One of the most effective and entertaining ways to package a large volume of information is through an infographic. Most people would find an article full of statistics boring, but put them into an infographic and people eat them up!

Infographics get shared on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. On sites such as Reddit, Digg and StumbleUpon, infographics get “upvoted” a lot and are very visible

So, how do you create a winning infographic that generates buzz and traffic?

Begin with a Great Topic
Start with a useful, interesting and unique idea. The concept should involve a topic that people want to know about. Surprising or controversial information will get attention, as will helpful information that teaches how to do something or helps the reader make a decision.

You don’t have to create an infographic about what you do, but you should make your infographic interesting to your target market. For example, if you sell office furniture don’t create an infographic about different types of office furniture. Instead, you could do an infographic on “The 12 Types of Office Jerks” or “9 Ways to Procrastinate without Getting Caught” to capture the attention of office workers.

Do Your Research
The goal of an infographic is to provide a lot of information in a concise format. Gather data from sources like Wikipedia, various government agencies including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the IRS, books, newspaper articles, magazines and so on.

Do online searches and capture interesting facts, statistics and websites. Use Evernote or your favorite method to compile your research. You may or may not use all of the data in your infographic, but having a lot of information available will help in the final graphic creation process.

Organize Your Data and Tell a Story
Infographics are usually created in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, but you can use whatever graphics program you are most comfortable with.

Keep the design simple and clean. Too many effects and embellishments complicate the graphic. Make sure the important message of the infographic is obvious.

Lay out all the data you have in a logical fashion. Make it a story that is unfolding as the reader scrolls down your infographic.

If you aren’t a design wiz, there are DIY infographic templates you can use to create your graphic. Or you can hand off your data to an infographic designer to have them put it together for you. If you do not have a favorite designer, you can find one on sites such as elance or even fiverr.

Once you have a completed infographic, put it up on social bookmarking sites, on your own social media profiles and on your website. Be sure to include an embed code with your infographic to make it easy for people to publish your infographic on their own sites. And include share buttons for the major social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. If the graphic is shocking, funny and informative, you can bet it will spread.