Mark Smiciklas - The Power of Infographics: Using Pictures to Communicate and Connect With Your Audiences

Using Pictures to Communicate and Connect with Your Audiences

Mark Smiciklas

800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 USA

THE POWER OF INFOGRAPHICS

COPYRIGHT 2012 BY PEARSON EDUCATION, INC.

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7897-4949-9
ISBN-10: 0-7897-4949-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file and available upon request.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing: July 2012

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Greg Wiegand

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QUE BIZ-TECH EDITORIAL BOARD
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Mark Smiciklas is the president of Intersection Consulting, a Vancouver-based digital marketing and communications agency that teaches organizations how to leverage the dynamics of web 2.0 to achieve business goals. He is an established digital marketing and social media practitioner recognized for his visual thinking and strategic, no-nonsense approach. His service offering is framed by core beliefs in listening, stakeholder engagement, trust creation, and employee empowerment. An interest in the evolution of social business continues to motivate him, as does a passion for teaching. Smiciklas has developed and taught social media strategy classes for undergraduates and adult learners at a number of Canadian universities. He also has spoken about a wide variety of digital marketing topics at corporate and public events and workshops. His genuine love of technology and people continues to ignite ongoing learning and new thinking that aim to help individuals and organizations connect with their audiences. Smiciklas hangs out full time at intersectionconsulting.com/blog. He can be found on Twitter at @Intersection1. He is also a regular contributor to socialmediaexplorer.com, the popular digital and social media marketing and online communications blog. He lives in North Vancouver, BC, Canada with his lovely wife, three kids, and Max the dog.

For Jean, Alexander, Madeleine, and Emily. Your love and support make anything possible.

Writing a book has been an aspiration of mine for a while. This project could not have come to fruition without the help, support, and encouragement of my family, friends, and colleagues.

Thanks to Tammy Dewar at Calliope Learning for her insight and coaching, which helped ignite a latent passion in me for visual thinking. Her encouragement gave me the confidence to start creating and sharing my infographics. Thanks to David Armano at Edelman and darmano.typepad.com, whose idea art and thought leadership around visual literacy have inspired my work.

Thanks to Jason Falls at Social Media Explorer for giving me a platform to share my ideas and helping get this project off the ground.

A huge thank-you to the team at Pearson: Katherine Bull, Romny French, Lori Lyons, and Cindy Teeters. Their patience and support kept me on track and mitigated the stress associated with being a first-time author. Also, thanks to Michael Brito from Edelman and britopian.com for his insight and advice during the editing process.

Also, a monumental shout-out to Guy Kawasaki for writing the foreword.

Thanks to the designers, agencies, and organizations that agreed to share their information designs: Michael Anderson, David Armano, Boost Labs, Calliope Learning, Column Five, Course Hero, DIG360, Eloqua, Tom Fishburne, Dan Gustafson, Kronos, Miovision, MySpace, Shortstack, and TurboTax. Your infographics helped illustrate many of the ideas in the book and really brought the final product to life.

A special thank-you to all the smart folks who invested the time to participate in interviews: Ali Allage, David Armano, Jay Baer, Joe Chernov, Tammy Dewar, Jason Falls, Stephen Few, Tom Fishburne, Mike Harding, Andrew Harnden, Jason Lankow, Joe Pulizzi, Mark Schaefer, Brian Singh, Laura Shea Souza, Tyler Weaver, and Tom Webster. Your ideas, insights, and experiences were invaluable and added important depth and breadth to the book.

Also, thank you to my clients at Intersection Consulting and my colleagues in the Vancouver social media community for their support and kind words.

Last, but certainly not least, thanks to my wife and kids. Your unwavering support, understanding, and encouragement helped make this book possible. Remember, center of focus.

I hope you enjoy The Power of Infographics and that it helps you learn more about how information design can help you communicate and connect with your audiences. Id love to hear from you. If youre interested in chatting about the ideas in this book, please join the conversation at facebook.com/powerofinfographics, or feel free to connect on Twitter at @Intersection1.

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