As written for and published by Social Media Today
Infographics for the Masses
Thanks to Visual.ly, we can now all do it–create our very own infographic. The company’s latest release enables users to create an infographic almost instantly, based on their Twitter profile. This is one of what we socialites anticipate will be many web-based, user-generated infographics tools released this year by the trail-blazing company.
Built in collaboration with industry leading experts, this Visual.ly tool uses data from our Twitter tweets (posts) combined with some twitter data to generate a visual representation of your Twitter life. Data partner, InfoChimps provides your archived Twitter data. The self-proclaimed “Twitterize yourself tool” pulls it together with some colorful, hip graphics and gives you a ready-to-share infographic in less than a minute. Now that’s cool.
The website says the “‘outfits’ and ‘accessories’ [for your profile] are chosen based upon keywords most associated for you.” So these accessories are based contextually upon your interests and themes you tweet about. But sadly, I don’t tweet about my goatee. Guys, can you hook me up? It looks as if you Facebook “friend” and Twitter “follow” them, the folks at Visual.ly may actually make you, your own custom Avatar. That’s good engagement marketing.
SocialMktgFella vs. Kim
I’m big on gamification, and this tool provides elements of it. You can generate two different infographic types: Solo, or comparative. I did both. My solo one was hardly exciting, so I played around with the “faceoff” version and had a lot of fun.
Clearly, my Twitter life pales in comparison to Kim Kardashian’s. Just how much so, is made clearly obvious by this clever, fun tool. I’m delighted that my avatar and hers wear similar shoes, because I know she dresses well. Male Jimmy Choo boots? You decide:
Visual.ly gives special props to their development partners InfoChimps and AlchemyAPI. So do I. What you guys are doing is fantastic, and we social media feinds are endebted to you.
Keep up the good work, and let us know when you need testers for your next beta.