In case you haven’t noticed, Pinterest has exploded over the past year and a half. In fact, it is now the fourth largest driver of traffic worldwide. The lesson to learn is that visual content moves the masses. Ryan Wilson at Business2Community has some clever ways to  increase social media engagement by using more images in your posts.

1. Create your own Meme

They are easy to create and give a fun, lighthearted vibe rather than a more desperate, “we want your business” type of message that drives away social media users. And they are literally everywhere.

2. Infographics

We’ve used quite a few on this very blog. They contain a ton of information that you would never read an entire article to glean.

3. Regular Photos

Old school and timeless. Whether it’s of customers, your store or your new product, take a picture and share it with the masses.

4. Take Submissions

Ask your audience to send in their own pics of them utilizing your products. They do the heavy lifting but you reap the benefits.

The point is, be creative and visual. You’ll see a remarkable difference.

 

INFOGRAPHIC

In 2012, even nonprofits were utilizing social media. MDG Advertising looked into this developing trend and found that the inclusion of social media marketing meant more exposure and more donations for these organizations, as reported by The Huffington Post.

The innovation of ‘Giving Tuesday’, which grew over social media, is a glowing example of what is possible when online marketing is utilized properly. The model used by nonprofits is not revolutionary. Rather, it is simply a testament to why putting the time and effort into social media marketing is necessary.

While you browse the included infographic, think about how you can increase your conversions through a better social media strategy.

As the year draws to a close, everyone of course looks to what the past year indicates for the one coming up. I’ve already covered one article of year end analysis, and now Search Engine Watch and Mavenlink have made an infographic covering what SEO professionals are saying about the state of SEO in 2012.

What is notable about both of these year-end opinions is that they are both extremely optimistic about the future of SEO. As the internet becomes somehow even more pervasive in our every day life, more and more opportunities for SEO to grow become apparent, and there is no sign of it slowing down.

Budgets are growing, companies are paying more attention, and SEO teams are getting bigger. SEO is finally even beginning to be seen as an entity seperate from regular marketing. Before long, SEO might be really known outside of the marketing community.

You’ve probably already heard about the importance of images on the web. They catch the eye, foster interest, and statistically make people spend more time on any text than they would without pictures.

It’s all true, visual media is consistently present in your life, and the amount of websites and social media platforms centering on visual media are becoming more and more popular. In a society where almost everyone has a smartphone with a respectable quality camera, pictures are only going to become more ubiquitous.

Veer, a service for images, illustrations, and fonts, made an infographic to try to convey the importance of images online today. The graphic covers the history of internet graphics, and the popularity of image-based social media such as Flickr, Pinterest, and Instagram. They also have an animated version of the infographic here.

Think of logos for the biggest businesses right now. Maybe you’re thinking of Facebook, or Twitter, or maybe you went towards technology manufacturers like Intel, Philips, or Dell. You may have even thought of a huge company like GE. Either way, the logos you thought of were most likely blue.

The colors of a logo are always important, as they decide how viewers will respond to your company. Restaurants or people handling food will often use green to convey a healthy image, or red because it supposedly stimulates appetite. While those colors work for that market, blue works for almost any non-food related business.

Helen Bailey from Web Designers Blog wrote one of many articles exploring why blue works so well for branding, but if you really want to explore the use of blue for branding, check out the infographic from Template Monster. The static version is below, but they have an interactive version at their site.

The UK web hosting company Heart Internet wanted to find out who web designers are and what their opinions are on their profession. They asked 500 designers and while that is far from being representative of the entire industry, the results are pretty much in line with what you would expect.

Firstly, Heart Internet found that 78% of all web designers are male. There are definitely female designers out there, but I think most figured web design was still a male majority.

Eighty-percent believe work is hard to find, and three-fourths don’t expect it to get better in the near future. That makes it shocking that 77% feel secure in their job security, probably because most designers are freelancers anyways.

The rest of the results are compiled into this infographic. There are some very interesting findings.

When Siri was announced with the iPhone 4S, it didn’t bring about a revolution in search activity on phones. Most still search by typing keywords into Safari or Chrome. However, gradually, Siri and mobile apps are changing search habits and creating new opportunities for search marketers.

The Alchemy Viral crew gives us an infographic which helps cover everything about searching with Siri and mobile searching in general.

There is one error, which Search Engine Land helps point out. The infographic says Siri draws from social services, but Siri can only help users post things to Twitter or Facebook. It can’t help them get information back from those social sites.

With mobile searching poised to overtake desktop within two years, this infographic can be helpful to anyone interested in mobile searching.

Oh, and the creator of the infographic isn’t bad with spelling. They are just British, hence “optimisation,” instead of the American spelling.

[INFOGRAPHIC] Quality Score

The quality score of your site is extremely important. If you’ve got a high score, Google makes it easy for your page to prosper. You’ll appear higher in search results, your ads can appear in the top, shaded region of results and it will cost you less per click of your ads.

As Neil Spencer reports for Business2Community, in order to ensure you get these advantages, you need to know how Google judges your site and how you can improve it.

Your ads should be specific and highly targeted. Google is looking for the relevance of the keywords you’ve chosen to your landing page and your ads. Also, make sure your landing page contains relevant, original content that’s updated often and is easy to navigate.

The included infographic is courtesy of DigitalNetAgency

It is becoming undeniable that responsive websites are becoming the norm. As more people use tablets and smartphones to browse the internet, responsive web designs that easily adapt to different devices are becoming the smartest way to design a site.

The problem, as with any new design method, is getting started when you don’t know much about making your site responsive. Luckily for anyone with this issue, we have a comprehensive infographic from Helen Bailey at Demortalz that covers all of the basics of responsive design, from basic vocabulary and suggested reading to free PDF books and a suggested toolkit. There is even a dynamic version available that is designed like a game.

No matter which version you prefer, this infographic will help you get started making responsive designs which are quickly becoming standard.

 

Consistently creating good quality content is not easy. For copywriters, good content is something that really connects with readers, and while some can churn out content like robots, most of us have to invest a lot of time and effort.

Of course, practice will always make you a better content creator. Having an intimate understanding of copywriting and how it works is the foundation you will be building on. We all know a solid foundation is important.

Thankfully, the folks at ABC Copywriting have everything you could ever need to know about the copywriting processes all in one infographic. They include a walkthrough of every step of copywriting, as well as tips for quality sales letters, information documents and webpages. With it, you will have a solid base of information to become a great content creator and copywriter.