Winning the Internet with Infographics

For those of you not in the know, an infographic is one of those long pictures you find on the internet that are stuffed full of interesting facts, figures and statistics. Basically it is a brilliant way to get valuable information across in an aesthetically appealing way and when done right they can be excellent for link bait (people linking to your infographic).

There are many different ways that you can go about creating an awesome infographic, but there are some things you can do to ensure that yours really takes off. Here are a couple of tips I’ve put together to help you make a viral infographic:

Get accurate, unique data

Has the topic you’re planning on covering been done before? If the answer is yes, then is there an infographic of it? If no, then you’re onto a winner but if there is then look at how well it has been done. Sometimes infographics don’t take off simply because the presentation and display has been done poorly.

By collaborating a wealth of unique, interesting and accurate data you will be able to provide information that is useful to a range of people. Make sure you check and double check your numbers, as the last thing you want is to provide incorrect information. Do your best to ensure that this data is presented in an interesting and informative way that people will enjoy reading.

Plan, plan, plan

This is arguably the most important stage of an infographic as planning is essential to success. You need to know what kind of story you are going to tell with the information and create a layout showing which order you are going to put the data in.

Other important things you want to do at this stage include thinking of colour schemes and the types of images you wish to use. Make sure that it is all relevant and consistent otherwise you may end up with a mixed-matched graphic that will be hard to understand and look cluttered.

Getting the design right

One of the biggest contributing factors in going viral is to make sure that it is beautifully designed. Keeping it simple is essential for the quick digestion of information, after all nobody wants to spend all afternoon reading an infographic! Try to keep everything as short and concise as possible to allow for skim reading, but make sure that all the information you need is available – achieving this is often the hardest part of creating an infographic.

Don’t forget to share

Even if you have the best infographic in the world, if you don’t shout about it then how do you expect people to find it? Make sure that you’re sharing via your social media and that it is simple for others to do so – quick share buttons are great here. Sending out press releases is also a fantastic way to gain quality backlinks and raise greater awareness of the infographic.

Don’t forget to write up a brief summary of what is contained in the infographic so that search engines are able to find it. Google isn’t able to read pictures (yet) so this is the only way you can be sure that you are found in organic searches. Try to make it as interesting as possible and ensure that it reads well, this will not only help it to be found but can be a great back-up in the case of technical malfunctions.

Breaking it down

To recap, if you want your infographic to take off you need to:

•    Collect unique, interesting data
•    Double check the figures
•    Present it in an interesting way
•    Get the design and layout right
•    Plan everything in advance
•    Keep it simple
•    Double check it looks the way you want it to
•    Share it
•    Summarise it in around 250 words

And that’s all there is to it! As long as your content is good, the stats are unique and this area hasn’t been pulverised by countless infographics done by many different companies. If you’re looking for more help to get your infographic off the ground then get in touch with us today!