The Internet is overflowing with information. In a single day, we watch the equivalent of 168 million DVDs, write 2 million blog posts, and upload 864,000 hours of videos to YouTube (source: Mashable). So how can you stand out from the competition, get noticed, and create a buzz without drowning in a sea of information? Words don’t always cut it. These days, there are several tricks you can use to dress up your information. Videos, webinars, and infographics are all part of the new content marketing trend.

Infographics are what you get when you cross information with graphics. They are clear and concise visual and graphic representations of complex information, data, or knowledge, and they’re one of the major trends of 2012. This Mashable article provides a good analysis of these new web trends, explaining how the recent success of Pinterest, Instagram, and the new Facebook Timeline is forcing companies to think and act visually.

The infographics invasion

These days, infographics lead to more infographics. Hundreds of infographics are created every day. Internet users share them, companies ask for them—it’s an explosion! It seems that just about anything is an excuse to make an infographic—even infographics themselves. Pick a topic, throw in a few key figures, an attractive design, and presto! The hottest topics are web technologies, recent web developments, social media, and new marketing. Other topics include education, tourism, politics, health, life, business, animals—whatever. There are infographics on all sorts of weird and wonderful things, like beards, and even death ! There’s something for everyone. Thanks to social media, infographics can spread worldwide and are shared on a massive scale, triggering what’s known as viral marketing. If an infographic is successful, it can have a real impact on a business’s reputation, driving traffic to the company’s website, optimizing its search engine ranking, and showcasing the company’s expertise on a subject.

Here are two infographics about infographics that explain the recent explosion.

Infographistory – Infographics past and present

The infographics invasion

The appeal of infographics

This is the age of information. Now that cell phones, computers, and other techno tools are an integral part of our daily lives, everywhere we look, we’re bombarded with gigabits of information. With so much info out there, we just can’t take it all in.

With a little design and colour, infographics can give information a second chance. Certain topics are well-suited to infographics, like science and technology, which can come off as too complex with just words. Complex subjects are made more simple and clear when they are illustrated visually with colours and symbols. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. Infographics can grab people’s attention and reach a large audience, providing information about the world around them.

Infographics have become so popular because they make information accessible in a fun, visual, and original way. VentureBeat.com’s article lays out the pros and cons of infographics.

Here are a few pro-infographics all about infographics:

The how and why of infographics

How to create great infographics

The dark side of infographics

Not everyone is singing the praises of infographics. For some folks, “infographics are a great tool for lazy bloggers, giving little value to readers.”

With infographics, aesthetics often take precedence over quality content, much to the chagrin of many bloggers. Just because a fact is presented beautifully doesn’t mean it’s true. In fact, sources—assuming they actually exist—aren’t always cited. But with infographics popping up on anything and everything, both the technique and its creators are at risk of losing credibility. Here are a couple of articles that delve deeper into the subject: Read Write Web compares infographics to the devil, while howinteractivedesign.com’s article explains why we should not be creating infographics.

What better way to bash infographics than with an infographic!

Infographics Are Ruining the Internet

The Truth About Infographics (An infographic-backlash infographic)

The moral of the story? Ingest infographics in moderation (or at least with a grain of salt)!

Original translated by syllabus.

The little engine that could . . .

That little engine is, of course, none other than Facebook and the number of users is what’s steadily climbing. Facebook now has 901 million users and is on track to pass the billion mark in August. Statistics show that 58 percent of active users log on every day (guilty as charged) and 54 percent log on with their smartphones, which brings me to my next point—Facebook’s mobile presence.

Flashback to Instragram—Facebook’s costly purchase which caused a lot of ink to spill (not to mention moolah)

Marc Zuckerberg showed his flair for business by getting a whopping 50-percent discount on the purchase of this photo-sharing app. In fact, according to an article in SocialTimes, Instagram founder Kevin Systrom initially asked for a modest $2 billion. For us mortals, these figures are staggering, but for a social media god like Facebook, $1 billion is just one percent of the company—a mere drop in the bucket.

Numerous theories have been circling in the last two weeks that explain the purchase which strikes me as a tad compulsive given how sudden it was.

Theory No. 1: Twitter, social media’s No. 2, also had its eye on the app. This could explain why Mark Zuckerberg made the decision in just one weekend, without outside input!

Theory No. 2: The potential of mobile technology: economic, gigantic, and fantastic (insert more “ics”). The power of smartphones is on the up—in part due to the increased number of smartphone users, nearly 500 million, (this infographic illustrates the explosion of mobile), in part due to the marketing opportunities it represents for companies. Facebook heeded the advice “Be where your users are” and hopped on the mobile bandwagon by purchasing the application (hey, that rhymes!).

Theory No. 3: Facebook’s stock market debut is slated for May 17, 2012. The purchase will raise the company’s value and stocks. Anybody else hear ABBA’s "Money Money Money"?

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most influential of them all?

The mirror is called Klout, an app that measures your influence on the main social networks—your e-reputation as it were. How does it work? Just log on to your accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) at this site and bingo! But bloggers tend to differ in their opinions on it, dishing out both praise and criticism. The fact is that in the last few months, Klout has got people talking. The app’s interest lies in being able to share your score with other social network users, compare yourself to them, and create a buzz. 

Dying to know who’s No. 1? Well, wonder no more because Mashable has come up with a list of the top 100 influencers in the world! And the lucky winner with a perfect 100 Klout score is 18-year-old superstar Justin Bieber who’s been driving tweens wild the world round. His video “Baby” is the most watched YouTube clip of all time with 731,841,279 views! Curious? Sappy? Click here. 

Happy listening!