5 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Infographics

The use of infographics in marketing and on social media is nothing new but here are a few reasons why you should be using these incredibly versatile tools;

1) 90% Of Information Transmitted To The Brain Is Visual.

Your eyes have more sensory receptors than all your other senses combined, photoreceptors total about 70% of the sensory receptors in the human body and once that information gets to your brain it can process and recognise visual data in 250ms¹. This means visual image data is absorbed 60,000 times faster than text². Put simply, we understand visual information much easier than we do any other kind.

2) Publishers Who Use Infographics Grow In Traffic 12% More Than Those Who Don’t.

Good infographics are 30 times more likely to be read than text articles³.
Visual content and engagement go hand in hand, on Facebook, photos out-perform plain text, videos and links for both comments and shares⁴.

3) Infographic Content Is More Memorable.

People recall approximately 10% of what they hear, 20% of what they read and a whopping 80% of what they see⁵. This is in part due to our need to remember faces and places, a skill that records information presented visually in a much more reliable way than any other type. Infographic content is the very definition of TL;DR (too long, didn’t read.)

4) Infographics Are Social Dynamite.

Combining relevant content and attractive visuals, infographics are a very shareable commodity. Pictures are tweeted 361% more than videos, and re-tweeted 128% more than videos⁶.
Global “sharers” across social media share Interesting (61%), Important (43%) and Funny (43%) things ⁷, so interesting information represented visually is a winning recipe for social sharing and brand advocacy.

5) Everyone Is Doing It!

OK maybe not everyone but the evidence shows that there is a huge increase in use of infographics globally. For example use of automated tools like infogr.am , piktochart.com and visual.ly has increased massively in 2014 despite the “templated” look that makes many infographics look the same.
According to the 2014 annual report by Shutterstock⁸, people searching for “infographic” increased 332% this year, showing a marked rise in use by designers.

This surge in popularity is part due to the versatile nature of data visualisation; from Social Media represented as Game of Thrones to Beards as Fonts, infographics can be used to convey information in a fun and memorable way that is easy to share, which is vital to the digital market and should be on your to do list for the coming year.

1 – Merieb, E. N. & Hoehn, K. (2007). Human Anatomy & Physiology 7th Edition, Pearson International Edition. – See more at: http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/#sthash.ztKzrbD2.dpuf
2 – http://www.webmarketinggroup.co.uk/blog/why-every-seo-strategy-needs-infographics/
3 – http://ansonalex.com/infographics/infographic-effectiveness-statistics-infographic/
4 – http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/photos-generate-engagement-research/
5 – W.H. Levie and R. Lentz, “Effects of Text Illustrations: A Review of Research,”Educational Communications and Technology Journal 30 (4) (1982): 195-232.
6 – http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/03/05/what-type-of-content-gets-shared-the-most-on-twitter/
7 – http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx
8 – http://www.shutterstock.com/blog/infographic-shutterstocks-global-design-trends-2014