Infographics Can Entertain, Inform & Go Viral

In a time crunch and needing to come up with an interesting blog post while juggling several other deadlines, I gave some thought (at least 47 minutes) to the subject of time management. This is sometimes the bane of my personal existence, spawning many nightmares over the years. What could be a better topic for a pre-Halloween blog? I’ll tell you what’s better: ZOMBIE INVASION!

 

Tips for Effective Infographics

Perhaps I spent to much time watching AMC’s “The Walking Dead” series last weekend, or just got a bit off course due to procrastination (often mentioned within infographics about time management). However, I find this colorful item to be an excellent example of what any successful infographic should contain.

According to Wired magazine and Adrienne So, your infographic should convey a large chunk of information at a glance. Instead of “a dense numbers-heavy paragraph,” treat your website visitors or blog subscribers to delicious bite-sized morsels. The data you share could actually be full of numbers and percentages, but they are presented in such a way that no one realizes they are learning something. The same effect can work with your marketing message or product promotions, if you package them in a fun infographic format.

Stew Langille, CEO of Visual.ly says the best infographics are entertaining, but not just cartoons stuck randomly next to numbers or text. He recommends that you approach writing infographic content like a journalist who provides credible sources for the information, rather than unnamed blogs or Wikipedia. He also urges using quality-minded professional graphic designers, telling a story with your graphics, making them shareable and mobile, and, finally, providing an embed code that allows others to post your infographic with a link back to your site.

If you want to catch your customer’s eye online, don’t procrastinate! Use that extra hour of daylight savings time to pair content with graphics and see how fast you information can infect the web.

As you gather your favorite Venn diagrams, pie charts and periodic tables, I hope you enjoy the infographic  above. It’s never too early to zombie-proof your world.