MORE THAN WORDS: Or, Infographics, as explained by early 1990s Grammy award winners Extreme and Bonnie Raitt

CLINT SCHAFF #raganvisual @clintschaff HELLO & WELCOME

ABOUT CLINT • US GM, Dare Digital • Adjunct Professor, USC Annenberg • Entrepreneur and startup advisor • In-house and agency experience • Board member, PRSA-LA, Social Media Club LA, LAGRANT Foundation

MEH. A LIL’ BORING. LEARN FROM JACK & ERICA

Visualresume.co Pinterest.com m

BEFORE WE START…

WHAT’S AN INFOGRAPHIC? InfographicsArchive.com

HotButterStudios.com

INFOGRAPHICS ARE...

“Statistical graphics of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision, and efficiency”

Mr. Edward R. Tufte "The Leonardo Da Vinci of Data" The New York Times WHY INFOGRAPHICS MATTER Saying I love you Is not the words I want to hear from you It's not that I want you Not to say, but if you only knew How easy it would be to show me how you feel More than words is all you have to do to make it real Then you wouldn't have to say that you love me Cos I'd already know

Extreme, “More Than Words” OUR BRAIN PROCESS IMAGES BEST

Source: Mark Smiciklas

INFOGRAPHICS THROUGHOUT HISTORY

Source: Mark Smiciklas

INFOGRAPHICS THROUGHOUT HISTORY INFOGRAPHICS THROUGHOUT HISTORY Posterous.DontMindRick.com Searchenginejournal.com

SIX BENEFITS

1. More eye-catching than printed words

2. Easier to scan and remember

3. Extremely shareable for use around the web.

4. Reinforce a brand and build awareness

5. Drive people to your site through sharing and search engines

6. Engage and connect in a fun way WHEN TO VISUALIZE IT Source: Visual.ly

SETTING GOALS P-O-S-T • P - People • O - Objectives • S - Strategies • T – Technologies (and Tactics)

Source: “Groundswell” book by Charlene Li

COMMON OBJECTIVES

• Thought leadership – “To create infographics that share important industry ideas and concepts and highlight our strategic thinking” • Awareness – “To create infographics that are ‘sharable’ and create awareness of our brand” • Traffic – “To create infographics that drive traffic to related pages on our company website” • Communication – “To create infographics that make it easier for employees to understand company information” • Entertainment – “To create infographics that entertain our customers and showcase our corporate culture and personality” HSUS Society Infographic To Celebrate Reaching 1 Million Fans Charity Water infographic to market a fundraising opportunity Amnesty International infographic to advocate on an issue

Cisco infographic to share research report findings

Supplemental insurance group infographic to explain why we haven’t cured cancer.

DoSomething infographic to community its quarterly metrics

Infographic to capture the history of space missions to Mars Zach Martinet infographic to propose to his girlfriend Stacy via infographic!

LET’S GIVE ‘EM SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT

Source: Oli Gardner, Unbounce.com

CREATE CONTENT PEOPLE WANT Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about (Somethin' to talk about) A little mystery to figure out (Somethin' to talk about) Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about How about love?

Bonnie Raitt, “Something to Talk About” DATA, DATA, DATA

Research, realness, relevance, remarkability

This is a good example of the bottom of an infographic that shows where the data came from. MAKE SOMETHING REMARKABLE

– Pie charts – Line & bar graphs – Big stats with % next to them – Tweetable factoids containing key stats and quotes – Topicality – Originality

Source: Lifestylebyps.com

NAIL THE DESIGN & DATA VIZ

– Visual approach – Visual hook – Color scheme / palette – Wireframes – Design around data – Testing

Source: ComicalConcept.com BE MEMORABLE

• Memorability alone might enhance an infographic's effectiveness • Visualizations with more than six colors were much more memorable than those with only a few colors • Fndings refute common perception that a busy graphic is a bad one • Bar graphs and charts are easy to forget • Icons, images, and human- recognizable objects will instantly increase memorability SHOW, DON’T TELL

• Which is better • Why? PULL THEM IN

• Short and sweet • Get personal • Interesting adjectives • Negative wording • Numbers • Personalize with a little extra GIVE IT A VIRAL PUSH

