When our new client,
Lithium Technologies, brainstormed with our team about crafting a press release touting the rise in attendance and influence of their brand — as part of the build-up for their
LiNC User Conference — everyone got really excited about the idea of doing an infographic, instead. They’re more fun, more popular, and people actually read them. I love it that a client helped create and embrace such forward-thinking idea, and yep, I love the resulting product, too…
Don’t you find this more captivating than a press release?
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I think it is a brilliant idea to use infographic rather than traditional press release. It is very vivid and it is easy to be understood. People would be more impressed to see infographic than press release.
I think that infographics could be a really effective way to get information out when writing to a certain audience. The first question you need to ask yourself in PR writing is, who am I writing for? I don’t think that infographics would be useful for everyone.An infographic mightnot be in keeping with the culture of the organization. The flashiness of the infographic above would be wasted on an audience that really just wants the information.
I think on the other hand that this substitute for a press release could really grab the attention from a consumer that normally would never read a press release. I think that some media outlets would appreciate looking at something different from your everyday press release, while others would just want the facts.
I think the concept of infographics is an interesting one, however, they tend to look like ads, which journalists dislike rather intensely. Plus, journalists appreciate story ideas and pitches that are short, sweet and to the point and often don’t have the time to hunt for a story within an infographic.
For PR people, perhaps the best way to use graphics is to identify the type of images our target media run and try to provide something customized (or exclusive, where appropriate) and in support of the stories we’re pitching, rather than resorting to gimmicks.
I prefer using infographics and videos rather than the standard press release. However depending on the client and the information that you are communicating in certain cases using inforgraphic can not substitute a press release. I agree with Tom and fully embrace the idea of embedding links to background information that you might have not had a space to include.
This is much more appealing than a regular press release. I actually took time to look at all the graphics and read the information that stood out (which it basically all did!) I do agree however that this should not be used as a substitute for a press release, but rather something that sums it up.
I think Infographics is novel idea. But wouldn’t links built into be a great improvement?
Yes, I do agree that links would make it more plausible.
Anybody spoke to a journalist or blogger lately? I did. Main reactions: “Give me news. Don’t bother whether it is on email, print or what. Even if it is on a piece of used toiletpaper, if it is a scoop I don’t give a sh*t. To summarize: it is window dressing and might additionally colour up the news, just like a cartoon, drawing, wonderful taken pic. etc.
Very interesting, however I don’t see how you can get the infographic seen without the press release to the media. I create a great deal of infographics on data which I want to be seen and linked to by the media and bloggers, however I’d love to know how this was incorporated into the release.
I agree that infographics are awesome. As a consumer, I use infographics a lot. They’re great for presentations. However, I think you should always have a press release too! Never underestimate the value of SEO. It’s also very important to make sure the information you put infographic is worth sharing!
I think you should use infographics to add to your news release. This is a great infographic, but the search engine can’t tell what the graphic is without the text that surrounds it and makes this image relevant.
We’ve been talking about using multimedia – video, graphics, etc… for the last 3 years encouraging everyone and anyone to use them when possible. Our own internal study even found that releases that include multimedia content are engaged with 35% better than releases that are just text. This is continuing to increase online and in mobile spaces.
Don’t forget about the distribution side of this. Make this great image as visible as possible. Distribute and place this everywhere you can with your content surrounding the image and linking properly back to where you want this to go. The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism just released their State of the Media 2011 and in it they list the most visited online news sites in 2010 (http://stateofthemedia.org/files/2011/03/24-online-top-news-sites-nielsen1.png) and out of the top 25 sites, 6 are considered pure aggregators. The 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer also shows that the first place that people are going for news online today is a search engine followed by an online news source.
Make it easy for the audience to not only digest the information – which an infographic does beautifully, but also make it easy for the audience to find the information.
Michael Pranikoff
Global Director, Emerging Media
PR Newswire
This is much more captivating than a general press release. It is interesting but creative and captures the eye.
It’s a pretty picture, but there is not enough information in the infographic to make sense of it. A great supplement to a press release, but not a substitute.
Overall I do like infographics based press releases better than text based press releases, but they are nearly impossible to read on cell phones…which is where I read most of my news.
It’s good but unreadable. Make to text bigger and readable: http://goo.gl/CrKM0
Great! I’d like to now how you shared the infographic with influencers.
I’ve always preferred infographics over press releases. I’m glad to see more companies and agencies starting to adopt them. Not to discredit press releases because they still have their place, but infographics are more appealing to a lot of they newer markets. Plus being able to add links and images opens the door to a whole world of fun and exciting opportunities. Good job!
Very cool concept…seems the more I read and learn, the more I realize I don’t know that much about. Thanks for shining the light on this area…now my Curry College students can look forward to even MORE from their prof!
Great idea! Now if you could embed some links in it it would be even better