You may be (and probably are) an incredible content writer. Your word choices are beautiful and the words on the paper flow easily and melodically. However, if you haven't fact checked your content before you post it, you may run into difficulties. That can all be avoided if you take the time to make sure that everything that you are saying is accurate.
Exactly what is fact checking and why is it important?
Fact checking is one of the many safety nets that must be in place. After you have written a piece of content, you will need to ensure that the facts that you are presenting are accurate. This is very important because your readers are trusting that you are telling them the truth. If you don't fact check, you may or may not be presenting them with the facts.
That is definitely not something that you want to mess around with. If you don't bother to fact check your content and it turns out that there are inaccuracies, you will be jeopardizing your professional credibility.
Of course, you must understand that protecting your reputation means that you are protecting your brand. It is important to understand that fact checking content applies to original as well as curated content.
There is just as much potential for curated content to contain errors as the content that you have written.
There are certain important concepts that you should keep in mind when it comes to fact checking.
Your approach to fact checking: You can either fact check the content yourself or you can get someone else to fact check your content. It is not necessarily a bad idea to fact check your own content. You might have heard it said that it is not a good idea to edit the content that you have written but it is not the same thing when it comes to fact checking. Another thing to consider when you are faced with the decision to either fact check your content or get someone else to do it is the volume of the content that you are putting out. If you are committed to a regular, consistent schedule for posting content, that may affect your decision. If that is the case, it means that you are working with relatively strict deadlines, which can affect who ends up doing the fact checking. Of course, then there is your budget to worry about. Any way you look at it, you will end up paying a price in some way. If it isn't money, it is time and effort. It all depends on what is more precious to you.
Make sure that you trust your research: The research that you conduct, which is the basis for your writing must be trustworthy to you. If that material is flimsy or fluffy, you should probably stay away from it. It is important to consider that a piece of content is only as good as the material upon which it is based. If that material won't hold up, neither will your content and if your content won't hold up, neither will your reputation. Remember that you must protect your reputation at all costs.
Use a checklist: A checklist is very important and it is a useful tool in many cases. You may want to use a checklist when you write so that you remember to include everything that you wish to be included. When it comes to fact checking, a checklist is an equally useful tool. If you have a checklist (which actually serves as guidelines) that you know you can count on, you can never go wrong.
Ensure the reliability of the claims that you are making: Your content may contain claims, based on what you believe to be true. However, you need to have the proof of those claims to support those claims. Again, this goes back to your reputation. If you can't prove the claims, don't use them. Someone will always want to challenge every word that you write. You must be able to defend each and every word. You will notice that after that has occurred a few times, people will start to trust that you know what you are talking about. That means that you will have successfully positioned yourself as a subject matter expert.
Conclusion
With regard to your content, your ultimate goal is to be perceived by your online connections as the expert in that particular niche. With that said, your content must be as perfect as possible. You will want to engage the other people and there must not be any holes (errors) in your content. Once the other people realize that you are sharing top-shelf content to them, they will want to engage them and your relationship can begin.
Accuracy in content says that you care enough about your readers (and you and your business) to ensure that you are presenting information that is reliable and credible. The ability to fact check is easier than ever with all of the information that is at your fingertips because of the Internet. However, in some respects, it makes the necessity of fact checking even more important.
Carolyn T. Cohn is the Chief Editor of CompuKol Communications. Mrs. Cohn has a wealth of experience in managing people and projects. She has run several editorial departments for various companies. Mrs. Cohn has 25 years of editorial experience and her expertise covers a wide range of media, such as online editing, editing books, journal articles, abstracts, and promotional and educational materials. Throughout her career, Mrs. Cohn has established and maintained strong relationships with professionals from a wide range of companies. The principle that governs her work is that all words need to be edited.
Mrs. Cohn earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo.
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