There is a trend underway in the digital / social media + sports landscape, and we’ve seen it even more since football has started… data visualization. Infographics are being used to replace game notes, celebrate wins, compare matchups, highlight student-athlete stats, etc.
I love this trend toward data visualization. It makes sense. Here are just a few reasons why:
- People are visual by nature. Sixty five percent of us are visual learners, according to the Social Science Research Network.
- They help increase traffic to your website. Publishers who use infographics grow in traffic an average of 12% more than those who don’t (source here).
- Infographics are easier to consume. It takes us less than 1/10 of a second to get a sense of a visual scene (Merieb, E. N. & Hoehn, K. Human Anatomy & Physiology).
- Still not convinced? This should do the trick.
If you decide infographics should be a part of your content plan– or they already are– here are five things you need to consider to make them bigger, better and more meaningful:
1. Make sure you have the basics down.
As with any piece of content, infographics need to have a purpose. Content without purpose is like driving without a destination (it’s pointless). If you plan to create an infographic, make sure you have a firm understanding of the objectives, audience, goals, etc. If you need help setting content marketing goals, this can help.
2. Try to find a common theme / story.
The best infographics I’ve seen use data to tell a story. It’s not enough to simply take data and turn it into a pretty picture. Take the time to figure out how you can weave all the data together to tell a story. Storytelling is a powerful mechanism that increases virality, so in the long run, the extra time spent number crunching and analyzing will be well worth it.
3. Create an amplification plan.
You can’t expect to post your infographic on the web and have it take off on it’s own; it needs a push or two or more. Make sure you come up with a plan for amplification before your infographic goes live. Figure out how you can slice and dice your infographic into smaller pieces of content for your social media platforms. Find the most tweet-able nuggets to share with a link to the full piece. Know which social media platforms it will do best on. Remember, really great content is worth sharing more than once.
4. Differentiate the content / theme from week-to-week.
If you plan to create an infographic every week (like game notes for football), make sure you have a content plan to differentiate the infographics. If your infographics look the same every week, you’ll eventually lose your audience. You don’t have to share every great nugget all at once. Pace yourself.
5. Measure your success.
One of the best things about the social and digital space is the instant access we have to feedback and data. Make sure you take a look at the data available to understand what worked with the infographic and what didn’t. Page views, reach, shares, engagement and sentiment are just a few ways you can measure success depending on your goals.
Now it’s your turn… have you used infographics before? If so, what were your keys to success?
