When it comes to powerful infographics, “A picture is worth a 1,000 words,” or in last week’s case, it was worth over 990 Tweets that reached over 2.25M people via Twitter alone, not to mention it was reprinted 47 times!

Let me back up. We had a big YAHOOTY last week at Reidy Communications for our client, digital agency POP.

As you can imagine, doing an Infographic is no small undertaking. Because we were asking our client to invest their time developing this I-graphic, and directing a a portion of our PR budget to it, we had to be sure it would secure IMPRESSIVE RESULTS.

To ensure your infographic has the best shot of going viral, here are THREE things you must do before diving into the Infographic Deep End:

Step One: Research the HOW, WHY and WHO. Yes, there is a lot of your PR knowledge that is transferrable to developing and pitching Infographics, but I found Sam Whitemore’s Media Survey session on Infographics incredibly helpful. Sam has been tracking the editorial world religiously since 1998 and his insights and advice were spot-on. Before diving in, we had a tight plan on what we were delivering, the look & feel, who was our top media outlet target (and Plan B & C), and how we were going to amplify all of it via social media.

Second: Pick a HOT Topic. Of course I’m stating the obvious, but the topic must be in the center of the news cycle universe for your I-graphic to have any chance of going viral. Based on the media coverage and our “buzz” analysis, we suggested our client track Group Messaging Tweets during the SXSW conference and do an Infographic on the winners and losers.

Third: Clarity Rules. The graphic must be incredibly clear or it doesn’t fly. Luckily, we had the perfect partner for this: our digital agency client POP works with some of the largest brands like Target, Amazon, Microsoft and many others. As a result, POP delivered a powerful and stunning Infographic. And, while some graphics are clear, some are incredibly hard to look at — “This Spam Infographic About Spam Infographics Makes My Head Hurt”

Here’s a snapshot of our results from the TechCrunch Infographic and Story:

• Over 990 people Tweeted the TechCrunch Story and Infographic
• According to TweetReach, “GroupMe Won The SXSW Group Messaging Wars” reached over 2.23M People
• Michael Arrington HIMSELF tweeted it to his 69K followers
• The TechCrunch article and Infographic ran in over 44 articles and blogs, including The WSJ.
• We also amplified this coverage through social media (not going to share our “special sauce” on this one;)

In summary, Infographics ROCK and we expect to see more of them in the future. BUT, not everyone has the stomach or budged to proceed. My $.02: make sure you have a rock-solid strategy and take the time to research the topics and trends before embarking. Oh, and a little praying doesn’t hurt either.

Okay, I need to RANT! I’m not going to name names or venues, but I saw the *worst* speaker of my life last night. As validation, I can tell you that many attendees passed notes, checked Bbry messages, played with iPhone Apps and like me, looked for air vents to escape out of.

As I vented to my husband Dan last night I mentioned that a majority of the speaker events in this series had been outstanding and he commented that the “Conference organizers probably felt like they wanted to commit hari kari but were trapped in a butter knife factory.”

Onwards and upwards! I’m a believer in learning as much from bad experiences as good ones, so with that in mind… Here are a few straight-forward presentation tips that should be on everyone’s short-list:

STAND UP: Okay, we’re all tired at the end of the day, but if you are addressing a large group (100+) and it’s not a salon-style panel with a moderator STAND UP. People want to see you and your expressions and hear your inflections: that’s very difficult to do when a keynote is slumped in an arm chair.

HAVE A PURPOSE: Whether you are at a cocktail party or speaking at an event, “Start with the end in mind,” as my wonderful friend, PR partner-in-crime and executive coach Bronwyn Saglimbeni often says. Well in advance of getting up on the stage, speakers should always ask themselves a few questions: What is my intention? What gift am I going to give to the audience? What do I want them to take from this – inspiration, education, action?

LET’S TALK ABOUT “ME, MYSELF AND I,” AND NOW BACK TO ME: Okay, I’m a believer in sharing personal experiences for the benefit of others. Notice the “benefit of others” comment. It’s one thing to say “When I was in Rwanda…” and then have a point to your story, it’s another thing to pontificate and try and impress people, simply to impress. If we are giving you our time as a member of the audience, you better deliver something that we can take away from the session. Simply put, you got me here, now make it worth my time.

Net-net, not everyone is a great speaker and not everyone should speak. This particular speaker, because of her lack of preparation and self-awareness, disappointed a smart group of women who represented her direct target audience, potentially tarnished a well-respected conference group and negatively impacted book sales. I’m speculating on the last point, but by picking up the book I would only hear her painful voice and start looking for a butter knife myself.

That’s my opinion, what’s yours? You can follow Jen via Twitter @jreidy or post a comment on Reidy Communication’s blog http://reidycommunications.com/rightbrainleftbrain/