Curation Revolution

What Is The Value Of Data Visualization?
I appreciate the information about where infographics work, great to know Twitter and LINKEDIN love 'em, Facebook not so much, but this is NOT how I would create ROI. 

An Infographic's ROI is more than the immediate surface acceptance it creates. All websites communicate in OVERT and COVERT ways. Infographics help send an overt message of being easy to understand and so easy to work with. 

Infographics also work on visitor and potential customer psychology, the covert layer. Covert communications include:

* Contemporary risk takers. 
* Intelligent, smart.

* Fast moving. 
* Careful to create mutual benefit.

* Expert.
* Good teachers.
* Listen well (because you knew what to create a graphic about).

* Cool, fun and engaging.

Can the infographic you create undo these inherit values? Sure, the devil is always in the details, but the covert communication created by infographics and the visual presentation of data is an undeniable trend. 

Some say we are at the end of the trend; the end is near for infographics. All things form a power distribution. 5% or less of all infographics created will get 90% of the views because they are perfectly timed, more visually engaging or promoted by the right people. 

The measure of a marketing tactic is what if your result lands squarely in the middle of the bell curve of acceptance. What if you only achieve an average response, can the effort pay for itself. The way this infographic suggests to gauge ROI based on metrics might make the tactic fall short or say you can't afford average, you must be GREAT. 

Who doesn't know they must be GREAT to achieve an audience these days? There are two ways to greatness: win the lottery or listen, learn, test and improve. I come from the school of test, tweak and test again and am confident any infographic P&L properly weighted AT THIS TIME would show positive ROI. 

"At this time" is large and in charge in the previous sentence because the market is alive and may change. We marketers tend to FLOOD winners and so drown the tactic. Could happen, but don't think we are there yet AND costs of infographic creation are coming down so continuing to work on visual support for your marketing is a good investment.  

http://www.rohitbhargava.com/2013/01/10-brilliant-marketing-lessons-from-the-best-of-ces-2013.html

When I wrote about the content linked above about how to disrupt I promised to share examples. Here are 5 examples of disruption in practice:

1. Disrupt At Trade Shows Such As CES
http://www.rohitbhargava.com/2013/01/10-brilliant-marketing-lessons-from-the-best-of-ces-2013.html

That is an excellent article about how cool products in poorly designed booths were ignored at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Trade Shows are DARWINIAN. Seth Godin had a great explanation for why you buy more booth space than you can afford - because of how it LOOKS.

Design is only HALF the disruption. The other half comes from having the courage to spend money without being able to fully know if there is ROI. One thing the people in empty booths know is it is better to be busy.

2. Whirlpool Teaches To Disrupt
In the same article is a great example of an old brand that gets it. Whirlpool didn't just recreate their graphics they explained their process. Read the great book HOW: Why How You Do Anything Means Everything by Dov Seidman.

Dov explains that in a fast, flat, connected time the only unique thing your company or brand truly "owns" is your business processes. Teaching is an exciting way to disrupt, but never ONLY teach. Make sure you are listening too (see #3).

3. Listen To Disrupt Scoop.it Learns FAST
I love Scoop.it. Two upgrades ago Scoop.it removed some beloved and ingenious features. I led a little revolt complaining about not being included. First victory was how well Guillaume and his team listened and how quickly they pivoted returning our lost features. All was good and then it was time for the next big change.

This time Scoop.it released their changes to a handful of advocates and loyal Scoop.it users. The Scoop.it team listened so well they changed on the fly AND changed their roll out process. Well done Scoop.it and that are listening to disrupt.

4. Gold Miners Use UGC & Wisdom of Crowds To Disrupt

Canada's GoldCorp did the unthinkable in the gold mining business when they made normally secret data with the world. The result? GoldCorp is now Canada's largest mining company after crowd wisdom tuned their data to find more than $3B in "new gold" with very low exploration costs. More than simply applying new eyes GoldCorp's contest prompted creation of new visualizations and content (User Generated Content) showing where and why there was gold in previously un-mined belts.

5. NewsJack The Media To Disrupt

Read David Meerman Scott's New Rules of Marketing and PR and NewsJacking to learn how to play your marketing on top of trends brewing in the media. My favorite example is the casino that garnered millions in free PR when they banned bad girl Lindsay Lohan from their casino.

Curious about my previous article on how to develop disruptive business processes? Learn more: http://scenttrail.blogspot.com/2013/01/5-ways-to-disrupt-your-internet.html