Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content

59Ground Content in Data

Data puts your content in context and gives you credibility. Ground your content in facts: data, research, fact-checking, and curating. Your ideas and opinions and anecdotes might be part of that story—or they might not be, depending on what you are trying to convey. But the more credible content is rooted in something real, not just your own beliefs.

Said another way: data before declaration. If you are going to tell me what you think, give me a solid reason why you think it. What's been said before? What are people on social media saying about it? What evidence supports your point of view or influences your counterpoint?

If research is part of your story, cite reliable sources. Who or what, exactly, is a reliable source will vary based on your industry—in other words, it's a bit of a judgment call. But here are some good examples:

• A major media outlet (the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the like; such organizations are generally trustworthy because they usually have internal fact-checkers checking their facts)
• Government agencies
• Research reports
• Well-known experts
• Authoritative nongovernmental organizations (Pew Research, for one)

Three ...