Six months ago, the headline of this post would likely have meant nothing to you. In July 2011, social network-cum-bookmark site Pinterest accounted for just 0.17% of referral traffic online, a mere blip compared to behemoths like Facebook and Twitter.
That's all changed. By the first week of February, CNN had already declared Pinterest '2012's hottest website'.Pinterest's referral traffic jumped to 3.6%, leap-frogging YouTube and Google+ to put it just behind Facebook and Twitter. Its users grew 400 percent between September and December.
Of course, writing out all of those statistics can be tedious, and thanks to Pinterest, there's a better way to share data like this. With Pinterest's emphasis on a single eye-catching image (without dimension constraints!) to inspire a click and referral, the importance of infographics in a marketing scheme has never been greater.
Let's start with a Mashable.com graphic that illustrates the points I've been making.
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Released on January 29, some of its data has already been eclipsed by new studies. Still, notice how a series of otherwise tiresome statistics are consolidated into an easily digestible collection of pictures and graphs. In less than ten seconds, we understand the overall theme of the graphic -- Pinterest is more than just another platform; it's a game-changer that's out-performing major players like Google. If we choose to dig deeper, the information is there, but we get the gist immediately.
Wow! The infographic makes a strong point. It's effective and newsworthy enough that I clicked 'Pin It' and added the image to my Pinterest board, so that my friends who follow me can experience and learn as well.
That's exactly what Mashable.com hopes people will do. The most effective marketing in today's economy is word-of-mouth. People trust their 'friends,' even if they only know each other online. Posting a link to Pinterest means you're recommending it, and that means more traffic to the site.
So how can you design an infographic that will inspire people to 'Pin It' and grow traffic to your site from around the web?
1. Keep it Simple (At least at the top)
"In the first phase of a design project, I ask clients to define what their key message is," says Randy Krum, president of InfoNewt.com, a company that designs infographics. "If somebody looks at the visual for ten seconds, they need to walk away with the key message."
Check out this infographic about pancreatic cancer survival rates (http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2011/11/14/pancreatic-cancer-survival-rates-arent-improving.html).
Yikes – that's scary. If we simply read these statistics, we'd likely shrug them off. But in this format, it's pressing. It's educational (did you know where your pancreas was?) and it's relevant. I want my friends and family to know this -- maybe it will save their life. Most importantly, I only need ten seconds to process the information. I pin it, the anti-cancer nonprofit chalks up a small victory, and countless more people learn something.
Photographer Miguel Yatco created it, without including any of his own photographs in the simple infographic. I'm impressed with his design style, so after pinning the visual I continue on to his 'Living in the Stills' Tumblr site to check out his work.
There's no telling how many hits (and commissions and paid jobs) Yatco has gotten thanks to this simple graphic. He's made sure to include his contact info on the graphic, so that once the visual spreads it always has a homing device.
"You don't want to just put an infographic up on your site and then hope people come," says InfoNewt's Krum. "Release it into the wild."
You won't have to go pitching it around, begging for attention. If you do it right, the pinners will do all the marketing for you.
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Check out this infographic about pancreatic cancer survival rates (http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2011/11/14/pancreatic-cancer-survival-rates-arent-improving.html).
Yikes – that's scary. If we simply read these statistics, we'd likely shrug them off. But in this format, it's pressing. It's educational (did you know where your pancreas was?) and it's relevant. I want my friends and family to know this -- maybe it will save their life. Most importantly, I only need ten seconds to process the information. I pin it, the anti-cancer nonprofit chalks up a small victory, and countless more people learn something.
2. Find an Excuse to Be Creative
These days, even casual music fans are probably aware of Austin, Texas' South by Southwest (SXSW) festival and its ability to rocket bands into the spotlight. But did you know its history stretches back to 1986? Writing out a year-by-year breakdown of the fest's growth would be tiresome and boring. Even though it's text heavy, this cool infographic about SXSW's exponential rise in relevance intrigues me. I took the time to follow it year by year, making a mental commitment to make it down to Texas in the next few years. I'll want my friends to join me, so of course, I pin it.
3. Tag it, Pin it, Share it (But make sure it has tracking devices)
This 'Manual Photography Cheat Sheet' is a favorite infographic of mine. It's simple, attractive (I love the aged color look to it), and highly useful for the average hobby photographer looking to switch to manual settings.
Photographer Miguel Yatco created it, without including any of his own photographs in the simple infographic. I'm impressed with his design style, so after pinning the visual I continue on to his 'Living in the Stills' Tumblr site to check out his work.
There's no telling how many hits (and commissions and paid jobs) Yatco has gotten thanks to this simple graphic. He's made sure to include his contact info on the graphic, so that once the visual spreads it always has a homing device.
"You don't want to just put an infographic up on your site and then hope people come," says InfoNewt's Krum. "Release it into the wild."
You won't have to go pitching it around, begging for attention. If you do it right, the pinners will do all the marketing for you.
For all the latest updates from E-junkie.info, you can subscribe to our RSS feed. You can also choose to receive updates via email.
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