Not knowing the real meaning and use for the term “Infographics,” and being a public relations practitioner actively involved with social media, I decided that it was time to do some digging.
Infographics are a visual communications device – colorful charts and illustrations – that display complex data in a way to enhance viewers’ ease of comprehension. They are used for the following reasons:
- To communicate a message
- To present data or information in a way that is compact and easy to comprehend
- To analyze data in order to discover cause-and-effect relationships
- To periodically monitor the route of certain parameters
Map, Create and Sell It
Once your message and data points have been developed and an infographic has been created, maximizing its exposure is the key to securing the best ROI. Here are a few ideas on how to do so:
- Involve credible sources for the data and encourage those sources to help promote the resulting graphic.
- Schedule tweets of specific data points mentioned in the infographic over a predetermined period of time with a link back to the full infographic. For example, five data points or statistics would equate to five tweets. A similar approach can work with Facebook.
- Highlight the infographic in an email promotion to your in-house prospect and/or customer list. Include a segment of the graphic and a link for readers to see the full image on your website or blog.
- Infographics have an intrinsic viral potential. Create a blog post for the infographic and support promotion through the blog's social channels including Facebook, Twitter, email, social news and bookmarking sites.
- If your infographic is relevant and useful, it can be used within your PR efforts or as a part of a marketing campaign.
What infographics have guided you in your marketing communications? How have you used them? Tweet me your infographic @LarissaBlick.