• Submit an SEO optimized press release • Create a social media release • Create social media sharing plan – Ex. Provide “Tweetables” • Submit infographic to directories – Visual.ly – Daily Infographic – Cool Infographics – Infographics Archive – Infographic Journal – Infographics Showcase – Visual Loop – Flickr Source: QuickSprout.com, Neil Patel – Pinterest – Tumblr • Start manual outreach

WHAT’S NEXT? VIDEO INFOGRAPHICS 1-2-3 STEPS TO STRUCTURING YOUR INFOGRAPHIC STORY 1 – The Title

Grab people’s attention

Source: Piktograph 2- THE BODY

A) Typical B) Singular

Source: Piktograph 2- THE BODY

C) Comparison D) Process

Source: Piktograph 3 - CONCLUSION

• End story with impact – lingering thoughts, call to action, etc. • What story are you telling? #FAIL EXAMPLES

MEASURING ROI TANGIBLE METRICS Awareness • Inbound links • Page views • Searches • SEO ranking

Engagement • Average time on page • Comments • Social sharing

Source: Mark Smiciklas

INTANGIBLE METRICS External • Building relationships • Credibility • Experience with your brand

Internal • Communication • Corporate pride • Decision-making • Learning

Source: Mark Smiciklas

WRAPPING UP LAST WORDS • There are no strict guidelines • There is no step-by-step blueprint to guarantee success • Avoid common, silly mistakes. Be disciplined. And don’t take any short cuts. • Generate great ideas. Create wonderful designs. And write well. • Most importantly, focus on your target audience. Delight them. Help them. Show your passion and you’ll find an audience.

THANK YOU! Let’s keep the convo going!

CLINT SCHAFF #raganvisual @clintschaff [email protected] [email protected] APPENDIX INFOGRAPHIC CHECKLIST

 Share interesting statistics about your  Develop an eye-catching design industry, use humor to entertain, or  Limit to two font types, and emphasize provide in-depth buying advice; Don’t readability “sell”  Ensure images, colors and graphs  Be original all match overall tone  Remember your target audience  Write compelling copy for your  Focus on an overarching idea you infographic can explain in one sentence  Craft a headline that grabs attention  Provide in-depth information  Use simple language and tighten your  Don’t be a blabbermouth text  Surprise people by avoiding  Double check your facts and use obvious info and viewing from an accurate information unusual angle  Take a stand with specific, concrete  Have an outreach plan details  Make it look great with irresistable  Match tone of voice to topic design  Use sub headlines to draw readers  Limit infographic to 8,000 pixels, and to other parts of infographic compress to under 1.5MB. 100+ RESOURCES

