Online sharing is constantly evolving and changing, and the more you can do to make sure your blog is keeping up with the trends, the better. More and more of us are making the transition to a life lived plugged into all the requisite social media outlets, and if you want to be running a blog that’s firing on all eight cylinders and really reaching the audience that you hope to be reaching, then it’s a smart idea to know the ways that your audience wants to be reached and communicated with.
Knowing how the Internet wants to share and what it wants to share is something of an art, as well as a science — the most popular content is constantly being created and recreated, but trends always show up and take hold for a while, to the point where they often become something of an industry standard, at least for the time being.
The infographic is one of the most popular ways to share online right now, combining easy-to-grasp imagery with timely and relevant information. We’ll talk about how to design the most effective infographics so you can make sure your blog’s publishing the most shareable content on the web.
#1. Be Timely
#1. Be Timely
One of the most important aspect of any good infographic is that it’s very much a product of the moment. Content on the web is more or less here today, gone tomorrow, so you’ve got to make sure that the subject matter you pick for your infographic is going to be something about which people are truly interested, otherwise nobody’s going to share.
#2. Do Your Research
#2. Do Your Research
No one is interested in information that you can come up with right off the top of your head. Any good infographic is going to require that you do some research and come up with some information that’s going to be of significant value or entertainment to your audience.
Unless you have something original to say, nobody will be interested in hearing it at all.
#3. Tell a Story
#3. Tell a Story
Data is only that until you can package it in a way that causes your audience to truly connect with it. Find the story that’s embedded within your data, as this is an idea at the heart of just about any marketing campaign.
Tell your audience a story so they have something onto which they can truly latch on.
#4. Solve Problems
#4. Solve Problems
Come up with that narrative by figuring out which problem you’re going to solve via the information you’ve got on your infographic. How are you going to help the people who read it? Not only will this inform the content, but in terms of design, it’ll also inform the way your infographic is laid out — by identifying your audience, you can select a visual language that will appeal to them best.
#5. Refine Your Visual Approach
#5. Refine Your Visual Approach
This concept actually applies to just about every aspect of your infographic — make sure all of them agree in terms of the visual approach you take. Any infographics agency or graphic design firm will tell you that the best design is “invisible” — but it should be very intentionally chosen by you.
Hopefully you’re able to come up with a design that blends with and supports your subject matter seamlessly.