When it comes to social media and search engine optimization (SEO), text is still running the show and probably always will.
However, with the emergence of Pinterest, the idea of using infographics as an alternative window to your content and road into your site is making more and more sense. A social sharing site like Pinterest thrives off of well-made infographics, and in a lot of niches, a picture will reach more people than an article.
Infographics have been able to successfully bridge the gap between a well-crafted blog post and aesthetically pleasing imagery, summing up a large amount of information into an easy-to-read post.
Now, content creators have a real shot at getting the attention of people with shorter attention spans who might not want to read their entire article. Those who are developing the content can say, "Here -- we've got the full version and the reader's digest version with lots of pictures and charts; you pick."
So, how can it work for a website and actually generate revenue? An infographic will do a lot of the work for you, but here's a quick guide for creating and implementing them:
1. Creating and Summarising: An infographic does need to be visually pleasing and easy to look at, which means whoever is creating it should have an artistic side and at least somewhat of a natural ability in that area.
While it does need to be artistic, it should more importantly be informative. The challenge is then to combine the following elements:
This usually means that your infographic will be summarizing a large amount of information that is available (or that you've provided) elsewhere.
2. Including inroads: Once you've created something that looks great and is packed with valuable, easy-to-read information, you've got to credit yourself for it and provide inroads that lead back to your website and/or social media accounts.
While you can have a short credit at the bottom of the post, you also have the opportunity to add your website's logo and URL at the top of the infographic as well. If you find room for a Twitter and Pinterest URL, that's even better.
3. Marketing: Now that your graphic is ready to do its damage, you've got to get it circulating as much as you can. You can use your own social media accounts; however, you should also consider sending it out to other website admins or people in your own niche or industry, and ask them if they would be willing to share it on their websites and social media accounts as well.
Unlike an article, you won't be penalised by Google for having the same image on multiple sites, so your infographic has a real opportunity to act as a road leading to the rest of your content.
4. Planning ahead: Use analytics to track the success of your infographic and see where it performs the best and where it doesn't do quite as well. Then, use that information to decide where to focus your energy the next time around.
A successful infographic marketing campaign shouldn't inundate people; instead, it should turn out maybe one graphic every two months, particularly in conjunction with highly informative or long-winded blog posts. In the end, make sure to go for quality instead of quantity.
An infographic can give strong visual representation to your brand and your business, while providing an easily shared and distributed door to your website, thereby increasing your online presence.
While it shouldn't replace well-written content, it can definitely give your marketing campaign another dimension and appeal that simply isn't there with the written word.
Marcela De Vivois a freelance writer and online marketing professional in the Los Angeles area. As a business owner herself and writer for HostPapa, she has had the opportunity to share her knowledge of SEO, and she certainly agrees that creating and sharing infographics can help boost a business' online visibility.
