Infographics are all the rage at the moment, particularly with the rise in popularity of sites like Pinterest where visuals and images of statistics are being shared.

What are infographics?

Infographics are visual representation of data with small, relevant and clearly displayed nuggets of information. But infographics are not just useful to consume, they are also useful to produce for your business. People want their information quicker and using visuals are an excellent way to do this. Their eye-catching appeal draws more attraction than your average blog. Comprising interesting facts presented in a concise nature will maintain the attention of your readers, plus it's good to break up your blog with different types of content (video, articles, visuals etc) I recently shared an infograhic (Know Thy Internet Marketing Commandments) and found that generated a lot more shares than an average blog post. Using infographics is a great way to share content, get more backlinks and more traffic back to your blog.

How do you create an infographic?

Think of a good idea or something relevant to what you often write about. Research some fascinating facts and statistics. Develop arguments that are solid and relevant. Make conclusions.
Consider the best and most relevant format to convey your data. Infographics come in many different formats so think about how you wish to show your statistics - it might be timelines, flow charts, annotated maps, graphs, diagrams, size/value comparisons.
Aim to quickly convey the key points behind complex data. So keep it simple! Don't put too much in one picture
Decide on a relevant and attractive colour scheme. Think about your own branding here and whether you're keep it consistent to your own look and feel or will match it to the subject i.e. if you're creating an infographic on Facebook.
Reference your facts in the infographic.
Include your URL and company name so people can find out who created it.

The Top 15 Tools to create Infographics

Piktochart transforms information into compelling visual stories. Very easy to use and has customizable infographics. You can add icons and your own logo. Piktochart is an online image editor specifically for creating infographics. It has a nice selection of themes to use. Free to use although if you want to be able to choose more themes and have better customization prices from $9.99 a month.
Visual.ly is a great tool that allows you to generate a range of infographics almost instantly based on social metrics such as Twitter or Facebook data. Relatively new still they are adding to their categories. Very easy to use and free.
Fluxvfx is an awesome tool where you can create video infographics. It has a selection of templates and is easy to use. Prices start from $25.00.
Many Eyes allows you to upload your own data or use data stored on the site to create professional visualisations. The easiest way to use your own data for online visualisations. Lots of different options in terms of your final product, ranging from creating a world map to a network diagram.
Vizualize.me is a new app (currently in Beta) that creates an infographic of your resume. It works by taking a user's LinkedIn profile information (so you need to ensure your profile is s up-to-date) and turns it into a customizable infographic. It's a fabulous way to show off your skills, work history, expertise, connections and much more.
Infogr.am is still relatively new and has lots of features coming soon. Useful tool to create free interactive charts and infographics.
Vizify is a new Twitter infographic tool and showcases details from your tweetstream, including: top followers, geographic impact, most-retweeted posts, and more.
Photo Stats is an iPhone app which analyses all photos on your iPhone and generates cool stylish infographics which show how, when and where you take your photos.
Creately is a user-friendly tool that helps you to create professional diagrams and flow charts. You can choose from a number of purpose-designed diagram types and simply add your data to create your own chart.
Stat Planet is a great tool that creates interactive visualisations (or static images). Access to important worldwide data which you can usefully display through some great map visualisations. You can also customise your visualisations.
Hohli is an easy-to-use online chart maker. You can customise the look and feel of your chart. Simply pick your chart type, add some data, vary the sizes/colours.
Google Public Data Explorer - A very useful way to use public data to transform it into an infographic of your choice. Choose from numerous existing data sets. Perfect for creating attractive and colourful graphics to display your data. You can also embed these charts onto your website or blog.
Tagxedo turns words (famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters) into a visually stunning word cloud. Words are individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.
Wordle is a simple and easy to use tool to create effective word visualizations. Simply enter your own text (from short to long passages). Lots of different designs to choose from.
Cacoo is an online drawing tool that allows you to create a variety of diagrams including site maps, wire frames, UML and network charts. Allows real-time collaboration means multiple users can share and edit a single diagram simultaneously. Free to use.