There’s more data than ever -- and more ways to get it. As the world gets more complex and attention spans grow shorter, brands and marketers are being pushed to present information in meaningful, digestible and visual ways. In this session, Lee Sherman, Visual.ly co-founder and chief content officer, will discuss best practices for using big data as a marketing vehicle for your organization and will share his tips and tricks for developing successful infographics that will get your organization noticed. Speaker: Lee Sherman, co-founder and chief content officer, Visual.ly @lsherman

1. MAKING DATA BEAUTIFUL…AND
MEANINGFUL

2. WE BELIEVE THAT AN
INFOGRAPHIC
IS
“graphic visual representation of
information, data or knowledge”1
THAT
“presents complex information quickly and
clearly”1
AND IT
“should not merely communicate clearly,
but stimulate viewer engagement and
attention”2
1 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_graphics
2 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_visualization

3. WHY ARE INFOGRAPHICS
A BIG DEAL?

4. THREE REASONS: DEMAND, IMPACT, GROWTH
“There is a need for ongoing innovation in tech and
techniques that will help individuals and
organizations to integrate, analyze, visualize, and
consume the growing torrent of big data.”*
High quality visualizations are 30x more likely to be
engaged and shared by viewers over comparable text
articles.
Advertisements in the form of visualizations are 6x
more effective than other online ads.
Publishers who use visualizations have grown an
average of 12% compared to 1% for those who have
not.
*Source: http://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/publications/
big_data/index.asp

5. WHAT MAKES A GOOD
INFOGRAPHIC?

6. TELL A
STORY
WITH THE
DATA
A good story trumps
great design. Channel
your inner journalist.

7. CATCH THE
TheVIEWER’S EYE
Internet is a visual
medium. You need to get
their attention before you
can persuade them.

8. THE DIFFERENT TYPES
OF INFOGRAPHICS

9. 1. Observational Humor

10. 2. Novel Insights

11. 3. How To

12. 4. Timely Issue

13. Design

14. DISTRIBUTION CASE STUDIES

15. CASE STUDY 1
Techcrunch: Twitter story
News breaking Additional
Content creation:
rights: distribution:
Visual.ly
TechCrunch Visual.ly network
TechCrunch requested that we create an
infographic for Twitter’s 5th anniversary.
The piece was branded by Visual.ly
TechCrunch was given the exclusive right to
break the story.
Result: The piece got 5x more Tweets, 6x
more Shares on LinkedIn and Facebook than
an average Techcrunch post.
The graphic eventually got additional 9k
views on Visual.ly and became the top ranked
graphic in social media.

16. CASE STUDY 2
startup genome project
Data source: News breaking Additional
Content creation:
Startup rights: distribution:
Visual.ly
Genome TechCrunch Visual.ly network
We collaborated with Startup Genome to create
an infographic with their data.
The piece was co-branded by both Startup
Genome and Visual.ly
TechCrunch was given the exclusive right to
break the story.
Result: The piece got 4x more Tweets, 6x
more Shares on LinkedIn, and 12x more
shares on Facebook than an average
Techcrunch post.
The graphic eventually got additional 16k
views on Visual.ly and became the top ranked
graphic in the business category.

17. STATIC INFOGRAPHICS
What are the Odds?
Infographic seeding Additional
Content creation:
across social distribution:
Visual.ly networks Visual.ly network
Visual.ly published a static existential piece and
witnessed astronomical results.
Result: The infographic was distributed across
Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, digg, Reddit,
TechCrunch, Mashable, and other popular
publisher websites.
The infographic has received over 1.5M views
on Visual.ly alone.
Over 16,000 infographics published on
Visual.ly from the likes of Skype, National
Geographic, eBay, CNN, Facebook, Google,
Twitter, Oracle.

18. HOW CAN YOU USE
INFOGRAPHICS?

19. INSIDE YOUR
COMPANY
Help achieve your goals by
creating effective, persuasive, and
appealing visualizations.

20. ENHANCE YOUR
PUBLICATION/
BLOG
Deliver great visualizations on
deadline and in sync with the
news cycle.

21. IMPRESS YOUR
CLIENTS
Infographics help agencies and
designers by bringing their data
to life and showcasing their
accomplishments.

22. EDUCATE
Help educators tell compelling
stories and reach their students
in new ways.

23. Infographic
Ethics
We recommend that you subscribe to the code of ethics of the Society of Professional
Journalists and agree to abide by all of its principles.
In addition, there are 3 principles you should follow to support data analysis and
visualization:
1) Data should be accurate and verifiable - don’t "lie with statistics."
2) Proper Sourcing & Attribution - Always give credit where due and do your own
reporting.
3) Best Practices in Visual Representation - don’t exploit idiosyncrasies of the human
visual system to exaggerate or misrepresent data.
Your policy should be one that encompasses accuracy, honesty, and transparency.

24. Seeing is believing.