SaveDelete.com, a blog with tech and computer marketing tips and news, published a roundup earlier this year of the “Top 13 Infographics that Mock Infographics.” (Among them: the very meta data set “The Number of ‘Infographics’ I’ve Seen This Week” and “Infographs Are Ruining the Internet.”)

But, done right, infographics can be a powerful marketing tool. They’re easily shareable and portable, functioning as content party favours that allow your audience to repost the material on their own blog or site, thereby spreading your message for you.

So what’s an infographic? Exactly what it sounds like: Information expressed graphically, via drawings, pictures, maps, diagrams, charts or similar elements, all held together with a coherent visual theme and typically published as an image file. These days they are produced in both static and animated video forms.

This is not about self-promotion. The best infographics express rich, objective data in a way that’s more accessible and engaging than a dense spreadsheet or ho-hum pie chart. Generally they take one of four shapes: an illustration of the “state of” some sort of business sector or function; a checklist or resource; a compare-and-contrast study; or the evolution of a movement, demographic or industry.

Infographics should be concise, creative and educational, conveying a burst of data in an eye-catching, succinct, portable package. In a world where every brand has the ability to publish blogs and webinars and photos and research as part of its marketing effort, your own content has to be top-shelf; it must stand out from the sea of sameness and not waste a minute of a would-be customer’s precious time.

Consumers today are smarter, as they are looking for more points of information, more data about the decisions they’re making, infographics convey a lot in a concise, accessible format.

Infographics are inherently informative and visually engaging. They’re expertise in a blink.

Get in the Picture
Here are some resources for producing DIY infographics

many-eyes.com
With IBM Research’s Many Eyes tool, you can upload data and use it to produce shareable infographics in numerous formats.

google.com/publicdata
Google’s Public Data Explorer allows you to choose from neatly organized public data sets pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau and other providers.

infogr.am
Create infographics easily and relatively quickly at infogr.am using one of several predesigned templates that allow for customisation.

charts.hohli.com
Hohli is an online chart-builder that gives users the ability to create customizable Venn diagrams, bar graphs, scatter plots and other charts.

app.piktochart.com
Piktochart offers a free and paid DIY infographics tool with lots of fun, flexible templates.

create.visual.ly
Visual.ly is a showcase for data visualization and a great resource for those looking to share infographics. (It’s also a matchmaker for brands and infographic designers.) The “create” section has a DIY tool.

wordle.net
Part tool and part toy, Wordle allows you to generate a word cloud from any block of text. It’s a fun and colourful way to create a picture of how a brand or industry “looks” based on the language it uses.

Let’s Break it Down

Utility
The best infographics are entertaining, educational and intrinsically useful. Ask yourself: How will this help my audience? Will they find this applicable to their business? Will they be fascinated enough to spend a few minutes with it, then pass it around?

Data
Infographics should be based on fact, not opinion. So use credible data (as you should for all content, but it’s especially true here). Your ideas might emerge as part of that story, but credible infographics are rooted first in reality. If you are going to tell me what you think, give me a solid foundation for your reasoning. Your infographic should tease a larger story out of real fact, not feelings. What’s a credible source? A research report from a reputable analyst or industry association is a good source; a blog post, less so.

Story
The best infographics have a hypothesis and narrative at their core. That sounds high-minded, doesn’t it? But it just means that you need to home in on the key idea you want your data to express. Write a kind of thesis statement. Then outline the main data points you want to use that support your thesis.

And by the way, when dealing with data, less is more: Don’t try to cram too much into an infographic. Distil the essence of your message; if you still have more to say on the subject, link to a full report for more information. Cisco did this well with its video on cloud computing, “Consider the Cupcake,” which used a baking analogy to forecast the predicted enormity of cloud computing in 2015. Cisco had a lot to say on the topic, so it linked to a landing page that allowed visitors who wanted to drill down to download an entire research report on the subject.

Logical sequence
Lay out the narrative with an eye toward information architecture. This means organising your information in a way that flows logically, without undue complexity. Create an outline that highlights your key ideas in a narrative form. Most people skip this phase and go straight to design. But mapping is the critical step to creating an infographic that tells a meaningful story and doesn’t read as a jumble of numbers and drawings. Do this outline stage first, then get out the paint.

