Creating social media content takes time. And creating great social media content takes even more time. But what if you don’t have time? With the right tools, you can create amazing visuals in few minutes.

1. Creating engaging
visuals in minutes
Val Shapiro, IFRC
Design & Multimedia

2. How we process
information
90%
of information sent to
the brain is visual.
Source: (MIT)
65%
of people are visual
learners. Source:
(Pearson)

3. How we process
information
people retained
10%
of the information
people retained
65%
of the information
days
later×3
Source: Brain Rules

4. Visual content
in social media
+150%
retweets more compared to
tweets without images.
Source: (Buffer)
Tweets with images
receive
+94%
more views than content without
relevant images. Source: (Quick
Sprout)
Content with relevant
images gets
×3 times
more than other any other type
of content.
Source: (NN Group)
Infographics are liked
and shared
×3

5. Infographics
Viewers don’t need
to invest too much time
– visual representations of information
in a clear and concise way
One glance is enough
to understand the main idea
Effective infographics
can tell a great story
Why infographics are so powerful:

6. Infographics
Fundraising
When can be useful:
Social media Comms during
emergencies
Videos and
animations
Where can be used:
Social media posts
(FB, TW,
Instagram, etc.)
Marketing
promotional
materials

7. Infographics
types
Long traditional

8. Infographics
types
Micro
Sometimes a micro infographic is
all you need to present a single
piece of information in a visual
way. Also, they are much easier
to share on social media
in a square format.

9. Infographics
types
Icon-based

10. Infographics
types
Illustrated

11. Infographics
types
Illustrated

12. Infographics
types
Photographic

13. Infographics
types
Animated

14. Infographics
types
Interactive
These infographics usually have
interactive buttons and
hyperlinks.

15. Check your data. Show
data that make sense.
Show, not tell your
information. Only include
important text.
Select the right data
visualization that is
easy to understand.
Use colors smartly. Create
one color palette and
follow it.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Infographics:
useful tips

16. Infographics:
useful tips
Choose maximum two fonts
(titles and body text)
Don’t use too many
filters and effects
Choose one style for
your icons Keep it simple
5.
6.
7.
8.

17. Infographics
example
17 different languages
More than 10 000 shares
Just a single post from the German
Red Cross was shared 6700 times
on Facebook!
Why:
• Timely and relevant
• Simple and concise
• Friendly style
• Easy to edit
(Canva template)
https://bit.ly/2kr82pZ

18. Creating social media content takes time.
And creating great social media content takes
even more time.
But what if you don’t have time?
With the right tools, you can create amazing
visuals in few minutes.
Time

19. Amazingly simple online graphic design
software.
Create high-quality graphics quickly using
templates, layouts and design elements —
even on the free plan.
canva.com
Tutorials: designschool.canva.com
Canva

21. Create impactful social graphics, web
pages, and short videos in minutes.
Pick a photo, add text, and apply design
filters or animations to create social media
content easily.
spark.adobe.com
Tutorials: spark.adobe.com/make
Spark

23. Icons, maps,
graphics
The largest database
of free vector icons in
SVG, PSD, PNG, EPS
format or as ICON
FONT.
flaticon.com
More than 3 millions
free vectors, PSD,
photos, free icons and
graphic resources that
you need.
freepik.com
Highly detailed, easily
customisable and
consistent library of
vector maps
for free.
freevectormaps.com

24. Other useful
tools
http://bit.ly/IFRConepagers

25. Instagram
Stories
• Make content relatable to the audience
and link it to your key messages
(example: Climate Change)
• Ask your viewers questions, make it a
dialogue – not a monologue

26. Instagram
Stories
• Native functionality (quizzes, polls, emoji
sliders, gifs) makes stories more
engaging
• Cute illustrations work extremely well

27. Instagram
Stories
• Find new ways of explaining
complicated topics
(example: Liquefaction story we
produced after Sulawesi tsunami and
earthquake)

28. Instagram
Stories
• A timely bad-quality video, showing
natural disaster and people in
action, is much more successful
than an amazing video done by a
crew a month later

29. Instagram
Stories
For the best result use a mix of:
• Illustrations and simple infographics
• Videos (relevant and timely)
• Photos with quotes
• Native functionality (quizzes, polls,
emoji sliders, gifs)
Suggested length of the story
is no more than 10 slides
Follow our Insta account
for more inspiration:
instagram.com/ifrc

30. Thank you!
For more information,
please contact:
Val Shapiro:
valentina.shapiro@ifrc.org
X-Media Team, Communications
department, IFRC