With a PhD in statistical astrophysics, David Corliss leads a data science team at Fiat Chrysler. He serves on the steering committee for the Conference on Statistical Practice and is the founder of Peace-Work, a volunteer cooperative of statisticians and data scientists providing analytic support for charitable groups and applying statistical methods in issue-driven advocacy.
Last month, we had a chance to talk about the roles video on social media can provide for communicating our work in Data for Good to a wide audience—increasing awareness about organizations, teams, and projects; sharing best practices; and helping connect people with projects. This second article in the two-part series offers a process for developing D4G content. I offer design tips, technical details for creating video, and ideas for using social media resources to promote your work.
The first step in resource development is design, and that begins with careful consideration of the audience you want to reach. Applying principles of human-centered design to understand the people you want to reach and how they access information will go a long way toward creating resources that are easy to use, answer the most important questions people have, and ultimately drive more use of the resources you create by providing useful content.
The theme for JSM this year is Everyone Counts: Data for the Public Good. Is there a Data for Good event you would like included in the program? Event submissions will be accepted through April 2.
Also, with spring on its way, now is a great time to use statistical science to support your local community garden. There are so many wonderful organizations across the country doing so much good in their local communities. Like most small organizations, community gardens often have raw data to support analysis but not the scientific resources to make the best use of it. Using statistics to foster data-driven program development and decision-making is a great way to make an impact on your community.
One common mistake is trying to one piece serve all needs for all people. Instead, start by carefully considering the specific people you want to reach and how they prefer to access information. Websites, pages, blogs, and videos support different needs. Multiple messages and audiences demand different content. The best social media resources are tailored to deliver a specific message to a specific group of people determined in advance, leveraging the type of content they prefer to use.
The most-consumed social media content are music videos—so much so that it creates in peoples’ minds many of the ground rules that apply to other kinds of content. Mass consumption to a general audience, often used to increase public awareness, can be delivered in small packages—a short read such as posts on a social media site or 3–5 minutes of video. Long posts don’t get read much. Long videos are best for detailed instructions on a technical topic. Long reads? Unfortunately, these are little used. Where a large volume of technical material is needed, break it up into small, easy-to-consume sections that stand on their own. Many .pdf files describing R packages do a good job of this. Find the most helpful ones and develop a similar writing style.
While video content is consumed the most, it’s possible to get started without a lot of expensive equipment. Creating a slide show video is a great way to start. Begin with a slide show deck—just a few slides that can be covered in a few minutes. These can introduce your organization or be used as a conversation starter on a particular subject. For example, my own first video used a couple of fact sheets with summary statistics on immigration turned into seven slides, plus a title slide and a thank you at the end. It runs just under four minutes. Find some good videos and study their technical and design choices. Rehearse presenting the deck as if to a group of people.
Best practices for presenting at a conference often apply. Carefully consider your target audience. Many people find it best to present from summary notes—not going without any text but not a full script, either—to provide more natural-sounding content. Present once or twice to a real person to get their comments.
Once the video is rehearsed, use your computer to record the sound. Work in a quiet, well-lit, and relaxed location where you will not be interrupted. Find the recording feature in the software used to make the slides, start recording, and just go through the slide deck as you rehearsed it. When complete, save the video and sound together as an .mp4 file. Play back the recording, take notes, and record the video again. Often, just a couple of iterations are needed to get a basic video with good quality.
Next, email the video to friends to get their thoughts, or even just post the video and only tell a couple of people to get their feedback. With this input, make a final video and upload it.
YouTube accepts videos for free up to a certain file size—try to set the image detail, resolution, and sound quality to end up comfortably under this limit. YouTube is more than a destination; it’s one of the best places to get technical help for uploading videos.
Creating and sharing social media content is an important way to support Data for Good activities and reach a wider audience. The cost to start is low and a little care and patience go a long way toward producing the content people want most.
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