Great design
Awesome infographics use colour, typography, illustrations, animation, video, charts and text to convey their data story. Hiring a design agency is one option. But there are resources for DIYers as well.

Need some inspiration? Go to Pinterest.com and search “infographics.” I’ll warn you now: The boatload you’ll find there borders on overwhelming.

Quality control
Make sure your infographic is error-free. If I had a pound for every infographic I’ve seen that contains a typo or a math error, I would be driving a Roller. Check and double-check figures, source lines and text. If your infographic gets toted over to other blogs and embedded there (as you hope it will), you want it to look professional.

Promotion
The goal, as ever, is to drive attention to and interest in your brand. So be sure to cover the basics: The best infographics are outfitted with social bling to allow visitors to easily share them on LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook, and with some string of code that allows them to be embedded on other sites, with a link back to you.

Remember to include a call to action in the infographic as well, but nothing too complicated. Try a stay-in-touch approach, like ‘sign up for future updates’ or ‘get the full report here’ vs something time or sales specific, like a free trial offer. That’s because an infographic can have a long shelf life, and you want yours to make the most of it.

1. Why are you going into social media?

What’s your company’s purpose in getting into social media? If you’re looking to just advertise, sending out messages in a one way fashion, think again. Social media is a conversation, and you’re in for a surprise. Customers will want to talk back, make suggestions or even complain about your product or service.

So before you start your efforts, be clear about your intent in social media. Are you there to retain and talk with existing customers? Protect your brand’s reputation online? Find new customers and improve sales? Each of these intents has implications for how your company will act online, and affects the networks where you’ll participate.

Task: Create a list of the key reasons why you’re joining a social media site. Be specific about the outcomes you hope to achieve.

2. How does your social plan support your overall marketing plan?

As you are thinking about your intent for social, think of your other marketing efforts. How will your social media outreach affect your marketing? Think about adding your brand’s social media urls to your ads. Don’t put “Find us on Facebook” because they might not take the time to do so. List “Facebook.com/yourbusiness” instead.

Will you be selling via your social presence? Tweeting deals on a regular basis? How will you be tracking these efforts, and comparing them to other marketing and sales efforts?

Task: If your customer service group or sales organisation will be affected by your new social tools, take the time to talk with them and ensure everyone is on the same page. Write down specifics on how your social plan supports your marketing.

3. How are you going to represent your brand online?

Will your company’s presence contain an icon, or the picture of a person? Who will be the voice of the business? Will a principal of the firm be both the owner of the business and the main social contact, or will you create accounts that represent your brand? Having a principal do the outreach has worked for some businesses. But many companies keep a corporate presence so that multiple employees can share the responsibilities.

Task: Brainstorm with your marketing advisors about how your company will represent itself, before you launch.

4. Who is your audience? Where do they live online?

You might know your customers from your physical business, but online, where do they spend time? Finding your customers involves doing some research and listening online. If you are a local business, Yelp may have more of an impact than LinkedIn, for example.

Social media is global. Are you going to talk with everyone, gather a large following, or are you going to focus on just your local customer base? Will you “follow back” or “Friend” everyone online who connects to you, or just some of them. Who? Spend time creating a policy and stick to it.

Task: Research your audience and write up your policy. There are many online resources for creating a social media policy.

5. How will you measure success?

For some, success is making the cash register ring and that’s it. Those firms will have to track metrics and watch to see if posts in social media bring customers in and help them convert. For others, social is about building up a brand name, satisfying customers, or generating inquiries or names on an email list.

All of these outcomes are valid ones. Be sure you know what you want to accomplish before you start, so you can plan to measure your efforts. If your boss wanted sales, and you only deliver fans, it may be a very hard conversation at the end of the quarter.

Task: Pick a few measurements and set up a way to track your progress, even if it is a simple spreadsheet that shows growth of fans over time. Track time spent on social and make sure the metrics are proving out the investment.

If you find your social strategy plan isn’t working after a few months, there are many qualified marketing consultants, agencies, and even non-profit groups like with resources to help you.

Which social network is better for converting followers into customers? If you haven’t had much luck with Facebook. What about Twitter or Google+?

Converting customers through social channels is not as cut-and-dried as most business owners think it should be. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask, “Why would I engage with this brand on Facebook?” Often, the answer is not, “So I can buy stuff from them.”

