If you use the Internet, then you have been influenced by an infographic and you probably don’t even realize it. At some point, you saw a colorful image with some researched facts on it and that image changed your opinion about something, or it educated you about a topic that you were unfamiliar with. The funny thing is that you didn’t go onto the Internet to be informed, but that is what happened. That is the power of an infographic.
What Is An Infographic?
An infographic should never be confused with an Internet meme. A meme is a nonsensical image created to try and prove a point. In many cases, a meme is not researched and its information is either taken out of context or completely inaccurate.
An infographic is an image that contains facts, usually in the form of statistics, that have been thoroughly researched and attributed on the image itself. The image in an infographic is pertinent to its topic and it is usually very colorful and engaging.
Here is a great example of an infographic on mobile telephone use.
Have Phones Killed the Conversation? – By the team at liGo
Why Are Infographics So Popular?
Marketing experts know that if they want to make a point on the Internet that has credibility to it, then they need to use an infographic. There are several reasons why infographics are so effective and those reasons are not as obvious as you may think.
Infographics Are Concise
A good infographic is smaller than a sheet of copy paper and can easily fit on any computer screen. These kinds of images are ideal for sharing on social media and they also fit well on any blog. The fact that infographics are concise is what initially catches people’s attention in the first place.
Infographics Look Like A Game
Internet puzzles are extremely popular and a good infographic looks like a puzzle to most people. The game is to try and find all of the information that the infographic has to offer and read that information. It sounds like a simplistic game, but expertly designed infographics take full advantage of the average person’s need to find little tidbits of information hidden in a professionally designed graphic. This need to solve the infographic’s puzzle is what makes people obsessive about reading the infographic over and over again.
Infographics Appeal To The Right Side Of Your Brain
Great marketing attempts to appeal to the right and left side of a person’s brain. The right side of the brain is the creative side. This is the side that tends to click away from long Internet articles that have no subtitles or pictures. This is also the side of the brain that is attracted to colors, patterns, and designs.
Whenever something has a variety of colors and an intricate pattern it will get the attention of the right side of every viewer’s brain, even if it is only for a moment. But, in that moment, if the left side of the brain can get engaged, then it is difficult for the viewer to look away from the infographic.
Infographics Engage The Left Side Of Your Brain
The left side of your brain is the practical side. It is the side that wants to read that long Internet article, but gets voted down by the right side. The left side needs facts and figures and it is the side that often insists on looking deeper into that infographic to find every last detail.
The trick with the left side of the brain is that the information needs to be accurate. The information can be shocking, but it needs to be true, just like the title of this infographic on CPR for parents. That is why the attribution on every successful infographic is so prominent. When the left side of the brain finds the evidence it needs, then it will continue to absorb the information.
Your Brain Finds Infographics Irresistible
People often do not realize how often the sides of their brain are desperate to be heard from. People who are considered to be “right-brained” people are creative types who prefer colors and shapes over text. The “left-brained” people prefer information and tend to skip past the colorful pictures to get to the real data.
The thing that makes infographics so popular is that they appeal equally to both sides of your brain. Creative people can appreciate the look of an infographic and practical people can appreciate the accurate information. But when both sides of the brain agree on something, then that makes the subject irresistible to that person.
Infographics Try To Deliver Information That Is Not Common Knowledge
A significant part of the allure of an infographic is the fact that most people do not know the information that it contains. Whether you care about the information is not nearly as important as the fact that you will read the information because it is contained within an infographic.
The headline of the infographic is designed to grab your attention, but it is usually accompanied by the first amazing fact in large, bold print. Marketing experts know how to get a person’s attention and those proven methods are used to get you to first glance at an infographic. But it is the completely obscure information, and the format of the infographic itself, that keeps you riveted until you read every word on the page.
If you want to get your statistical message out to a large audience that will actually read it, then use an infographic. Marketing experts have been using infographics for years to help promote a business, or bring attention to a cause.
A properly designed infographic is almost irresistible to the average Internet user because it has everything that makes the Internet so wildly popular. It offers obscure information in a colorful format that is easy to read and can be readily shared. When it comes to sharing information on the Internet, there are few ways that are more effective than an infographic. You can use an infographic on its own to promote something, or you can include one in a blog post and watch your traffic increase over time.
