5 Steps to Create an Infographic Resume for Your Business

[toc]Infographics resumes have become a common staple online and in social media networks. Their usefulness is directly tied to the compelling visual components that infographics offer, people first starting using them to replace posts, as content, then people started using them to for their resumes, to stand out from the rest, and what I’m suggesting today is that you use it to create a resume for your business, more like a presentation and introduction to your business, your background as entrepreneur, or your businesses features, etc.

When I created my first infographic, I wish someone would have provided information on how to create an infographic resume for newbies, because I really struggled. But don’t worry I’ll give you my piece of mind about how to create successful infographics, I’ll share the necessary steps for you to complete this process effectively.

For this particular demonstration, I’ll outline how someone would create an infographic resume for his or her business.

1. Write a Description about Your Business

All popular infographic resumes contain good content. Writing a description on what your business is about – and what you do during any given day – is a great place to start. Your business description will serve as the backbone to your infographic’s message, also functioning as an outline for when you get to the point where you are ready to create the images.

There are two ways to go with regards to writing your business description. You’ll need to decide whether you want to focus on just a particular service or service line that your business is known for, or if you want to focus on all of the services offered by your business in their entirety.

Keep in mind, the most important and critical factor (second to design) of an infographic’s success is the message or substance. If the substance isn’t engaging, timely, or useful to a specific audience, then stop right now. Seriously, just stop. Figure out a business related topic that will fit the criteria needed to compel individuals to read your infographic resume and share it. Do not proceed until you have an engaging subject matter for your infographic resume.

2. Find a Benchmark Design for Infographic Resumes on your Industry

Now that you’ve written a description about your business, it’s time to find good examples of infographics that relate to your business’ specific industry.

There are a variety of websites with fantastic examples of which to derive inspiration. Here are a few to get your creative juices flowing:

· 75 Best Infographics on the Web

· Business Infographics by Design Infographics

· Business Infographics and Data Visualizations by visual.ly

As you browse various designs, look for the elements that you like and don’t like. What colors seem to evoke emotion or reaction? Are there colors that relate well to your industry (for example, green for an eco-friendly business)?

Select a few infographic resume examples to base your design off of, or provide to a graphic designer for mock up.

3. Build the Infographic with the Description You’ve Written

Based on the business description you wrote in Step 1, you’ll begin by creating the graphics to be contained in your infographic resume.

Hiring a Graphic Designer
If you don’t have graphic design experience or aren’t comfortable creating graphics from scratch, it’s okay. There are designers available for hire on websites like ODesk , Guru.com or Freelancer.com . Hiring a professional is often more inexpensive than trying to go it alone. You’ll find that graphic designers with experience designing infographics will be able to whip out a custom design based on your specifications relatively quickly.

If you go this route, make sure you have all of the details you compiled in Steps 1 and 2 to provide to the contracted designer. The designer will need the information you’d like to highlight in the infographic, the goal of the infographic and examples of infographic resume designs that you like or wish to emulate.

Purchasing a Template
Another option available to you is purchasing an infographic template that is already predesigned for you that allows easy customization of the graphics to suit your particular situation and needs. On websites like graphicriver.net you can search by category for infographics. There are nearly 500 templates available, ranging in pricing from $4 up to $20, and one should fit your needs nicely. Template pricing can be variable but is often determined by the quality of the design, newness of the designer, number of sales, and instructions that are included. If a designer is very good at their work, they’ll be able to garner a higher price. In comparison, if a designer is good but rather new at selling on the website their work is listed on, they will probably list templates for a lesser price until they gather some good ratings. So, don’t let lower prices necessary deter you from purchasing a template. If you are thorough in your review of templates, you can find some great deals.

Visit Graphicsriver to see discounts and awesome infographics

Designing Graphics on your Own
If you’ve made it this far, I’ll assume that you are proficient in graphic design programs, or you’d like to give the design portion a shot. If you are an experienced designer, you’ll already know which programs that work best for this kind of design work. While you can use photo editing software (like Adobe Photoshop), the best kind of software to use is a program like Adobe Illustrator.

If you are an Illustrator newbie, you can download a free trial of the software on Adobe’s website . There is a plethora of tutorials online that teach various techniques and tool usage with regards to using Illustrator. Here’s an excellent tutorial on creating an infographic in Illustrator, which is video driven. This particular tutorial is almost five hours in length and requires a subscription. However, it may be worth the time and the subscription fee if you really need lots of handholding through the design process and you’re determined to learn how to design these graphics on your own.

Once you’ve got your graphics designed and ready for publication, you’re ready to move on to Step 4.

4. Make an HTML Version of the Infographic

Making an HTML version of your finalized infographic resume is a great way to drive search engine traffic to your business website or blog. You’ll either need experience creating websites or you’ll have to go the route of hiring a web designer to put the pieces together for you. The good news is this step is a lot less painful than Step 3: Building the Infographic.

Hiring a Web Designer
If you already have a website, chances are you’ve already employed a web designer either in-house or contracted out. You can provide your web designer your newly created infographic resume and the corresponding SEO (search engine optimization) key words that are important for you to target to gather traffic to your infographic and website.

If you do not yet have a website or would like to hire a new web designer to put together your infographic’s HTML version, you can utilize resources mentioned in Step 3 to find a quality contracted designer.

Creating the HTML on your Own
Ideally, you’ll have HTML experience if you are attempting this method. If so, you’ll be well versed in the finer intricacies of HTML code writing or using a WYSWIG (what you see is what you get) code generator like Adobe Dreamweaver.

If you are an HTML code newbie, and you really, really want to do this step on your own, first I have to ask, are you a glutton for punishment? Now that I have that out of the way, I’ll direct you to various web design tutorials available. (Although these links may appear a bit dated, they still contain good, timeless information.)

· 40+ Web Design and Development Resources for Beginners

· 10 Hand-Picked Tutorials for Beginning Web Designers

SEO for Infographics
If you’ve focused on creating an infographic with interesting or appealing information, then yeah for you! It will assist you as you determine your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy. I’d advise you work with an SEO or SEM (search engine marketing) expert if you are truly expecting major traffic based on inbound linking from your infographic. SEO is much more complicated, time consuming, and difficult than many tend to believe. (If it’s done correctly, that is.)

If you are one of the few individuals that insist on doing this part yourself, first bash your head against the wall a few times to regain your senses. Once that is out of the way, and you’ve found your still determined to do SEO on your own, here are a few resources that may assist you in this endeavor:

· SEO for Infographics, by Hara Partners

· The SEO Benefit of Infographics

· Searching Engine Optimization for Dummies Cheat Seat (sorry, couldn’t help myself)

5. Post to Every Social Media Outlet known to Man

I can imagine what you’re thinking. Why would I need to post my business related infographic resume to Twitter or Facebook? My reply: because it could blow up on social media. (Blow up is a good thing, by the way.)

But don’t focus your efforts on just the two most known social media sites mentioned above. Consider Pinterest. Pinterest is a great place to promote your infographic, as it’s a visual image sharing forum.

Here’s a few social media marketing resources:

· The Ultimate Pinterest Marketing Guide, by MoneyDiver

· The 15 Most Popular Social Media Networking Sites, by eBiz

· What is Social Media Marketing?

“It will work. I am a marketing genius.”
– Paris Hilton

Don’t assume that your infographic resume will work, just because you think it’s a great idea. Often, the best marketed and most expensive ideas fall flat. And, the original ideas that are timely and strike a cord have a longer life span. With this in mind, throw it on the wall and see what sticks. If it slides off the wall, try throwing something else up. Chances are, you’ll succeed sooner or later.

Share your comments below!

Sources for images: FLICKR