Yesterday I noticed quite cool infographic being passed around online. Made by the guys at Trendstream, it maps social media access and involvement around the world.
I love infographics. I think they’re a smart, creative way of displaying data in a way that’s easy to understand and is engaging. I’ve also noticed that they seem to be becoming more common, permeating not only technical subjects, where they seem to have originated from, but other areas, such as mainstream media, design and of course, the internet.
So, inspired by the newest of social media infographics, I thought it might be useful to collect some of the better examples in one place as a source of inspiration and information. Links to the actual graphics are in the headline titles.
The World Map of Social Networks
Building a Company with Social Media
Facebook vs. Twitter
Map of Online Communities (2007)
The Life Cycle of a Blog
The Conversation Prism
Gender Balance on Social Networking Sites
Twitter Statistics
This is only a selection of what's out there. What other social media infographics did I miss? Leave your comments/links below.
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Online PR/Social Media Consultant at Econsultancy
10:49AM on 16th December 2009
Good article Jake.
I'm a visual person so I'm a big fan of infographics to simplify complex information.
Infographics are great social objects and can be fun (e.g. the value of household chores) as well as serious (e.g. key scare stories that peak in the media). An underused tool in PR and marketing.
On your theme of social media infographics, this one is pretty good:
http://labs.digg.com/365/
10:52AM on 16th December 2009
Great infographics indeed, thanks for sharing Jake.I think this is one of the best way to share information because it can be easily digested by human brain.
I got through this one on Search and Social named social media statistics,they have highlighted some key stats about people using some specific social networks.
2:00PM on 16th December 2009
social network is great , can get connect people around the world..
Social Media Specialist at MikeStenger.com
12:53AM on 17th December 2009
Thanks for these Jake. I particularly liked the Facebook v. Twitter and thought the "If the Twitter community were 100 people" was actually very insightful. Pretty interesting that around 20% are dead accounts and with any site, there always the elite few who are power users. Definitely not me, hint hint
2:24AM on 17th December 2009
Excellent graphics, they really show the power of a good graphic to convey information.
I do have one concern; the one titled, "Building a Company with Social Media," reflects a point of view that is way too common, and which I think will come back to haunt companies just getting into social media.
The graphic ignores the most important reason people want to interact with your company through social media. They want to find answers to questions and solutions to problems.
Maybe, if your company doesn't have complex products, you can get away with only your marketing, PR, and sales people on social media. But, if your company has a product with any complexity (which for the moment I'll define as being complex enough to need a manual), you MUST engage your designers, engineers, technical communicators, support engineers, and anyone else who can provide answers and solutions for your customers.
If you don't, customers will rightly consider you to be clueless, and your social media effort will become just another (expensive) billboard to be ignored.
More and more, technical communicators and other technically savvy people are realizing that social media will not only transform marketing and PR, but also the dissemination of product information. A good example of the technical communication perspective is Anne Gentle's new book, Conversation and Community: The Social Web for Documentation, which shows how technical communicators and marketers can work together to give customers the content they need, with the marketing message the company wants.
9:03AM on 17th December 2009
superb graphics like the presentation alot has info in this which is useful to assimilate for each owns own self
9:44AM on 17th December 2009
I did not know Infographics, I will refer to this website in the future. I am the founder of a new international Social Network Blomap and of a Social Media Agency in Switzerland Swissite International. Data presented this way are very helpful!
Senior Research Analyst at Econsultancy
11:50AM on 17th December 2009
@Michelle: Love the Digg link. Perhaps this is the way infographics is heading: more interactivity and engagement, rather than a static image? I’m sure there’s more like this one floating around the internet... I’ll try and root them out.
@Akash: Thanks for this. Useful image, although the information is a little out of date.
@Mike: Cheers, glad you found these interesting. There’s always time to become a power-user ;-)
@Richard: All good points, many (if not all) are covered elsewhere across Econsultancy. My aim with pulling these infographics together was simply to demonstrate that in a complex area, such as social media, images can be used to convey information quickly and clearly, which you’ve noted :-)
12:17PM on 17th December 2009
very nice job, to put them all together, here! I think the is only the beginning!
6:34AM on 18th December 2009
Really nice infographics os social media. The trend of social media in 2009 is really increased, Almost every person is connected to social networks like facebook and twitter, whether the person is businessman or any entreprenuer. Thanks for sharing info :)
6:48PM on 19th December 2009
Isn't it amazing how outdated the 2007 Map of Online Communities looks?
11:11AM on 20th December 2009
Get a lot of social media related infographics on my blog http://socialmediagraphics.posterous.com/.
BTW, why was my first comment deleted? You asked for links.
9:11PM on 22nd December 2009
I've had this tab opened for day and I am glad I finally read it. Good job!!
SEO Specialist at High Position
7:44AM on 29th December 2009
Wonderful infographics on social media ... I found the conversation prism particularly illuminating ....
9:17PM on 29th December 2009
Cool infographics. But you're forgetting one thing: Powerize.
4:49PM on 6th January 2010
The Facebook v Twitter thing didn't really give any actual numbers for Twitter users. Just increases. Proving what? I don't know anybody using Twitter. They have a good PR company I guess. The only real figure that shows anything useful is that Microsoft value 1.6% of Facebook as being almost equivalent to the whole of Facebook!
4:51PM on 6th January 2010
of Twitter it should say at the end there. Shame you can't edit posts on your system!
1:20PM on 12th February 2010
I only knew a couple of these. It’s a great list: thoughtful and interesting. It really shows how images can easily deliver a powerful message. It’s not always the case, but when it’s well done and well thought, it works great.
11:24PM on 14th June 2010
Social networking makes the world smaller.