Why relying on infographics is bad for your trustworthiness
Would you take advice about social media from someone who has half of the facts they’re citing incorrect?
This all started when LinkedIn recommended an article on Fast Company: 10 Surprising Social Media Statistics That Will Make You Rethink Your Social Strategy
I was just about to share it — after all, I trust Fast Company, and I really like Buffer as a tool — when I thought “hm, let me check one of the these facts”.
That fact turned out to be incorrect, so I decided to fact check the whole article. The result put a big dent in my trust for the parties involved.
Fact 1: The fastest growing demographic on Twitter is the 55–64 year age bracket.
This fact had no source, fact check shows it’s correct.
Googling it led to a GlobalWebIndex study that verified the fact.
Fact 2: 189 Million of Facebook’s users are “mobile only”
This fact had no source, fact check shows it’s incorrect.
Googling it led to a blog post on AllFacebook from May 2013. However, the post on Fast Company appeared on November 18, and Tech Crunch noted on October 30 that Facebook’s “mobile only” users now are 254 million.
Fact 3: Youtube reaches more U.S. adults aged 18–34 than any cable network
This fact had a source, fact check shows it’s correct.
The source cited Youtube’s official blog without specifying the exact post. Searching Youtube’s blog turned out that the numbers are from Nielsen.
Fact 4: Every second two new members join LinkedIn
This fact had no source, fact check shows it’s correct.
Googling it led to a one year old blog post on Business Insider, citing numbers from LinkedIn’s third quarter earnings call 2012. Looking at LinkedIn’s third quarter earnings call 2013 confirmed the number.
Fact 5: Social Media has overtaken porn as the no. 1 activity on the web
This fact had a source, fact check shows it’s incorrect.
The source is a Reuter’s article from 2008. However, that article talks about what we search for and not about internet activities. Turning to Pew Internet we can see that at least in the US, the number 1 internet activity is “use a search engine”, followed by e-mail. Social networking sites come on 12th place.
Fact 6: LinkedIn has a lower percentage of active users than Pinterest, Google+, Twitter and Facebook
This fact had a source, fact check shows it’s incorrect.
The source is a GlobalWebIndex study via Jeffbullas.com. However, LinkedIn reports 259 million monthly active users (MAUs), and Twitter’s IPO revealed they have 232 million MAUs.
Fact 7: 93% of marketers use social media for business
This fact had a source, fact check shows it’s incorrect.
The source is a Youtube video in a blog post. At the end, there’s a source reference with a URL that yields a 404. Search on that site shows that they use figures from a Social Media Examiner report from 2011. A more recent report from the same source shows the figure is 97%.
Fact 8: 25% of smartphone owners ages 18–44 say they can’t recall the last time their smartphone wasn’t next to them
This fact had a source, fact check shows it’s correct.
Fact 9: Even though 62% of marketers blog or plan to blog in 2013, only 9% of US marketing companies employ a full time blogger
This fact had a source, fact check shows it’s correct.
Fact 10: 25% of Facebook users don’t bother with privacy settings
This fact had a source, fact check shows that it’s incorrect.
The fact checking here illustrates the issue with infographics. Fast Company’s post linked to an infographic at Velocity Digital. That infographic cited a Huffington Post blog post, which in turn cited an (you guessed it) infographic at All Twitter which cited an article from 2012 at PR Daily. This article simply cites “Economist, Social Times, CNN” as sources.
Further research gave only one study that has numbers about privacy settings, from Consumer Reports. That study says “almost 13 million users said they had never set, or didn’t know about, Facebook’s privacy tools.” Considering that Facebook had 186 million monthly active users in North America in Q2 2012, it would seem that 7% is a more accurate figure. For 2012.
5 out of 10 facts incorrect. I’m sure that neither party here did it on purpuose, that this is a case of neglect rather than malice. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s very hard to trust your advice if you have your facts wrong.
The key lessons
Fact check, fact check, fact check
When you work with content marketing or content curating, you must learn to fact check and be critical of sources. Failing that means that you’re gambling your credibility, a vital asset in your role as content creator and curator.
Statistics are like dairy
You wouldn’t sell milk that someone else gave you if it was four months old. Treat statistics the same way. When you republish content from others, like Fast Company did here, make sure that they’ve checked the facts are checked and statistics are fresh.
Photo Credit: futureatlas.com
This was originally posted on my (now defunct) blog on November 20, 2013.
