Infographics took the PR and content marketing world by storm about a year and a half ago. In case you missed it, an infographic is an visually engaging illustration that brings data and facts to life, while telling a story. Essentially, infographics give jazz hands to what could be boring data.  Very social media and blog friendly, they are also easy to share.

Here are a few ways to make sure your infographic stands out from crowd and generates the media attention it deserves.

1. A Story Line – Before you get started with design, you need to map out the story you want your infographic to tell. It needs a beginning, middle and end, supported with compelling factoids and data. One of the most successful infographics we created was this one for Air New Zealand, which tells the story of their 30-year anniversary of their Los Angeles to London route. From the amount of food consumed, to the number of miles flown and top pop songs, we covered the gamut in an engaging way (so engaging, it was picked up by leading travel blog, Jaunted). Here’s just a snippet:

2. Stats, Stats, Stats – At the core of a good infographic is compelling statistical data. Data that is interesting, but might cause your eyes to glaze over if it were presented merely as numbers and graphs. For instance, in our work with Web.com, we do a small business owner survey every year. We recognize that business stats can sometimes be less-than-scintillating. An infographic was the perfect way to bring our data to life. Visit the full infographic on the Web.com microsite.

3. Timely – Like all things in PR, it’s great if you can time your infographic around a newsworthy event. We recently worked with the Hass Avocado Board on an infographic illustrating just how many avocadoes fans consume around the Big Game. Timeliness helps with media relations too, as this infographic was featured in Shape and Fitness. Check out the full version.

4. Facebook-Friendly – One of the best aspects of online content is its ability to be repurposed. Infographics can be  transformed very easily into Facebook posts. Just snip out parts of the infographic into Facebook-friendly sizes: 403×403 for regular posts and 843×403 for highlighted posts. Tip: Be sure to have your logo and a URL at the bottom of each snippet, so if they are shared, your company will receive the credit it deserves.

Check out these Facebook posts created from a Bridgestone Winter Driving infographic. The perfect sizes for sharing on Facebook:

5. A Killer Landing Page – When you are in the early planning stages of creating your infographic, be sure you’re also thinking about where it’s going to live… it will need its own landing page. When people search, how are they going to find your infographic? Be sure to identify SEO keywords about your infographic and include them two or three times in the copy on your landing page. Have share buttons for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest ready-to-go at the top of the page, as well as a download button.

6. Let’s GO, SEO – Infographics are perfect for generating inbound links. But, it’s your job as the infographic’s creator to optimize it properly. You can do this with a simple WordPress plug-in, Embed Code Generator. This plug-in creates an embed code for your infographic, ensuring that it’s easily shared and generating links back to your site.

7. Pitch and Syndicate – Now that you’ve created a very cool, optimized infographic and an amazing landing page, it’s time to make sure it’s seen by your audience! In addition to a targeted blogger and web outreach strategy, we suggest using a distribution service, like BrandPoint. This combination of earned-media and syndicated distribution will increase the reach of your infographic significantly.

Have any extra thoughts and tips for infographics? Share in the comments, below!

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

I’ve had engagement on the brain lately. Social media campaign goals might have once focused on growing online communities, but now our focus is mostly on engaging this community. Who cares how many people like you on Facebook if you’re just shouting from the rooftops into the cyber wind every day? It’s inefficient, of course, but also very, very boring.

Here are a handful of examples to inspire you to better engage your own Facebook community. If you’re looking for the perfect recipe, take a few shakes of snazzy infographics, a dash of gold teeth and blend it into a whole lot of dance craze. Allow me to expand.

1. Try Something Different

The last thing you would expect to be cool is a rap about a German wine varietal, but the funny and quirky team at Wines from Germany put this little gem out there for all to see and share. Does it class up the region? Perhaps not, but I bet it’ll stick in your head and randomly pop out the next time you’re in a wine shop! Way to not take yourselves too seriously, guys.

2. Humanize Your Brand

I love when wineries post videos of goings-on at the winery, especially when it introduces the people behind the wine. Knowing more about the winemaker, the owner and even the friendly folks in the tasting room makes me feel more connected to the wine and more likely to remember them fondly when I’m ordering a glass.

The awesome team at Jordan Winery has really let their freak flags fly, allowing customers a peek behind the curtain at their personal style and silly antics, thanks to an in-house videography department producing some awesome video content. You know you have a down-to-earth CEO and winemaker when they star in their own Gangnam Style parody. Is that their viticulturist dancing with two chickens? Now I’m REALLY a fan.

3. Draw a Pretty Picture

Another good way to add intrigue to posts and encourage them to go viral is through appealing and informative branded images, in particular infographics that share some tasty morsel of unique content.

The wine social networking site Snooth does a great job of offering cool infographics that are attention-grabbing and likely to go viral among wine nerds. Here’s a cool one that breaks down the Truth about Wine Prices.

