Infographics are quite popular when it comes to viral content. People love to share visual media, and infographics are the best of both worlds: visual content and information. Infographics aren’t easy, however, and many people fail to create ones that really succeed. Here are six characteristics of a great infographic.

Valuable Information
Your infographic needs to be valuable to people, or they’ll have no reason to share it. Valuable information is information that people can use in some way, even if it’s just to learn about and gain insight into a relevant topic. The key there is “relevant.” If your information isn’t relevant to the present time and to your target audience, it won’t be valuable. Whenever you create an infographic, be sure to start with information your readers want.

Easy to Understand
The purpose of an infographic is to present a lot of data or information in a way that’s easier to understand and digest than just writing it all out in an article. When people look at your infographic, it should be very easy for them to understand the information you’re presenting – both the facts and their significance. If people are left scratching their heads (“What is that graph showing?”), your infographic attempt has failed.

Creative
Not everyone can create a stellar infographic, and you might need some help from a design team. People love infographics that are creative and interesting. If you find a way to represent the data that’s not only easy to understand but creative, too, people will pay attention. Most of the creativity will come into the actual design of the infographic, and perhaps the juxtaposition of facts. Colors, branding, images – be creative with it all.

Appropriate Length
Infographics can be of any size – they can be short or long – but they need to be appropriately sized for what they’re showing. You should try to include a lot of information in an infographic. Don’t overdo it with too many loosely related facts, but make your infographic hearty. Your infographic shouldn’t be too short, either, that it leaves out important or closely related and useful information. Make it long enough to get your point across, but short enough to keep a viewer’s attention.

Provides Citations
When people read your infographic, they’re going to wonder where you got your information. If they’re really interested, they’ll want to know where they can go to learn more about the data you’ve presented. Always provide citations for your information with URLs, if applicable. You’ll satisfy people’s curiosity, and you’ll be giving proper attribution to your sources.

Promoted
Finally, your infographic won’t succeed if no one sees it. You should aggressively promote your infographic across all channels, such as your blog, website, and social media. Get the word out, and encourage people to share with their friends. If you come across a forum or blog entry that discusses the topic of your infographic, leave a link to it – you’ll be providing valuable information to interested parties and getting more traffic to your site.

Joshua Reynolds is a marketing specialist writing in tandem with SEOMap. You can read more of their work at PRWave.