Iliyana's Blog

9 Reasons to Start Creating Infographics Now

[fa icon="calendar'] 21-Jun-2015 08:00:00 / by Iliyana Stareva posted in Social Media, Storytelling, Marketing

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I absolutely love, love, love infographics! They are such a great way to transmit a message and engage with people, don't you think? 

You could say that I am addicted to them because even though I don't have any design background, I've already created seven distinct infographics. (You can check them out on my SlideShare and Visual.ly profiles.) 

It's all about being inspired, having an idea and getting creative. And there are so many tools you can use today - go Canva, Piktochart or even PowerPoint. I've used them all. 

Infographics are a fantastic marketing tool. Leveraging this type of content can help you extend your reach, drive traffic, increase social sharing and engagement as well as help you stand out among all the noise out there. 

I've said it before: visual content is king. Infographics can not only boost your traditional comms efforts, but also take your digital content marketing to the next level by being able to create content that truly fascinates.

 Here are nine crucial reasons why you should start creating infographics now:

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The 7 Best Storytelling Infographics You Need to Check Out Now

[fa icon="calendar'] 18-May-2015 08:00:00 / by Iliyana Stareva posted in Storytelling

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Do you like TV ads? How about magazine ads? Do you pay attention to them or do you just skip them?

Now let me ask you another question: Do you like stories? Do you enjoy being immersed into an exciting narrative allowing you to escape reality and enter a new world?

I like stories. I like to let my brain follow the imaginative flow of a good story and visualise the narrative, the heroes, the actions and happenings of what I am reading, watching or experiencing. 

As a marketer you are probably used to relying more on hard facts and lists of benefits rather than engaging stories. That might have worked in the Mad Man era, but in the world of real-time, non-stop social interactions and online content it no longer does.

Don’t believe me? Check out some facts from a Nielson study:

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10 Killer Resources for Content Creation, Storytelling and Blogging

[fa icon="calendar'] 20-Apr-2015 08:00:00 / by Iliyana Stareva posted in Public Relations, Storytelling, Inbound Marketing, Blogging

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72% of marketers believe that content marketing is essential for their business; 33% of them say that it brings them at least double the return on their original investment and 86% are planning to spend more on content in 2015. These are some staggering statistics from a research by wyzowl, showing that content marketing works.

However, it’s one thing to know that something works, it’s another to actually make it work.  

Content marketing is entirely about different types of quality content created and distributed to meet the needs of a relevant audience. The major drivers for successful content marketing that marketers and communicators use are blogging and effective storytelling.

To help you become a content expert, here’s a list of all the things you need to know as well as some inspirational ideas around creating content, storytelling, blogging and writing.

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WIIFM: The New Language for Sustainability Communications

[fa icon="calendar'] 30-Mar-2015 08:00:00 / by Iliyana Stareva posted in Storytelling, Sustainability

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Consumers have changed. They know they have the power. And they use that when they make purchase decisions.

The times when companies simply used to talk about their business and their products are gone. Now is the time of the consumer, where WIIIFM or “what’s in it for me” is more relevant than ever.

In the world of social media, blogging, podcasting, video broadcasting, etc. customer-centricity is the only way for them to be heard among the noise. It is WIIFM that brands need to communicate throughout the entire customer journey.

There’s one industry where this is extremely palpable – sustainability with surrounding terms such as resource scarcity, sustainable supply chains and sourcing, climate change, eco-efficiency etc.

Why? Because all these words are confusing, hard to understand and often regarded as greenwashing by the normal consumer.

That’s something I’ve discovered when I was doing my own research for my dissertation, but is also evident year after year in the results of Sustainly’s Social Media Sustainability Index.

The latest one even opens up with the question: “How do you talk about sustainability when no-one really knows what it means?”

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Storytelling, Content Creation & the Rise of Social News Consumption

[fa icon="calendar'] 09-Feb-2015 08:00:00 / by Iliyana Stareva posted in Social Media, Public Relations, Storytelling

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Storytelling – undeniably the buzzword of 2014 in communications and marketing continues to garner the attention of many professionals and businesses. It’s kind of become a more trendy word for content creation, don’t you think?

With the significant shifts happening in the media space where news finds us rather than us looking for it, storytelling is moving to a whole new level with social and mobile dictating the creation and dissemination of news, and so the journalistic craft as well.

This is one of the major findings of a recent study by Edelman, News Whip and Muck Rack addressing social news consumption. Indeed, the research focused on the US, but reading through the results I believe there are some important points to bear in mind outside the US. Why? Because they could be sources of competitive advantage for early adopters around Europe (I think we all know (but not always admit) that most European countries move a little bit slower than the US when it comes to the adoption of technological advancements). 

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