May.
23
2012
It’s All About Positioning The Content
Stats are facts. They don’t lie. They don’t tell the truth. They are just facts.
The way stats are positioned is what matters.
All of these statements can be considered true:
- Google’s Penguin update decimates SMB sites
- Google’s Penguin update moves well-deserving sites to the top of the rankings
- John Hamilton is Batting a whopping 0.379
- The top hitter, Josh Hamilton, managed to fail only 62.1% of the time
- Josh Hamilton fails to get a hit 62% of the time he’s at the plate
- Our Redesign Only Increased Conversions 3%
- The 39 hour redesign project only increased conversions by a measly 3%
- Our Redesign Lead to an amazing 250% Conversion Lift
- Our Redesign Increased Profits a stunning $47,000
- 1.2 Billion Dollars Later, SpaceX Manages to launch a single rocket
- SpaceX Grows Closer to Launching the First Commercial Space Flight
- SpaceX Launches a Rocket! Moving closer to commercial space flights
- 74.9% of 9th Graders will Graduate in 4 years
- More than 25% of the Incoming High School Freshman Class will Not Graduate
- US Education in Decline. Graduation Rate Keeps Dropping
- New US Education Policies Working? Almost Three Quarters Of all Freshman will Graduate
The stats are true. The interpretation of stats is all about the surrounding content and the article’s position on the data.
It is not only about the interpretation of the surrounding content – but watching out for characteristics. It is the character of the data that will tell you the most, yet it is the hardest thing to see.
All data is history. Examining the raw data, means that you are always walking backwards.
Of on the other hand, what if you look not at the data but at the trails that data leaves. Find those patterns, and those patterns will be much the same from year to year. Within limits, it will be the same next year. That is how to use data properly. That way you can use data to chart your future as well as your past.
Interestingly coincidental 🙂
I’ve recently been reading ‘Propaganda’ by Edward Bernays and this post is very much like the first chapter. It’s always good to bypass the spin and look at the data.