We now spend an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes per person, per day using social media. Why does this matter? With the rise of social media usage, this means we are now seeing more visual content than ever. If you’re in charge of your business’ social media strategy, it’s very easy for your content to get lost in the mix, which means you need to generate content that stands out.
One way to stand out from the mix is by leveraging infographics. Infographics — a popular form of snackable content — are graphics that represent information or data to tell a story. They include minimal text, which is why they’re easy to digest and ideal for grabbing the attention of readers scrolling through thousands of posts on social media.
Here’s more on how your business can benefit from implementing infographics into your social media strategy:
Why should you use infographics?
Not only are infographics easy to digest, but they have a proven track record of helping businesses effectively improve their user awareness, engagement, and ultimately, conversion rates. In the considered purchase category, potential consumers are constantly searching through content on social media channels for solutions to their problems (that they may not even be aware they have). A strategically planned and visually appealing infographic can easily catch the attention of these potential customers and bring them closer to making your product or service their solution. For any business wanting to improve their social media strategy, taking advantage of infographics will help you:
Strengthen Your Brand Awareness
Infographics are shared on social media three times more than any other type of content. Not only are your followers more likely to share your content if you use infographics, but this stands true for reputable sites as well. Top sites may not want to share your blog post, but may share your infographic, since they’re visually appealing and easy to share. When creating your infographic, you’ll want to be sure to include your logo and link through to your website or a relevant blog post. This way, viewers will be able to tell it’s you and see you as an industry leader.
Drive Traffic to Your Site
Infographics are designed to be easily embeddable. You can link your infographic right to your website or blog post, which gives readers easy access to your site and other content. Publishers that feature infographics grow traffic 12% faster than publishers that don’t feature infographics. When you generate intriguing content like infographics and provide easy access to learn more, this boosts traffic to your site, which results in more potential leads for your business.
Increase User Engagement
It’s no surprise that producing intriguing visual content makes users more likely to read and be interested in engaging with your business. In a recent study, 42% of marketers reported that infographics and other original graphics received the most engagement, higher than any other form of visual content. Attract your followers by producing visual content that’s easy for them to digest and share with their network. In turn, this will boost your user engagement and reach.
Boost Your SEO Rankings
Infographics are considered high-quality content and typically generate lower bounce rates. If you create and share infographics, search engines will recognize this and rank your website higher, which will bring your business one step closer to rising to the top of search results. Additionally, infographics appear in the Google Images search results, which further helps your SEO rankings.
So, you want to create an infographic. What should you include?
You now know how infographics can benefit your business in every stage of the buyer’s journey. For considered purchase brands, it's important to produce relevant and meaningful content to better inform and directly influence considered purchasers’ decisions. There are specific types of infographics that are ideal for educating, attracting, and influencing these customers. If you’ve never created an infographic, or don’t know what information you should share, read on to learn about different types of infographics you can create.
How-To
People following directions with text and illustrations perform 323% better than people following directions without illustrations. Break down instructions into actionable steps that let viewers easily understand what may be a complex topic.
Data Story
Share relevant research data or fun facts to make your content more understandable. Your infographic can be a single chart or a compilation of mixed charts and graphs. Consider breaking your infographic up into smaller graphics to make your data easily shareable on social channels like Twitter and Instagram, which also gives you more overall content to post.
Timeline
Tell a story in chronological order or show how your product or service has evolved over time. Timelines can be used when your topic includes lots of dates, changes over years, or when you want to show progress.
Comparisons
Infographics make it easy to scan through pros/cons or similarities/differences between brands or products. Considered purchase consumers vet options before making a buying decision. Utilize infographics that compare products or services side by side to educate consumers and help them feel empowered to make the right decision.
If you feel like your content is getting lost in the mix, aren’t seeing an increase in high-quality traffic, or are simply struggling with your overall content marketing strategy, you now know to start incorporating infographics into your social media strategy. If used correctly, infographics have the power to strengthen your brand awareness and increase user traffic and engagement, as well as boost your SEO rankings. Next time you have a message to deliver, consider using an infographic to turn your message into engaging, shareable content that attracts readers and keeps them in the sales funnel.