Data Visualization Tools and Software Data Visualization Tools and Software Data Sources Visual.ly – Awesome community for creating and sharing infographics. Piktochart – Transforms your information into memorable presentations. DataMarket – Find and understand data. Information Aesthetics – The relationship between design and information. Infogr.am – Create interactive charts and infographics. The Data Hub – The easy way to get, use and share data. Gephi – Like Photoshop for data. Graph visualization and manipulation software. Knoema – Your personal knowledge highway. Visualizing.org – Making sense of complex issues through data and design. Tableau Public – Free data visualization software. WorldMap – Explore, visualize and publish geographic information. Visual Complexity - A resource for the visualization of complex networks. Free Vector Infographic Kit – Vector infographic elements from MediaLoot. Get the Data – Ask and answer data questions. Daily Infographic – A new infographic every day. easel.ly – Create infographics online. Influence Explorer – Provides overviews of political influence data for politicians. GOOD Infographics – GOOD Magazine’s excellent infographics section. Weave – Web-based analysis and visualization environment. US Census Bureau – Measures America (people, places, economy). Information Is Beautiful – Ideas, issues, knowledge, data – visualized. iCharts – Charts made easy. datacatalogs.org – A comprehensive list of open data catalogs. ChartsBin – A web-based data visualization tool. Freebase – An entity graph of people, places and things from Google. Infographic of the Day – Fast Company’s excellent and long running series. GeoCommons – See your data on a map. World Bank Data – The world at a glance (key development indicators). FlowingData – Exploring how designers, scientists visualize data. VIDI – A suite of powerful Drupal visualization modules. Data360 – Telling compelling and data-driven stories. Datastore / Datablog – Two great data journalism sites from the Guardian. Prefuse – Information visualization software. Number Of – You ask, they count. Infographics Archive – A visual library offering infographics. StatSilk – Desktop and online software for mapping and visualization. Gallup – Public opinion polls. Visual Loop – There’s an infographic for it… even if it didn’t happen! Gliffy – Online diagram and flowchart software. EveryBlock – Uncovers info on large cities contained in government databases. Hohli – Online charts builder. Daytum – Helps you collect, organize and communicate your everyday data. Infographr – All about infographics. Many Eyes – Lets you upload data and create visualizations. Google Public Data – Filter and animate data sets from around the world. Newsilike – An infographics blog from India. Google Chart Tools – Display live data on your site. Gapminder – Displays time series of development statistics for all countries. Video Infographics – Motion infographics that explain, educate or inform. Munterbund – Graphical visualization of text similarities in essays. Datavisualization.ch – A news and knowledge resource for data visualization. Great Infographic Studios and Designers VisualJournalism – 80% of the news in infographics. Column Five – Creating visual content that brings people to your site. JavaScript / Flash Infographic Tools FFunction – Data visualization consulting. KeyLines – A JavaScript toolkit for visualizing networks. Eagereyes – Reflections on the visual communication of data. Interactive Things – A user experience and data visualization studio. d3.js – Free JavaScript library for manipulating documents based on data. Amazing Infographics – Cool information graphics. Periscopic – An agency whose tagline is “do good with data”. InfoVis Toolkit – A JavaScript tool for creating interactive data visualizations. Submit Infographics – Share and rate infographics. Fathom – Helps clients understand and express complex data. Flare – Makes it easy to create interactive data visualizations (ActionScript). The Infographics Showcase – Collecting infographics. JESS3 – Creative agency specializing in data visualization. JS Charts – Free JavaScript charts. I Love Charts – A Tumblr blog about charts. Visual Evolution – London-based infographic design. FusionCharts – JavaScript (HTML5) and Flash charts. Lemon.ly – Create understanding through visuals. amCharts – JavaScript and HTML charts. Well Formed Data – An infographics blog by a freelance data visualizer. Prime Infographics – Creates custom infographics for businesses. Highcharts – Interactive JavaScript charts. Best Infographics – Pointing you toward great infographics. Infographic List – For those who love infographics. Other / Miscellaneous / Overflow Infographic Articles and Tutorials Wolfram CDF – Create “infoapps” using always-current data. How to Create Outstanding Modern Infographics – Vectortuts+ Create Personal Infographics Kaggle – Making data science a sport. Infographic: Do-It-Yourself Guide to Infographics – Marketing Tech Blog KISSmetrics Infographics – Useful infographics by KISSmetrics. A Few Rules for Making Homemade Infographics – The Atlantic Wire Biogrify – Create a fun visual snapshot of your life. Better World Flux – A beautiful interactive visualization of what matters in life. The Do’s and Don’ts of Infographic Design – Smashing Magazine Vizify TweetSheet – Your Twitter activity as an instant infographic. Data Wrangler – Interactive tool for data cleaning and transformation. How to Create a Great Infographics (Slideshow) – The Content Lab Photo Stats – App for creating iPhone infographics out of your photo data. Lyza – Analyze, socialize, decide. Design a Magazine Infographic – Digital Arts Re.vu – A visual resume tool. A World of Tweets – Twitter visualization. Create an Infographic Typography Animation – aetuts+ Vizualize.me – Visualize your resume in one click. QlikView – Business intelligence for everyone. How to Create Great Infographics – .net magazine We Feel Fine – An exploration of human emotion. The Anatomy of an Infographic – SpyreStudios Kinzaa – Build your infographic resume. Visual Economics – Unraveling complexities in financial data. How to Strike a Balance Between Data and Visualization – The Daily Egg ComponentArt DV – Present, navigate and visualize your data like never before. 7 Steps to Make Your Infographic a Success – SEOmoz DOMO – Business intelligence platform. Infochimps – Big data infrastructure made clear. Evaluat3 – The best way to know your professional strengths (graphs). Webpages As Graphics – An HTML DOM visualizer app. Creately – Draw diagrams online using a collaborative approach. Wordle – Create beautiful word clouds. Tagxedo – Word clouds with style. Source: dailytekk.wordpress.com