Source: Social Media Explorer

Infographics are becoming are main stream medium use to effectively communicate within and outside of organizations. There are a number of different ways to use infographics to communicate with employees, management, and other stakeholders within your organization:

Decision-Making

• Use infographics to present comparative lists and to highlight pros and cons. Visual elements make it easier for people to compare and make choices.
• Use information design to expose data patterns and relationships. Visualizing data enables employees to analyze reports more effectively.
• Use infographics in situations where there is not a lot of time to interpret information and where prompt decision-making is required. Infographics help employees digest and understand information quickly and easily.
• Use infographics to visualize important strategic documents, reports, and plans.

Training

• Embed infographics into employee training manuals and guides to make them easier to consume and understand.
• Use infographics to create sets of training cards that can be distributed to employees as a reference tool or used by managers in workshops and training sessions.
• Place large infographics in highly trafficked areas in your organization to offer visual reminders of important ideas, processes, or policies.

Exchanging Ideas

• Use infographics to disseminate important information. Because they are unique and get shared readily, infographics help embed knowledge across the organization.
• Use information design to communicate in diverse internal environments where language or education barriers may exist. Infographics are a universal communication tool that makes it easier to deliver information with less likelihood of misunderstanding.
• Use infographics in meetings and presentations. Visualizations can help employees digest and understand information within condensed periods of time, making it easier to communicate takeaways and next steps more effectively.
• Use infographics in situations where you need buy-in. Infographics facilitate quicker consumption and comprehension of ideas and concepts, making it easier to garner support and obtain consensus from your audience.
• For this and more information on the creative, marketing and digital industry, visit www.socialmediaexplorer.com

World Graphics Day has been celebrated on April 27 since 1995. It is a day designated by the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (Icograda) to recognize the role of communication design and the profession of graphic designers around the world. April 27 marks the birth date of Icograda in 1963.

Design affects our everyday life. We see it everywhere – billboards, clothing, street signs, advertisements, flyers, websites. But design affects everyone differently, and it also means something different to each of us. So in honor of World Graphics Day, Paladin wants to know “What does design mean to you?” As a professional staffing firm dedicated to the creative profession, we want to know what YOU think.

Submit your answer along with three of your top designs that best represent you, your passions, and your abilities. The top five entries will be featured on our website on April 13 where they will be open to voting. The entry with the most votes will win an iPad! The winner will be announced on April 27.

Deadline for entries is April 8, 3:00pm ET.
Enter today!
http://www.paladinstaff.com/graphics-day-contest/

Want to know what’s top of mind with today’s top marketers? At Paladin, we keep a pulse on what’s trending in marketing and advertising by listening to the leaders through local events, online webinars, top industry pubs, Twitter, blogs and other social channels.

Recently, a fellow board member of a local marketing group sent a quick email request asking “What new or ‘go-to’ marketing book is on your desk?” I thought I would share some of the responses from this influential group of senior marketers, along with a few of my personal favorites, too.

• “Marketing Metaphoria: What Deep Metaphors Reveal About the Minds of Consumers” by Gerald Zaltman and Lindsay H. Zaltman (more…)

This week, Paladin participated in the Heartland Mobile Council’s MobileU101 conference. As companies awake to “the year of mobile,” this event discussed strategic approaches to mobile marketing.  But is this really the time of mobile?

Motorola’s Dana Warszona, a panelist, said the mobile tipping point for Japan came about 4 years earlier compared to the US. She and her fellow panelists Andrew Koven, President, E-Commerce & Customer Experience, Steve Madden Shoes and Julie Krueger, Senior Vice President, eCommerce and Direct, OfficeMax felt that the US is just now at that point. They stressed that for retail companies, in particular, this is the time to pull the infrastructure together and to get smart on mobile and to do it quickly. Two-thirds of retailers are already doing mobile or in the midst of implementing it.

They advise moving away from simply the siloed campaign and to develop mobile as a part ongoing strategy and business operation. For consumers mCommerece is coming and it will mean that cash registers and credit cards will become obsolete. Krueger said that mobile will do away with kiosks and that the in-store experience will change radically. Warszona pointed to Best Buy as example of a company that was truly tying mobile into their business operations.

Koven said, “Mobile is the second coming and we’re [Steve Madden Shoes are] going to lead. We’re not going to wait and see.” 

How are these initiative being done? Krueger said that companies are not yet investing in additional human resources needed for mobile. Her current teams are adding it to their work load. But as the tide turns and mobile heats up, we will see companies ramp up the internal resources needed to manage this growth.

Staff, roles and ownership for mobile were reoccurring discussions during the conference. Which departments should own the mobile marketing strategy or execution? Will marketing generalist take mobile marketing on as an additional tool in their tool belt or is mobile best developed and managed by specialists? As Mobile Marketing emerges, we look forward to following this debate and the trends.  We would like your input on the topic. To weigh in, please take our poll - http://tinyurl.com/2bfolsr . We will be happy to share the results with you.

Here are a few recent articles and links related to mobile marketing:

 Mobile Marketers: Just Do Something

Chicago mobile event highlights opportunities of mobile marketing

Heartland Mobile Council

What Apple’s Acquisition of Siri Means for the Future of Mobile Search

Twitter Stream from the event