We live in a visual world. People aren’t finding the time to read a book, so they wait until there’s a movie about it. And when’s the last time you heard of a research paper going viral on the internet?

Sadly, there are a lot of “researchers” out there who have all the facts, but presenting those facts could fall on deaf ears if the audience isn’t being stimulated visually.

According to The Visual Teaching Alliance, approximately 65% of the U.S. population are visual learners. People don’t want to be bombarded with just words and numbers in this age of information; they want to understand the message in a way that doesn’t take too much time to decipher.

That’s why the use of video, images, or some type of illustration is especially crucial in today’s world. And when it’s done the correct way, the information is retained.

I remember back in third grade when my class was learning about liquid measurements and conversions (yeah… I know… exciting stuff). I could never remember how many pints were in a cup, or how many quarts were in a gallon, etc. Then after about three days of trying (and failing) to memorize the information, my teacher made a little illustration:

Is that what I’ve been trying to learn this whole time? With that drawing in my face, it all suddenly made sense… and stuck ‘til this day!

Perhaps a picture is worth a thousand words. After all, that’s one of the reasons why Pinterest (the fourth largest social media website) is increasingly popular.

So, what have you been trying to instill into the minds of your audience? If you somehow portrayed that message visually, I bet you’d have more luck!

Written by:
Hope Boyd
Director of Communications, Strategic Government Resources
governmentresource.com