Are you one of the 65% of the world’s population that are “visual learners” Often it can feel like there is too much information on the web and too little time to take it all in. That’s where the infographic comes in.
In this digital age we have short attention spans (stay with me people! There will be some links to some shiny pictures coming up). According to the Social Times our attention span is down from 12 minutes to 5 minutes which still to be me seems quite long. We have to have short attention spans; after all we have information and marketing messages assaulting our senses all through our waking hours (guesstimates range from 5,000 to 20,000 messages a day). Our brain would be overwhelmed if we tried to absorb everything that is trying to grab our attention. We make an evaluation of a website and how interesting its content is within seconds of the page loading.
Infographics suck you in
- They are a great way of communicating lots of information in a creative and visually stimulating way. Infographics can make dull web pages immediately captivating and are a fantastic way to present content in a colorful digestible format. They can be used to illustrate anything from political points to explaining what exactly was going on in the movie Inception.
- Visual information can be absorbed significantly faster than verbal or written communication. Our brain can attach meanings to pictures far faster than it can read and process written words. “Every single day we create with 2.5 billion gigabytesof data from sensors, mobile devices, online transactions, and social networks”. That’s a heck of a lot of data swirling around online.
- Infographics aren’t just pretty things to look at (although that is an undeniable appeal) they are an excellent way to keep your audience engaged and focused on your page and your content. The purpose of the infographic is usually to assist in the marketing of your content and to push traffic towards your site.
- Once you’ve created your infographic masterpiece don’t stop there. If you already have a big audience, well done, if not please remember you are going to have to promote your content. Great content does not promote itself! You need to ensure you are engaging in promotional activities to get your message heard. Here are some tips to get the most from your infographics.
Share, Share, Share.
With so many Social media platforms available it is now easier than ever to get attractive visually appealing content out there. Get sharing on Facebook, tweeting on Twitter and pinning on Pinterest to pull in more traffic to your site. Your infographic is the bait to lure people to your site.
Capture the Current Trends
Pick up on what’s trending at the moment and design an infographic around something topical. Make sure that it holds some relevance towards your own content though. Always ask yourself who your desired audience is when designing an infographic. Try to connect it to a recent event or to a subject that is affecting your target audience right now.
Simplicity
The whole point of an infographic is to make a visual representation of information that is easy to understand and absorb. They are designed to stand alone they should not require a text paragraph to explain what is going on.
Presentation
Do not spend your time putting a carefully crafted infographic together with fascinating information only to lose views and traffic due to an unattractive layout. Make sure you use bright colors and bold designs to make your infographic eye catching and if you’re really struggling for ideas find some inspiration as there is plenty available.
Conclusion
Get creative and get started. Many websites offer free tools and templates to get you started. If you need additional help with your marketing speak to the experts. Social media marketers have a whole range of strategies to help you get heard.
By Sam Shedden
