Infographics are all the rage right now, and it’s easy to understand why: we are visual creatures with short attention spans. And from a marketing perspective, infographics are great way spread your message across social media, which this excellent infographic tells us is becoming more visually driven by the minute.

So, in order to gain an understanding of what's needed to create an effective infographic, we set out to design one ourselves. Along the way, we learned a few important lessons.

Choose your topic carefully. Pick a topic that is relevant to your business but also useful to a broad group of people.
Plan, plan, plan. Gather all of your info and sketch out your ideas before jumping into the design.
Be funny. And be relevant. Or better, be both.
Minimize your text. It’s an infographic after all. If you want to ramble, write a blog post.
Craft your visuals carefully. No one is going to care about your infographic if it looks like it was designed as a PowerPoint chart.
Share it with the world. Post your pretty new graphic to all your social media outlets. Bonus: the closer you follow the first five tips, the more likely it is others will share your infographic to their social media outlets.

So, there you have it, our first SmallPond infographic. And we'd be happy to help you create one of your own.