Web infographics and the untraceable trail of facts
- Haroon Riaz
- Jun 5, 2018
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 12
Infographics are almost taken for granted among digital marketers for persuading target audiences about a marketing trend. In fact, it is hard to think of selling a fact to even our fellow marketers. Now, of course, there is a lot of fact to the information each infographic is displaying, it is recycled by one infographic after the other so blindly, that the real source of the information is lost in between.
Unfortunately, even institutional blogs and reputable marketers would end up citing these "facts" from other infographics with loose citations, and would make you wonder where the fact actually came from. The endless circular referencing often brings you right back to where you started looking.
Another trend in digital marketing is to replicate the information on the hundreds of marketing blogs, and looking for the right source simply based on fact can be like finding a needle in a haystack.
I know the world has caught up a little late on the notion that we live in an era of fake news due to recent political developments. Still, I wish marketers all around were a little more careful about the verification of their sources. And the responsibility to cite the original source must lie with every reporter.
The following is an example that does no harm and offers a common-sense observation with a numerical value to it that makes it more believable, but leaves us hanging as far as its original source is concerned.
"57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site."
Brad Smith of Haley Marketing cites the fact to SocPub. The problem is that SocPub is attributing the entire infographic to Formstack. Now Formstack has the following sources attributed to the facts displayed on a very beautifully designed infographic.
litmus and mailchimp "the science of email clicks: the impact of responsive design & inbox testing" (december 2014)
adobe "predictions 2015: most brands will underinvest in mobile"
You can follow these links to check the information yourself, though you cannot always blame the creator of an infographic when a cited source link dies. However, you can blame them for not citing good enough sources. And you know when you see one. Pew, Gallup, Nielsen, Statista to name a few. And even CNN, unless you are a Donald Trump fan. I am even having a hard time including HubSpot in this list.
Not to point out this single case, but pretty much every other infographic you find around the web suffers from the circular citation syndrome. And there are also no reference numbers to refer to to find out which information came from which source. Probably, because it sounds like a design inconvenience. The first website you find when you Google this fact also cites SocPub as the source.
This sort of circular referencing is just laziness on the part of the marketing researchers educating their audiences about these trends. I am pretty sure a lot of people have pointed out this problem as well. For example, this infographic guide from Johns Hopkins University actually puts the citation of sources at the top of the list.
However, it is just important to point this out from the perspective of a marketing researcher who has to deal with the clutter of useless links occupying search engine pages just on the basis of the fact you are searching for.
Eventually, through business2community, I finally figured out the second chapter of the Google Mobile Playbook to be the source, which further led to the following white paper, which is not available online anymore and redirects to the website of Dynatrace.
While a fact may be compelling for your pitch presentation or your video ad, you gotta ask yourself: Are you confident about its authenticity?
It is important to keep in mind that information is only as good as its source.
This is probably why readers must think twice before basing their marketing decisions on the information displayed on an infographic.
About the Author:
Haroon Riaz is a documentary filmmaker, a communications consultant, and an advertising creative director. Natari (2021) is his debut feature as a director. Haroon is also the screenwriter of multiple award-winning feature documentary Indus Blues (2018).
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