Using infographics for book promotion

It takes a smart marketer to use Hurricane Sandy to create an infographic that goes viral.

Please see Exhibit A from Adams County Winery in Gettysburg, Penn., on the right.

This was posted on the winery’s Facebook page on Saturday, as most of us Northeasterners were stocking up on bottled water, bread, and D batteries or pulling out candles and matches. It went viral quickly — note the number of “likes” but more importantly, the number of “shares” — 10,666 as of Tuesday afternoon.

I snagged it on Sunday from a friend in Northern New Jersey after seeing it in my news feed. (I’m in the six-bottle zone, by the way.)

Shrewd. Very shrewd

I reacted to this smart infographic on two levels. First, as someone getting ready for who-knows-what with this storm, it made me laugh. It was so clever!

But it also caught my attention as a marketer. I thought it was very shrewd of them to capitalize on the hype while giving us useful information (I did need to know how much red wine to have on hand if I lost power). I tried calling the winery today to learn more about the back story and whether they were surprised by the response, but the company’s phone was out of service because of the storm.

There’s actually a third reason this caught my attention. I’m fascinated by infographics and how they can be used to convey statistics and other information in ways that make it easier to understand. I’ve never been a fan of bar graphs and pie charts, but infographics? They work for me!

Can you put them to work for you? What information related to your book or its topic can be turned into a useful or humorous infographic that will get shared through social networks? I’ll bet you can think of something. It might take some thought, and maybe a brainstorming session with a friend or two, but I’ll bet you can come up with an idea for at least one infographic — if not more.

“How to Easily Create Infographics in PowerPoint”

Once you’ve given that some thought, the next challenge is to create it. That seems a bit overwhelming for those of us who aren’t graphic artists and don’t have their design tools, doesn’t it?

That’s how I felt about it, anyway, until I received an e-mail from Hubspot this morning offering me a copy of “Free Template: How to Easily Create Infographics in PowerPoint.”  I’ve downloaded it, clicked through the slides, and can’t wait to give it a try (download it here). It’s like putting a puzzle together — a puzzle that can come together in many ways.

Start watching for infographics and how companies are using them to grab attention and communicate information. Let it all percolate for a bit, then start thinking about how you can incorporate this type of marketing image into your book promotion plan. With the right visual, it could be one of your most successful tactics.

What new marketing tactic have you tried that you’re excited about?