for our communications efforts. This data is also used by the Communications Enablement team to evaluate the success of the holistic communication team’s efforts, which ultimately inform decisions on next steps for the future.

There are many advantages to specializing in data and insights as a communicator. It has the potential to make you more marketable as a communicator, as there is high demand and low supply for that skillset. Analyzing metrics is also the perfect way to learn about how to master the algorithm on various platforms. That information is critical when trying to create content that resonates the best with your audience in order to generate the most value for your brand.

Understanding the Business is Essential

As someone who is very new to the field, I am the first to acknowledge how difficult it is to get lost in the details of the metrics and lose sight of the big picture. What is any business’s primary objective? To earn a profit.

Granted, there are many factors that go into a business’s profitability. Sales are the most direct form of revenue, but another component of it is appealing to the business’s stakeholders - whether that be clients, employees, investors, the media, the government, or other influential groups. That’s where communications comes in.

What are the business’s objectives? How does it make money? What is important to its stakeholders? These are all questions you need to ask as a communications professional. Once you find the answers, you can align your communications strategy in a way that creates impactful outcomes for the business.

Sunita Menon, IBM’s former Chief of Staff to the CCO, was the person who taught me this. She has a special saying that “'you may not be in the business of data, but data is in your business.” I recommend you take a look at her blog post about how to intentionally make a data-powered business impact.

The first thing Sunita recommends a communications professional does is to learn about the business - the purpose of the organization, value proposition, priorities, product/services, clients, markets, talent, financials, what kind of business problems the company solves and how, etc. A simple step would be to start with reading the company’s annual report for having the business context but continue to learn and follow business updates. I also watched IBM’s Q4 Sales Kickoff, which provided critical information about how IBM differentiates itself among competitors.

Focus on Data in a Business Context to Generate Real Results for Your Company

This next point directly relates to understanding the business. Once you understand the business, you can then view data through the lens of a business context, rather than solely a communications context.

I mentioned previously that a company’s relationship with its stakeholders can influence its profitability. So what needs to be measured to determine the status of these relationships? Reputation.

Reputation can be gauged using a combination of various metrics. IBM measures it using volume, reach, engagement, and favorability metrics. The number of likes you receive on your brand’s Twitter post is not going to give you much information about how stakeholders perceive your brand. You need to think bigger picture - which messages are resonating well and why? Are these messages related to the business objectives? What is most influential in shaping a business’s reputation? You need to challenge yourself to ask the big business questions. Doing this will shape the way you analyze the data, which will help you make more impactful decisions.

It is also important to learn how communications connects to different sides of the business. Something that helped shape my understanding was listening to Kelly Jessop, our VP of Client Centricity, who told the communications department what she’s been hearing from clients and how communications ties into the sales pipeline.

She mentioned that 87% of executives made a purchase decision as a result of consuming thought leadership. Kelly also stated that business analysts have a strong influence over business decisions of clients, which pinpoints a stakeholder group we need to focus on through our channels. This discussion gave important information about how to leverage our communications channels to appeal to prospective and future clients.

Set Efficient Processes for Gathering Data and Enforce Them

Data-driven decisions can not be made without first collecting the data. However, gathering data is not always the most enjoyable or easy process. Dedicating the time to make it as easy as possible for your team to collect the necessary information is the first step to ensure that the work actually gets done.

However, even with these processes in place, it doesn’t mean people will always follow them. We’ve seen at IBM that some people prefer to stick to their original methods for collecting data. However, this can be more time-consuming and even more expensive, especially when this work gets delegated to external agencies. This is why it is important to enforce best practices for data collection. Doing so will give time back to the team to focus on other projects, and make it easier to derive important insights from that data.

Report Your Findings in the Simplest Way Possible

Now that you’ve set up simple processes for data collection, gathered the data, analyzed it through a business lens, and obtained thought-provoking insights, you now need to report your findings so people will actually want to read and implement them.

This means that you should NOT put a million numbers on a slide and expect people to understand what they mean. People respond much better to simple graphics/visuals and words that tell them exactly what they need to know.

When my team builds metrics reports, we typically create a section for the most important insights followed by actionable recommendations. For reports that contain a lot of information, we create summary slides that use graphics and bullet points with key takeaways. An appendix section is also added at the end for those who would like to sift through the more detailed metrics. Benchmarks are also very useful in providing a point of comparison so it is easy to tell what performed well, and what didn’t.

I also wanted to call out the importance of making your recommendations “actionable.” Again, you want to make it as easy as possible for people to actually execute your recommendations. Don’t just say something like, “this post would have performed better if the graphic were more engaging.” It would provide more value to go deeper with a recommendation like, “With 65% of people being visual learners, a video explaining this concept to viewers would have been a more compelling way to communicate this information to our audience.” Little things like this truly make all the difference.

Note: I wanted to give a special thanks to Sunita Menon, Matt Marcus, Ben Lambrecht, and Kirsten Berg for teaching me so much during my time at IBM so far. I appreciate all the time you have invested to help me become a better communications professional.