Benjamin Franklin once observed, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” As an inbound marketer, it’s my responsibility to make sure my audience receives information in a way that they can use it, especially when the subject matter is complicated or highly technical. One surefire way to make sure your information is relatable is to compare or contrast it with a more familiar subject. I’ve heard it said that learning takes place the moment you link a new concept with an existing competency. By backing up your opinions with historical facts or interesting quotes, it makes the subject easier to comprehend. These touches also add richness to the narrative and provide an opinion other than the author’s point of view. Here are some great sources for finding facts, quotes, or visual infographics to enhance your writing.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a crowd-sourced modern encyclopedia that cover every topic you could imagine. The platform formally launched in January of 2001, and it rapidly grew to a grand total of over 37 million articles in over 250 different languages. Wikipedia is your go-to source for gathering data or the comprehensive history of any subject. Their site was once criticized for being too open and allowing errors to appear, so the site moderators instilled review practices and added requirements for citations to improve the integrity of the data.
Google Scholar
According to Internet Live Stats, “Google now processes over 40,000 search queries every second on average, which translates to over 3.5 billion searches per day.” But many users are not aware of the specialty site Google created to support the academic community, aptly named Google Scholar. This specialty site allows users to specifically search for data and research studies, and tracks the number of times the data was cited to demonstrate credibility. Filtering the results by time range ensures you always have the latest research available.
BrainyQuote
There are several sites that track famous or impactful quotes, but BrainyQuote is my favorite because it’s designed so well. The quotes are arranged on visual tiles that allow for quick scanning and comparisons. Their database is comprehensive and the search features let users browse by people, subjects, and even partial quotes. Several times I’ve set out to find a familiar quote and located one that I liked better. Sign up for the quote of the day to get funny, inspirational, or artistic quotes sent right to your phone.
Nielsen Company
Since the 1950’s, Nielsen set the standard in the marketing research field. Their original research method asked families to keep a written diary of their household’s TV watching patterns four time per year, which because known in the media industry as “sweeps” weeks. As technology improved, Nielsen was able to offer automatic monitoring tools and cover a wider range of research categories. Nielsen is still considered the industry standard in consumer insights.