Presentation on using infographics and graphics tools on social media. March 2017.

1. Tell Your Visual Story: Online Graphic
and Infographic Tools for Non-
Designers
Evelyn McCormack
Mack Digital Communications
INSPRA 2017

2. Where You Can Find This Presentation
www.slideshare.net/evelynmccormack
Google Drive

3. Hello, Non-Designers
 No Adobe Illustrator
 No CorelDraw
 No Photoshop
 No vector images
 No designing from scratch
I write well and take mediocre photographs.
I’m not a designer.

4. Infographic Tools: Canva, Piktochart, Easel.ly,
Venngage
 All allow users to create infographics using range of templates.
 Free versions available on Piktochart and Easel.ly, but limited in scope.
 Pro Piktochart: $40 a year for individual education accounts.
 Easel.ly Pro account is $3 a month, but have 50% education plan you can apply for.
 Free accounts offer handful of templates, but paid versions offer more.
 There’s always Canva!
 Today, we’re using Piktochart and Canva
 We’ll also take a look at using Adobe Spark Page and Spark Post for simple graphics and storytelling
awesomeness.

5. Why Infographics?
 They go viral, taking awareness of the creator’s
website or FB page with them. Should be share-
worthy & presented as simply as possible.
 Useful information at a glance, instead of
forcing busy people to comb through a lot
of text.
 People find infographics hard to resist.
 Complement modern social media.

6. Infographic Tips
 Include hook (primary take-away).
 Give most important information the
most visual weight, so viewers know what
to take away.
 At beginning of infographic, introduce
problem or thesis. Then back up with
data. Finally, end infographic with
conclusion.

7. • Have your story and facts laid out in
advance. Create a Word Doc or Google Doc
with points you want to make.
• Ask yourself: What’s the context?
• Choose colors carefully and start by using
suggested color schemes.
• Set up structure, tell story, design
infographic.
• Can use maps, diagrams, charts.
• Have fun with it.

8. NSPRA infographic based on results of a
membership survey regarding social media use.
Made with Canva.
Attribution at top

9. About Canva
• Two versions
• Free version, but charge to purchase individual graphics to dress up
design. $1 each
• Can upload your own photos & use those
• Canva for Work: Free for 2 months, then $9.95 a month if paid
annually, $12.95 per month if paid monthly.

10. Canva for Work
-- $9.99 a month if paid
annually

11. • Up to 50 team members can use
• Access to 8,000+ templates
• Resizes your designs
• Can upload custom fonts
• Folders to organize uploaded folders
• Priority support

12. Let’s Use Canva!
Go to Canva.com
Create a FREE account. You’ll need your email address and a
password.
Follow along with me once you’re there.

13.  Choose “Click on a Design”
 Choose Social Media
 Click on “Text” in left margin – Add a little bit of body text
 Copy and paste text in Word document: Key Demographics of Westchester & Putnam
 Copy your title and insert it by clicking on Add Subhead. Create your title.
 Use the editing bar at the top to change font size, orientation. Use handles on box to move text
around on page.

14. Find Some Photos or Icons
 Click on Elements in left margin
 Choose Free Photos, Illustrations, or Icons
 Begin your search for elements that will help illustrate your graphic
 Choose elements and insert on page. Don’t worry about paid items.
You won’t be charged unless you try and download or share.
 Resize by clicking on corners. Move object by clicking and dragging
that object.

15. When You’re Done with Your Canva Design

16. Let’s Go to Piktochart!
Create an account
using Google or
Facebook
You’ll see a new page
like this one.

17. Piktochart Tutorial

18. What It All Means

19.  Choose Infographic in left
margin.
 Go to the free template,
How to Create Your Own
Infographic.
 Click on “use template”

20.  Copy and paste from Word document.
Changes to the SAT and PSAT
 Double click on the title block and
paste in new title.
 Double click on the subtitle and come
up with your own (or mine).
 Pay attention to your choices in left
margin and the toolbar across the top.
Mess around with typefaces and sizes.

21. Toolbar on left lets you move blocks up and down, delete blocks, reorder blocks.
Toolbar at top permits you to change font, change font sizes, align your font, embed a
hyperlink behind your font, etc.

22. The Share and Download Buttons on Piktochart
You can’t share a link
with anyone unless
you have the Pro
account.
You can, however,
download it as a PNG
and then share it on
social media, etc.
You can also
download it as
“blocks” in a ZIP file.

23. Digital Storytelling Tools
Adobe Spark Page
Adobe Spark Post
Canva
Pageflow

26. Made with Pageflow

27. Pageflow Pricing
$10.34 per
month

28.  Twitter with images = 28% more
retweets & 36% more favorites
 Facebook images receive 120%
more engagement than text-only
posts
 Instagram, Pinterest: communicate
almost solely with images.

29.  Photos
 Videos
 Photos with Text
 Text-Only Graphics
 Tips
 Announcements
 Quotes
 Checklists
 Infographics
What Works on Social
Media

31. Social Media
Graphics Tools
 Canva (free & paid versions)
 Adobe Spark Post, Spark Page,
Spark Video (free, some branding
by Adobe)
 Assorted mobile apps I love

32. Facebook Posts
with Canva

33. Classic 1990s flyer Canva social media post

34. Twitter Posts

38. Use alone or save as JPGs
to use in publications, e-
newsletters, etc.
Share directly to social
media.
(Numbers are effective)

39. Adobe Spark Post, Spark Video, Spark Page
 iOS apps (still free) and web-based for visual
storytelling.
 On iPhones and iPads standalone apps. (Not available
on Android yet).
 Projects stored in cloud & sync between computer and
Apple devices.
 Spark Post: creates single-image graphics with text
overlays. Can change type style, colors, layouts and
page size, through presets or manually.

40.  Spark Page: single-page scrolling Web pages. Combine text,
photos, video. Can upload videos from YouTube, Vimeo.
 Spark Video: Use still images or graphics, add narration and
music track, then export as video file.
 Direct uploads to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Can also
download.
 Can't access project files without going through apps. Can
only export in non-editable formats.
 Only mobile apps allow you to animate photo posts.
 Adobe brands end of videos and pages. Branding can be
deleted from posts.

41. Here’s the Difference…

42. Spark Pages

43. Spark Video

44. Let’s Use Adobe Spark
Go to https://spark.adobe.com/login
Log in with Facebook or Google ID.
Give access to offline files.

45. Mobile Apps I Love
• Over (free)
• Allows you to
superimpose text on any
photo.
• Automatically post photo
to Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook.
• Email these to myself so I
can use on websites, print
materials.
• FREE

46. Thank You!
 evelyn.mccormack@gmail.com
 www.mackdigital.net
 https://www.facebook.com/mackdigitalcom
 @evelynmccormack