We all know infographics can be effective ways of generating inbound links, social shares and attention for your brand, but they are notoriously hard to get right.

Great ideas in the meeting room often fail to translate to that super-viral piece of content you were looking for.

Snowskool get it right

Skipedia highlighted this great infographic from Snowskool in our recent presentation at Brighton SEO.

A look at the excerpt shown below tells you all you need to know. It’s funny, engaging, and hits the spot immediately.  You can view the full infographic here.

Except of a great infographic

Except from a great infographic

Great social engagement 

Snowskool posted the infographic on their blog and Facebook page, and also shared it on Visual.ly.  The results, for a niche sport like skiing, were stellar:

47.000+ views on Visual.ly
4,000 links to their blog post
1,000 Pinterest pins
750 Facebook Shares

visual.ly

What’s the magic formula?

If only it was that easy to answer this question.  Skipedia has had success with other infographics (particularly this one for Profeet), but it can be hard to predict what will work and what won’t.

  1. Certainly the ideal infographic must, above all, contain great data.  Unless there’s something interesting to read, it’s going nowhere.
  2. Secondly, it needs to be represented well visually.  Many great ideas have failed to work in practice by working with the wrong designers, given the wrong brief.
  3. Finally, having a sense of humour can make all the difference.  People love to laugh and smile, and if they do, they are that much more likely to share.

By Iain Martin