Perhaps a better question to ask is, “Where would I buy things from a brand?” Chances are, Facebook is not going to be the first answer for many.

Consumers see the social layer around a brand as one that supports their buying decision in providing engagement and information pre-purchase, then supports them after the purchase when they have questions.

There’s a disconnect when brands say, “We want to use Facebook to engage our audience,” but then expect the result to be purchases. It’s also misleading to think that your Facebook fans are the same type of captive, opt-in audience that you might find in, say, your email marketing list. They clicked a like button. It’s a virtual high-five. The barrier to entry there isn’t much of an obstacle.

This doesn’t mean you can’t drive conversions or build a customer base using social media, but that you have to first understand that’s not what customers are turning to many social networks for. Secondly, approach your social channel with a strategic plan and purpose to drive business.

My guess is, for a business that says its Facebook fans don’t convert, it isn’t providing content that attracts likely customers or asking them to convert. Sometimes you have to present a call-to-action and give them a compelling reason to click, download or buy.

One social network that seems to get the most nods when I ask, “Are you driving business there?” is LinkedIn. This makes sense because it’s mostly used by business people for business purposes. Networking with sales in mind is more natural on LinkedIn. On Facebook? Not so much. But if you’ve approached your Facebook strategy with the conversion in mind, you’ll see much greater traction than if you just “engage” and cross your fingers.

Still, it’s not the channel that is often to blame, but the strategy at play. If you want to convert fans on Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest or any other social channel, you have to drive likely prospects and customers there with promotions or compelling content. Then you have to give them the opportunity and reason to convert. If you’ve attracted the right audience with the right messages in the right place and the right time, they will.

Cloud marketing software provider Vocus has put together an infographic with stats from Gartner Research highlighting how brands are currently using social media and what trends are on the horizon.

According to the data, Facebook drives 26% of referral traffic to business websites and those numbers are only expected to increase. About 20% of shoppers already prefer buying products through a brand’s Facebook page compared to its website.

Although Facebook users still use the platform largely for personal use, one in three businesses embrace it to reach out to consumers. Nearly 10 million registered small businesses have a Facebook presence, and 89% of agencies use the social network to advertise for their business clients.

Fans who follow brands on Facebook are also more likely to purchase items from the company than non-fans. With that in mind, about 89% of small businesses believe Facebook is a valuable marketing tool for their brand.

But building a power network on LinkedIn doesn’t happen overnight. Here are seven tips for making the kinds of connections that can benefit your business the most:

1. Optimize your profile:One of the easiest ways is to update your profile picture. LinkedIn views this kind of update as “freshness” and it can help your ranking when others are searching for someone like you.

2. Tell people who you are, who you help and how you help them in your headline:A headline that communicates these points is often what grabs a person’s attention when searching the site. I should be able to read your headline and know exactly what you offer and why I should get in touch with you. Be clear and compelling.

3. Fill out all current and past work experiences:You never know who’s looking for you, possibly a co-worker from an old job, or maybe a classmate that’s suddenly feeling nostalgic and wants to see who they can find online. By listing all of your places of employment, including your educational institutions, you can create a larger net for capturing searches. Plus, these connections could be second or third-tier connections to people you’ve been trying to meet.

4. Join targeted groups:This can be one of the most effective ways to connect with like-minded professionals who are serious about using LinkedIn to form deeper business connections. Participating in these groups also enables you to share your knowledge and to learn from other members.

5. Create a targeted group:Not only can leading a group give you a certain level of credibility, it allows you to connect with people who are influential within your specific industry.

6. Send personal invites:These, in my opinion, always trump generic requests to connect. The invite is your first communication on LinkedIn, so make a good first impression by writing a personal request and asking how you can help the person, or whom you can introduce them to.

7. Get endorsements and recommendations: This can help enhance your profile, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do this. Don’t send a mass or generic e-mail to clients or colleagues asking if they can endorse your skills or write a recommendation. First, identify people who have a great story to share about you and your skills. Contact those people directly, via phone or e-mail, and let them know you’re personally reaching out to them because of (insert how you’ve helped them here) and would appreciate it if they’d be willing to write a quick recommendation for you, based on that story.

The same goes for endorsements, which are much easier to give since it’s just a click of a button. It also helps if you mention you’ll be endorsing their strongest skills as well.

In what ways do you grow your network on LinkedIn? Let us know in the comments below.