A study that looked at reader engagement across articles that contained charts and infographics vs. articles that were text-only found that those with graphical storytelling, or what I like to call data storytelling, had up to 34 percent more comments and shares and a 300 percent improvement on the depth of scroll down the page.

Using storytelling techniques to present data not only makes it more visually appealing but also enables easy spotting of key trends, seamless results-tracking, and quick goal-monitoring.

Here are things that can help you build a bridge from your current methods to effective data storytelling–

• Choose a topic by identifying your target audience, the goal of your visual, what you would like to achieve.
• Organize your data by thinking about what you want to convey and then get rid of anything that doesn’t help you tell that story.
• Spend time making your visualization look sharp by keeping it simple, using color and interactivity.

A few bonus tips to make your data visualizations really pop–

• Don’t use more than two graphs at a time so as not to confuse participants.
• Stick with one color per graph; making things multicolored will cause data to look jumbled.
• Give context to your concept. Introduce your idea slowly and tell the story of what you want your data to reveal instead of assuming everyone in the room is on the same page.
• Try using interactive data storytelling techniques to support your data.

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more on digital storytelling in this IMS blog