If you want your infographic to go viral, it’s not as simple as creating it, and it’s suddenly becoming popular. That doesn’t happen. You may have to work at it for a few months to get it to take flight online. In truth, whenever you hear one of those overnight viral success stories, rest assured, that took time and work and practice.
But there are proven ways you can use to give your infographic the best chance to go viral.
The key component of an infographic viral success story:
Go with the Trends
What is popular in your industry right now? What’s trending across all social platforms? What’s leading the headlines? How can you tie that in with an infographic in a timely manner to attract the most attention? Speed is essential here because by the time something is trending, countless of your competitors are hard at work developing their own infographics to accompany the latest news. You must beat them to it! It’s imperative that you focus on speed, accuracy and information.
Answer Burning Questions
Your audience is sure to have some questions that they like to ask. Pick one burning question to answer for them in the form of an infographic. You can, in fact, turn most questions into an infographic to share with your audience. If it’s something they really want to know presented in a creative way, they will share it. Of course, if you happen to choose a controversial topic, your infographic has a much better chance of getting social media shares and eventually going viral.
Incorporate Useful Data
Think of this as the V8 advertisement. For those unaware, the popular vegetable-based juice created a marketing campaign based on surprisingly simplistic ideas. That’s what you need your infographic to show. You want people to see it, slap their foreheads and say out loud, “Why didn’t I connect that?”. The main thing is that the data you put into your infographic should be something useful. You want your audience to say, “Why didn’t I think of that?” or, “Wow, I need to print that out and keep it handy for future reference.” When it’s that useful, it’s going to be shared widely.
Keep It Tight
Try not to get too carried away with too much information on one infographic. Keep it to one important point or one desired result. For example, if you want your audience to buy a specific product, don’t talk about other products; present data about that one product only, using data that describes the benefits to them for buying. With that said, you have to kick up your conventional product-centric infographic to hit it big on social sites. Include a twist or a surprising benefit or solution that your product provides that sets it apart from everyone else.
Pay to Market Your Infographics
The fastest way to get eyes on your infographic is to pay to promote it. All social networks have that opportunity now, after all, advertising is where they make their money. It doesn’t need to cost much to promote a post, tweet or a pin. You can get started on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest for less than $20. It’s more than worth it to kick-start the viral process rolling.
Use Social Media to Spread Your Infographic
Once you’ve published your infographic on your website, you also want to publish it across all your social media networks. Be sure you’re represented on all social sites that reflect your purpose and include your buyer demographic. When you do that, ask your connections to share it too. If you don’t ask, they may “like” it but not actually share it. These days, if you want someone to share something, you have to specifically ask them. Be direct. Also, make sure your infographic is published publicly so that when it’s shared, everyone can see it.
Use Social Influencers to Spread Your Infographic
If there are some leaders or influencers in your industry that have a huge following, send them your infographic and ask them to promote it. They may have a fee for this, but it can be more than worth it in the long run. And it’s typically an inexpensive way to get the word out, so your infographic goes viral. Beyond the obvious and short-term benefit of an influencer marketing your content, you may develop a long-term relationship that you can use for marketing and partnerships down the road.
Name Your Infographic Appropriately
When you create any type of file, consider how you’ll use it. If you’re going to distribute it privately, you can give it a non-descriptive name. But, if you want it to go viral, name it appropriately so that when people search for information online they’ll come up with your infographic based on the keywords in the file.
Creating a Landing Page for Your Infographic
When you create an infographic, it really needs a home. And, like most things you promote online, it should reside on your website or a landing page connected to your website. In this way, you can ensure that you get visitors to your site when they look at the infographic after clicking it – which you’ve asked them to do in some way on the infographic.
Infographics won’t go viral without help. You must promote it in every way that you can via paid promotions, advertisements, blog posts, reviews, and influencers.
Once you do all of those things, your infographic is more likely to go viral – as long as the information inside is useful, timely, and relevant.
