Are there statistics, processes or other information relevant to your book that could be presented visually? Have you considered using infographics to present this information in an easy to understand way? In this article, Dan Janal shares how one of his clients is using infographics on their website. As you read this article (and view the example infographic below) think about ways you can communicate with infographics.
 Courtesy of: CreditDonkey |
If a picture can tell a thousand words, then an infographic can tell 10,000 words.
If you haven’t seen the term before, an infographic is the visual display of numeric information. USA TODAY has been using infographics for years as they show results of polls or sales trends or housing sales and the like.
In the last few months, many businesses on the web have been using infographics to make information come alive.
One of the best examples comes from my client, CreditDonkey, a consumer credit card comparison and education site. Charles Tran, founder of Credit Donkey was nice enough to answer a few questions for me about how they use infographics and I’d like to share that information with you. To see great examples, go to http://www.creditdonkey.com/happy-holidays.html
Dan: Do you do the infographics in house or do outsource it? What tips do you have to manage the process?
Charles Tran: For our infographics in general: we used to outsource it, but for the last 6 months or so, we’ve done it all in-house.
Their team came up with the topic, researched it, crafted the story and designed it.
We’ve decided to bring it all in-house as of late July. Content is too important for us to outsource and we’re all about brand journalism — a good consistent editorial voice is important to me. Plus, by having it in-house, we have more control of the research, design, copy edit, writing, etc and feel more comfortable with the data quality.
My personal recommendation, if you want to go down the outsourcing route, is to craft the story and research the data in-house… and outsource the design aspect only. Then make sure you run the infographic through an in-house attention-to-detail copy editor, as you’ll be surprised by the number of minor copy-related errors designers often introduce unintentionally (designers aren’t writers!).
My general position is that everybody should do what they do best — and for your case, you’re the storyteller… so it doesn’t make sense for you to outsource the storytelling aspect. At the same time, you’re not a designer, so it makes no sense for you to draw chicken scratch for 10 hours… as eye candy is equally important — just look at how eye-candy made USA Today into a national powerhouse.
Dan Janal helps small businesses get publicity so they can sell more products. My clients get terrific results from my coaching, consulting, done-for-you services and do-it-yourself tools. For info, go to www.prleadsplus.com or call me at 952-380-1554.
loved this article, especially your advice to do what you do best, if you have a passion for writing them you`ll suceed
Wow! Info graphics is sure a hit for those who try it 🙂 Great post!
Bernice J. Deangelo recently posted..Criminal Attorney
You have to have someone who is familiar with Photoshop though, that is for sure. Someone who isn’t can’t design a info-graphic at all in my opinion. I would normally say it is best to outsource it due to the time spent on it unless you have someone who just does graphic stuff like this.
I wish I was more graphically inclined. The best writers I think are multi-talented. Good writing, visual creativity and some form of other media like video or podcasting can be hugely beneficial.
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