The one content best practice no one is talking about

Improving trustworthiness in the age of misinformation

Many best practices for content strategy and content marketing stem from the journalism and publishing industries. Managing editors, editorial calendars, and hooks and all existed at Condé Nast and Hearst before they were co-opted by CMOs and marketing teams around the world. We’re fortunate to have inherited these frameworks that have been refined over decades, yet proven flexible enough for today’s rapid-fire digital publishing.

But there’s one best practice that has lagged behind the others, and it’s critical, especially in the age of AI and rapidly-spreading misinformation: fact-checking. One of the goals of content marketing is to build trust between you and your audience. It's important to hold up your end of the bargain by providing content that is not only relevant and engaging, but also accurate. Ultimately, accuracy can help your content rise above the digital fray by being consistently reliable — and shareable.

While getting something “perfect” can be the enemy of getting anything out there at all, digital content strategists can fact-check their writing for accuracy and credibility using several key strategies. Here are a few easy steps you can take to keep your nose clean:

Start with credible sources

In the era of influencers, bloggers, and user-generated content, it can be hard to decipher reliable information. Credible sources are generally defined as being free of bias, based on proven evidence, and written by subject matter experts.

Examples of credible sources include recognized news organizations, academic journals, official reports, and industry publications. Cross-referencing ensures that facts are consistent and well-supported. Websites like Snopes, FactCheck.org, and PolitiFact specialize in verifying claims, and browser extensions like NewsGuard or Media Bias/Fact Check can provide quick insights into the reliability and bias of sources.

Document in real-time

If you’re planning content that involves interviews or live events, ensure your team is capturing what’s happening in a way that can be referenced later. Note-taking is great, and audio or video recordings are even better. Just don’t rely on recall alone. Misremembering something can get you the wrong kind of attention faster than you can hit “publish.”

Include fresh eyes in your editorial process

No matter how lean your content team is, content creation should always involve at least two people. Having a seasoned editor on staff is best to ensure the ideas, organization, and grammar are all sound. But really any set of fresh eyes can help spot the bare minimum of errors and half-baked ideas. And if you’re dealing with a more technical topic, make sure you have a subject matter expert review for accuracy.

Check your numbers — and your interpretation

Our increasing access to big data and cutting-edge data visualization techniques is pushing content in new and exciting directions. But that also means we all have an increased responsibility to think critically about the numbers, and what they really mean. Writers must interpret data within the right context to avoid misleading conclusions. For example, presenting a statistic without its time frame or sample size can distort its meaning. For more on this topic, check out this TED Talk by data analyst Susan Etlinger.

Update content regularly

Content published online can become outdated quickly, so digital strategists should regularly audit and update high-traffic or evergreen content to ensure it reflects current, accurate information. Check if any statistics or research findings have changed, or if new trends have made old claims irrelevant. For example, this very article you are reading right now was originally published in 2015 and most recently updated in 2024. It just goes to show you — fact-checking is an essential part of the writer's toolkit that stands the test of time.