There are many trending topics happening this week.  I could discuss this year’s best Super Bowl ad.  The return of Ferris Bueller – hands down, am I right?  Seriously... I think I’ll just watch FBDO for the 1,000^th time on Sunday instead of the Super Bowl.  Why aren’t my days off half as glamorous as that one?  Must be the car…

Anyways, today I’ll be talking about Infographics.  Infographics are everywhere.  Just go on Mashable and every other entry contains an Infographic.  There are Infographics about what people look up on Facebook, how we use Twitter, the economy, the election…there are even infographics about infographics...lots of them

Wouldn’t all this information be better presented in a list?  I know you’d love that Dave….

Some people just love Infographics.... here's what Blue Wheel Media says about them:

"Infographics have the ability to transform a boring collection of statistics, facts and figures, into a stunning masterpiece that you won't be able to keep to yourself.  Upon finding a great infographic, the reader is overcome with a thrill of discovery - almost like an adrenaline rush, triggering desire to share."

So if this is true, how can you apply this latest trend to your business and have the biggest impact with your documents?  If I had any design talent, I would create my own infographic with pie charts, symbols, squiggly lines and shiny colours, but I’ll just have to do a list

People respond to visuals – so don’t be too texty.

Keep it short

People are busy, we have lots of things to do and we get distracted easily.  So if you want us to read your quarterly sales report, keep it short…because after page 1, I’ll be bouncing over to YouTube or checking out Perez Hilton.

And it the same vein:

Keep it simple

Avoid jargon, fancy abbreviations or acronyms.  Don’t use 4 words when 1 would suffice.  Forget complicated – use simple, direct, easy-to-understand words that every single one of your audience will get.  No one wants to feel condescended to when reading that ubiquitous sales pitch. Indubitably!

Don’t just dress it up, back it up

I thought for my inaugural blog post as the newest Account Manager at Infinity Communications, I’d talk about something that I find absolutely fascinating, especially in light of some recent events that happened this weekend: #trending.

#trending might sound a little complex but not to worry, it really isn’t.  It simply means that many people are talking about a given topic through Twitter at a greater rate than other topics, so the topic becomes singled out…and trends. 

Twitter has changed the communication landscape.  People can get breaking news the second it happens, as long as they are on Twitter.   Nobody has to wait for it to be reported in that evening’s news broadcast or in tomorrow’s newspaper (I can’t even imagine waiting that long to get news anymore).  Everything is instant.  Then people talk about it and then more people will talk about it and before you know it, the topic is now trending.

These days, trending is now a goal.  I get inundated with twitter messages asking me to retweet something to get it trending.  Sometimes I participate, most times I don’t.  To me, it’s the same thing as spam.  Once in my news feed, there was a message about a girl who had passed away and her wish was to become a trending topic, so pls RT! – hashtag sad.  Obviously they didn’t read the rules about Trending Topics from Twitter’s Help Centre:

This past weekend, we had two big trending topics in the Twitter-verse, #tebow and #BlueIvy.

#tebow was trending in a big way this weekend after Tim Tebow’s and the Denver Bronco’s game-winning OT performance in Sunday’s NFL game.  Twitter exploded with everyone talking about this game…to the point that it made records.  It became the 2^nd highest Tweet Per Second topic ever with 9,420 tweets going out each second about Tebow and the game.  That is over 565,000 tweets per minute! 

(FYI the highest Tweet per second topic was ‘Castle in the Sky’, a Japanese anime movie that had 25,088 tweets per second… I can’t even wrap my head around how many tweets per minute that is – over 1.5 million!)

Now Tebow has become a bit of a social media phenomenon, with his touchdown stance of kneeling to thank God becoming a trend in itself.  All you need to do is google #tebowing and you can see all the websites, the blogs, the YouTube videos, the t-shirts and all the photos uploaded with Instagram of people copying the stance.

#BlueIvy... In case you haven’t heard, Beyonce and Jay-Z became parents this weekend!  Beyonce gave birth to her daughter and named her Blue Ivy Carter.  It’s worth noting that when Beyonce announced her pregnancy, she placed third in the Tweet Per Second record books with 8,868 tweets per second on the topic, so it’s well established that Beyonce has a powerful brand and a heavy following. 

Within seconds of the birth announcement, #BlueIvy was trending and with that came all of the critiques and conspiracy theories about the baby’s name.…in the past 48 hours since she was born, several more trending topics have emerged: #B.I.C., #Glory – after the song Jay-Z released commemorating the birth, #whatIwouldnameBeyoncesbaby.  This baby is already famous and she’s only two days old!

Now it’s all in good fun talking about the latest pop-culture topics in social media, but what does this mean for your business?

Well first of all, if your business isn’t already set up on Twitter, DO IT NOW!!  Get your voice out there, connect with people and start conversations with your target demographic and key players in your industry! 

Get people talking about your business by posting relevant, engaging content and interacting with your followers.  Talk about your business' products and services, promotions, calls to action.  Keep your eye out for the negative and do your best to diffuse any situation and turn your foes into fans.

REMEMBER– be strategic and careful with the messaging that you post.  As easily as positive messages can go viral and trend like #tebow and #BlueIvy, the not-so-positive messages can trend just as fast and just as much.  And the last thing you want is to be associated with a controversial, trending message.

Leverage the power of your brand and your followers will become your advocates and ambassadors.  Odds are you won’t see trending numbers like #tebow and #BlueIvy are getting, but positive word of mouth will only drive your business forward.  So get out there and get #trending!

Alana Seale

The Social Networking page of 5 years, passed away peacefully after a courageous battle with designers.

Beloved child of Jack Dorsey and predeceased by the new version of Twitter.com, as well as marketers, brands, companies, and users who announce what they're having for dinner. The Old Version of Twitter is now resting peacefully beside its devoted cetacean The Fail Whale.

A memorial gathering will be held online in various Facebook groups and Twitter feeds. The Old Version of Twitter is perhaps more familiar and will be missed, but we will adjust. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to charity. To share an on-line condolence, visit the new Twitter.com