Cheers!

Videos and photos courtesy of Pinterest News, Wines of Germany, Jordan Winery and Snooth.

Although the real winner last night was Barack Obama, social media stole the show, providing interesting insight to election stats and answering many of our questions about the election  in real-time.

And so, we break from our regular Booze Bin coverage to bring you a look at how social media ruled the election…

Who voted? Check Facebook

The execution was just beautiful… You probably saw it at the top of your Facebook  page, asking you if you voted. If you chose “I voted” you were taken to their story page. It showed who was voting and when, across Facebook users in the U.S.:

http://www.facebookstories.com/vote

When viewing the page, you have to keep in mind that these stats represented Facebook users who clicked an Election Day prompt to share with their friends, not the general population. The page revealed the following stats:

• Votes per Hour – between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. tended to be when most people shared that they voted
• Who’s voting –
  • Male v. Female – Only 3.3 million male, and a whopping 6.4 million female. Obviously, this said more about who was sharing than who was voting…  Women were more likely  than men to share the fact they were exercising their right.
  • By age:
    • 29 percent 18-24 years old
    • 31 percent 24-34 years old
    • 19 percent 35-44 years old

Who’s winning? Check HootSuite

Who was leading on social mentions? HootSuite had their finger on the pulse. Through their 2012 Election Tracker: http://hootsuite.com/2012-election-command-center, HootSuite tracked which candidate was getting a larger share of voice in the social sphere. At 10:20 p.m. EST last night, the site was so slammed, it took three tries to load. The tracker showed Obama was leading in online share of voice, with 2.6 million “talking about this” as compared to Romney’s 2.4 million “talking about this.” On the other hand, Ryan led Biden in mentions. The real indicator, given the outcome of yesterday’s election? The sentiment graphs:

Online Sentiment: Barack Obama

Online Sentiment: Mitt Romney

When should I drink? Check the Infographics

Infographics have become very popular in the last two years – an easy way to disseminate information in an aesthetically pleasing way. It was funny to see the inundation of drinking game infographics come through during this election cycle.

The infographics offered some comic relief from a very tense election. From the Presidential debates to the Vice Presidential debates, there were quite a few fun one-liners and overly-repeated phrases, and these infographics took advantage.

i.e.: Joe Biden: DRINK if he makes a gaffe (like calling Obama “Barack America”)

Barack Obama: DRINK if he says, “Let me be clear”

Mitt Romney: DRINK if he brings up Ronald Reagan

Paul Ryan: DRINK if when tries to get a laugh from the “fire Big Bird” incident.

During the Presidential Debates:

During the VEEP debates:

So, what were your social media observations this election cycle?

By Rosalie Morton (@rosaliemo)

Infographics are one of last year’s biggest PR trends. Have some dull survey data? Create an infographic and, to quote Emeril, “BAM!” you have something interesting! Infographics are super handy to pitch to media, pitch to blogs, share on your own social properties, share with customers… the list goes on.

Combine alcohol and infographics, and you can really have some fun. So, without further ado, here are three infographics featuring beer, and a few tips you can learn from them.

Tip 1: Brand Awareness through Timeliness

Super Bowl Beer by SaveonBrew.com

Timeliness is such an important factor for a successful pitch. Tie your brand to a relevant holiday, and the odds of the media and your customers noticing your product increase drastically.

SaveonBrew.com is a website that aggregates the lowest advertised beer prices (imports, crafts and mass domestics). You can enter your zip code or address, and the site shows you where to find affordable, delicious beer.

When do people look for beer? On the biggest game day of the year, the Super Bowl. So, to raise awareness of the site during the Super Bowl, the company created this gem of an infographic with hilarious stats including “7 million people will ‘call in sick’ on Monday after the game.”

Tip 2:  Become a Resource by Creating a “How To”

How to Make Beer by OCWeekly.com

When it comes to hobbies, like, say, home brewing beer… there is a lot of research involved.  You can’t just put some barley, hops and whey in a jar, and hope for the best.

One way to make research and “how to” articles more digestible is through an infographic. So, if you’re trying to establish yourself as a resource or a thought leader, an infographic can be an excellent tool.

OCWeekly did an awesome job giving readers the skinny with this informative, but really cool infographic on home brewing:

Tip 3: Hometown Pride – The Local Angle

Beer: Canada’s Drink of Summer by Molson and Coors

The local angle is a PR pro’s best friend.  There is nothing that a local publication loves more than a success story from right around the corner… and with bigger brands, this can translate to the national scale. This infographic by Molson tugs at the local heart-strings, painting a vivid picture of Canada steeped in the tradition of beer. Who knew that beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage in Canada in terms of both volume and dollar value? Now, thanks to Coors, Molson and this fantastic infographic, you and I both do.

What are some of your favorite infographics? Share below!