Photos & Graphics

My newest—and best—infographic (You can do this too)

5/23/2012 By Joan 8 Comments

I’m still playing around with free infographics tools and apps in preparation for my webinar tomorrow—Thursday, May 24—on How to Easily Create Free and Inexpensive Infographics.

You’d be amazed at the astonishing number of web-based tools, and reviewers, who refer to so many of these DIY graphics sites as “drop dead simple.” Not for my non-techie mind.

I abandoned Infogr.am, a site that a few reviewers were gushing over, when I tried repeatedly to load their template for a pie chart, but it kept loading something completely different.

OK, then. I chose another template and created a chart comparing the weight loss of three fictional women over a five-month period. When I got to the end of the project, about 45 minutes later, I lost all my work. Enough of that!

After doing a Google search for free infographics, I ended up at Piktochart.com and fell in love with this site! Everything is drag and drop. It’s easy to understand. The “undo” button, my best friend, is easy to locate. The only quibble I had was that I was unable to upload my logo or graphics. (Did I miss this somewhere?)

The infographic below took about two hours because I was super-picky about the fonts and colors. I chose one of their free templates rather than paying a monthly fee which would have given me a bigger selection of some gorgeous templates. I didn’t have time to research statistics to use when creating it, so I used information about my own business.

Also check out the other infographic I created earlier this week about 3 Questions Bloggers & Journalists Love using Easel.ly. If you want more time-saving tips about what to do, and not do, when you use these sites, register for Thursday’s infographics webinar here. I’m going to save you hours of time using these sites because I’ll tell you about all the mistakes I made.

Filed Under: Photos & Graphics Tagged With: diy graphics, easil.ly, free graphics tools, infogr.am, infographics, piktochart

Learn how to make simple infographics for PR or for fun

5/19/2012 By Joan 3 Comments

I’ve been researching a variety of free and inexpensive programs and apps that allow you make infographics you can use in a PR campaign, at your website, in marketing materials, to share on the social media sites, or just for fun.

You can learn them during the webinar on How to Easily Create Free or Inexpensive Infographics from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, May 24.

If you’re on Pintereset, you’re probably noticing all the really cool infographics, from the big, fancy ones that cost several thousand dollars to the sticky notes that include pithy sayings and quotes.

I used Pinwords to quickly create this image of two of my favorite dog sayings:

I used Wordle.net to create this word cloud, based on words that appear at this blog:

You can use wordles in your marketing materials, at your blog, as part of a contest, or in many other ways that I’ll explain on Thursday.

A few weeks ago, I showed you a cool graphic I created in less than 15 minutes at Visual.ly that compared my Twitter profile with Oprah’s.

These are three of the easiest ones I’ve created. I’ll show you more, including bar charts, pie charts, flow charts and others during Thursday’s webinar. If the time is inconvenient for you, register anyway because I’m recording it, and you can access the replay, the MP3 and the PowerPoint slides I used.

Have you created your own infographics? If so, email me with the links and explain what tool you used. I might include them in my webinar. Or, comment here and let me know if you’ve heard about any infographics programs that others have recommended to you.

Filed Under: Photos & Graphics Tagged With: bar charts, infographics, Oprah, pie charts, pinterest, visual.ly, word cloud, wordle, wordles

Create your own infographics at Visual.ly

5/4/2012 By Joan 3 Comments

Are you as fascinated with infographics as I am?

They’re everywhere these days, and you can’t spend much time on Twitter, or surfing the web, without stumbling across one.

Create your own at Visual.ly, a start-up that allows anyone to quickly and easily create professional quality designs with their own data. When you’re ready to show your work to the world, publish it on your Visual.ly profile, your own personal showcase. Here’s what Mashable says about the site.

The Publicity Hound vs. Oprah

I don’t have any data at my fingertips that I’d like to use as the basis for an infographic, so I created an account and then chose one of their templates that lets me compare my Twitter stats with those of a celebrity. I chose Oprah, and told Visual.ly I want a “Faceoff.” I let Visual.ly access my Twitter account, and then chose my hairstyle, hair color, eye color and skin color. Just a few clicks of the mouse and—voila!—you can see how we compare (I’m definitely NOT a rocker, and if only I were that skinny!).

Go ahead. Create your own Faceoff with your favorite celebrity or Twitter friend and share the bit.ly link below so we can see how you compare. Or, choose “What Kind of Facebook Monster Are You? Create a Custom Monster from Your Facebook Stats.” This site has at least one bug. I tried comparing my Twitter stats with those of Martha Stewart, and she appeared as a man.

What do you think of Visual.ly? Do you know of similar sites that let you create infographics this easily? If so, have you used them in a PR or publicity campaign? Don’t forget to share your bit.ly link below.

If you like this tip about Visual.ly, sign up for my free ezine in the box at right. Publicity, PR and marketing tips every Tuesday and Saturday.

Filed Under: Photos & Graphics Tagged With: Facebook, infographic, Oprah, Twitter, visual.ly

Pinterest: ‘Digital crack for women’ (Hooked yet?)

3/13/2012 By Joan Leave a Comment

Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak calls Pinterest, the wildly popular social media tool, “digital crack for women.”

She’s addicted to it. So are millions of other women. (The guys are finally catching on.)

And it’s time for Publicity Hounds everywhere to use this site to pull traffic. Pinterest, a digital pinboard that lets you “pin” photos and videos, has reached the 10-million-user mark faster than any other social media site.

Best part is, you don’t have to spend a ton of time on it. Just “pin” photos you love. But understand that this site is more than just stunning images of cupcakes and wedding dresses.

If you’re smart, you can use it to pull traffic back to your website or blog.

The photo of the green candy necklace, shown above, leads back to the website of Kinser Event Company which, presumably, will help you host a creative party for your child.

Look at this colorful board called “Give Books” created by a book publishing company.

Those are just two of the many examples I’ll be sharing when I host the webinar “How to Use Pinterest to Generate Clicks, Traffic, Links, Leads and Sales” at 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, March 15.

Can’t attend? Register anyway and you’ll get the replay and my handy checklist that you can print and keep nearby so you don’t miss a step as you’re getting your account set up. Register here.