How to use infographics to increase engagement

Infographics are fantastic tools to showcase data, but also to make it accessible to all audiences regardless of their background and previous knowledge.

In addition, by organizing information and making it into an infographic, you can:

• Increase engagement and interest in social media channels: Visual information is more eye-catching than plain text (and great infographics are one of the most shared formats out there!)

• Showcase your own knowledge and understanding: Great infographics require that we take raw data, understand it and communicate it visually to our audiences. By re-packaging original data and transforming it into comprehensible visual stories, we are also showing our skills at highlighting and capturing key takeaways in a sea of information.

• Recycle content and save time: Infographics are a great opportunity to recycle and relaunch reports, studies and other compendiums of information. By presenting the information in a new way, you might attract new audiences and keep your current ones interested in what you have to say.

Infographics are data made accessible. Ideally, anyone should be able to capture the key messages in them at a glance. Used by media, private and public institutions alike, they have the power to spread information and awareness and to make even the most trivial information more interesting and engaging.

Do's and Don'ts - a practical guide

Less is more (especially in infographics). Make your audience's job easier by providing ONLY relevant information as simply as possible. If you have a lot to say, spread and divide your information across different infographics and make a series of infographics around the same topic.

When creating an infographic, think of the story you want to tell: Take your audience step by step throughout it by using hierarchy, font sizing and even numbers and arrows to make the information flow visually. Dropping a bunch of information without clear structures might confuse your audience and making your point of view unclear.

In line with the previous point, your job when creating an infographic is not to simply show data in its original form. On the contrary: the whole point of creating data visualization and infographics is to strip the data of unnecessary and irrelevant details and to make sense of it. Infographics are communication, and as such, they require planning, strategizing and refining in order to get your message across.

As you can see, infographics are a powerful tool and one that most organizations can use with great results. They work well when communicating stats and trends, but also when comparing two topics or industries. In our next article, we will go through some practical ideas and we will provide infographic examples to get you inspired - stay tuned!.