Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Three months ago, Fast Company magazine asked its readers to share their guidelines on social media. It compiled the best into this infographic.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a really easy guide to social media conduct?

I’m not talking about a detailed roadmap, but a list of principles to remind you (and your staff) how to behave on sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and so on.

Thankfully, Fast Company magazine compiled a close approximation to this list, when in August it asked readers to share their best practices for social media. The publication compiled 36 of them into this infographic...

Part of my presentation on media relations at #PRSAICON focuses on the news release paradox. It's seemingly got its own gravitational pull as one of the most mentioned tools in our industry. Yet it's little more than a simple format that hasn't changed much -- in more than a century.

Thousands of releases are distributed daily and we can't even agree upon what to call the format. And while releases haven't changed much, the use case for the news release has expanded beyond the media. It's just one of several changes I'll review before detailing how to turn this change into an opportunity.

Much Ado About Nothing?
Various, conflicting observations like the ones above have been compiled into the infographic below. Take a look, enjoy it and pass it around....

[Very interesting infographic on the news release, it's history and new presentation trends. Kevin Dugan's presentation to PRSA. ~ Jeff]

B2B marketing is becoming more competitive. Creating infographics is a great way to attract prospects to your website and build your inbound marketing program.

One of the great things about B2B marketing is there is endless potential for generating interesting content for your audience. Marketers have to constantly be aware of what the next big thing is and if that big thing is worth our time and money.

I think we can all agree that tools to help create cool and creative content is worth looking at, especially if that content format has proven successful time and time again.

Ok, Rookie, what’s your point? Infographics is that new, interesting style to create and display your content. Information graphic or infographics are graphic, visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These particular graphics are popular because they present complex information quickly and clearly. And given that 65% of the population are visual learners (including myself), infographics can easily be successful.

Here’s 6 reasons B2B marketers should use infographics:

1. People connect with visuals.

Visual consumption makes learning easier. In fact, the brain processes visual information 60,000x faster than text. Visuals allow quick interpretation. This would be great way for a client to convey a complex topic.

2. Easily shared.

Downloading and uploading is easier with a graphic than a blog post or white paper. Infographics are also highly favored in social media because of the ease of sharing between users and networks, causing it to go viral faster.

3. Attracts more attention.

Let’s face it, pictures are more appealing than something written. It’s content eye candy! The nature of an infographic is to instantly grab your attention with bold colors and creative imagery. These elements arouse the senses and encourage further reading of the text.

4. Great for link building.

Infographics are great ways to build links. Someone could publish your content and you could ask for a link back to your site with a particular keyword. Google will index your website higher and it will gain importance to search engines.

5. Shows an expert knowledge of a subject.

By creating content dedicated to a particular topic, you show the world you high level of understanding of that topic. You could be viewed as an expert in that topic.

6. Builds awareness and traffic.

Every marketer knows that content creation is important to build hype around your company. The better the content, the more likely it will be shared to others. Infographics are trendy and if done right, it can get people coming back for more!

We saw a lot of trends in infographics - common aesthetics and typography. But creating an effective infographic is much more difficult than just arranging a few charts around a cartoon character.

An infographic detailing the pros and cons of choosing work as a freelancer over a traditional job.

The main reason many freelancers gave for their job happiness is the salary, which is not surprising since freelancers are expecting a 55% increase in pay this year. That pay bump combined with the freedom of their schedule and other benefits adds up to a pretty sweet-sounding job.

On the other hand, many freelancers also find it difficult to stay relevant, and it’s not like they’re totally off the hook on their schedule; they still have the same grueling deadlines as folks with traditional writing occupations. Thanks to these factors, writers who are in their first year of freelance work are often more likely to accept traditional employment versus people who have been freelancing for many years....

In my forthcoming book, “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit,” co-authored with KD Paine, my favorite chapter was about the sense-making process of measurement – called “Measurement and the Aha! Moment—Using your data to tell stories, make decisions, and change the world.”

There’s where I discovered a new passion – data visualization techniques for sense-making. The process of translating your spreadsheet into an infographic can help lead you to insights and the product, the infographic itself, is a good way to report your results as this example of a quarterly dashboard report from DoSomething.Org illustrates. It can also make using data fun!...

[Entertaining content marketing post from Beth Kanter - JD]

Information can be useful--and even beautiful--but only when it’s presented well. In an age of information overload, any guidance through the clutter comes as a welcome relief. That’s one reason for the recent popularity of information graphics.

Infographics are visual designs that help to explain complicated data in a simple way (mental-health emergencies at Burning Man, anyone?). But how are they created? What can we learn from the designer’s process? And what does an infographic designer know about storks delivering babies?...

[Useful checklist for creating infographics ~ Jeff]

HOOT! That's owlspeak for BOO! In honor of this spooky Halloween I found a nifty little infographic on the Ghost Owl, better known as the Snowy Owl in the States (and Hedwig for those attending Hogwarts)

[Most of all, a great design! Jeff].

To paraphrase from The Social Network a bit here, a million (words) isn't cool, you know what's cool? An infographic.

To paraphrase from The Social Network a bit here, a million (words) isn’t cool, you know what’s cool? An infographic. Nowadays, people don’t have the time or energy to sit and plow through pages or screens of text; they want to be able to ingest information as quickly and easily as possible. Thankfully, with the recent rise of infographics (information graphics), what used to require an avalanche of stats or analyses to dissect, can now be interpreted and relayed into an easy-to-read, fun, and visually appealing schematic – an excellent content marketing concept! Indeed, you can use infographics to spruce up your different online assets (and again, avoid the monotony of text-only posts), such as your website, blog, email/newsletter, or your social network pages (Facebook, Pinterest…).

Listed below are 5 free (!) apps that allow you to start easily infographic-ing...

[Cool, free infographic tools ~ Jeff]

Infographic on various statistics from the James Bond movie franchise.

[Wow! 50 years and still entertaining and fun! ~ Jeff]

[Nothing like a fresh bit of social media & marketing sarcasm - well done! ~ Jeff]

Mickey Mouse hasn’t just survived for 80 years, he has thrived. The History of Mickey...

[Just a little weekend fun!  - Jeff]

Branding isn't easy. If it was, every business in the world would have a successful ad campaign and company.