3 reasons why infographics can attract traffic to your site

Marcela De Vivo at SocialFish says::

Other than it being a way to simplify concepts and ideas for your readers, there are several other reasons to use infographics on your site.

1. Readers are drawn to your site. It doesn’t matter what you’re trying to explain—when people see fun graphics, they are instantly more prone to look at your site.
2. Using infographics increases backlinks. If you want to be the site that others link to for your easy explanations of complex ideas, start using well-designed infographics. This gets your page a lot more recognition.
3. You can be a more useful site. Every site should want to be useful to their readers, and infographics are a great way to do this. The easier people are able to understand who you are, the more readers come back.

How to manage your social media from Twitter to Instagram in 30 minutes a day (infographic)

Atlanta-based Pardot offers a software service that automate business-to-business marketing. So it makes all the sense in the world for the company to create content that shows customers how to get more out of that service.

This is classic "how-to" journalism. What Mark Ragan calls "refrigerator journalism." What I've started to call "newscraft," which is the subject of a Kindle book I plan to release in August.

In short, newscraft is a hybrid that blends traditional journalism methods, tested copywriting techniques and modern SEO strategies to create a 600-800 word story that attracts highly targeted readers (online or offline), converts prospects into customers, and helps to move products out the door.

Or, in the case of Pardot, a really neat infographic that -- unlike all too many infographics -- is actually useful. It solves a common problem that customers face, and makes Pardot's service a key element in solving that problem. It's an outstanding example from which all brand journalists and content marketers can learn.

Also note: Pardot made it easy to share its infographic by including an embed code. Very smart.

Embedded from Pardot

How to (brilliantly) employ an infographic to tell a how-to story that makes a hero of your client's product

Here's a example of "news you can use" that presents the story as an infographic.

The subject is "how to slim your wallet." It offers practical advice to men for getting rid of that ridiculous bulge in our back pockets.  And it packages this information in a four-beat story line.

But the star of the show is the company's product: a slimmer wallet with a better design for access.

Take a look.

7 steps to creating your infographic -- including a tip for optimizing for search engines

If you are like me, you are fascinated by infographics. But you have no idea how to make one work.

They look simple. Until you try making one.

Here's a useful post from Rosalie Morton at The Buzz Bin at the Buzz Bin that offers a seven-step workflow for putting together an infographic. No. 6 answers a question I've had for a long time: How the heck do you optimize an infographic for search engines:

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.