But take a look below at the steep curve of the user growth rate in all age ranges and demographics, and the continuing pervasiveness of social networking into every facet of work, play and life in general.

It’s hard to argue that social media hasn’t changed forever how we interact and connect online.

Source: The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic

Nothing could be further from the truth.

A recent eye-tracking study that investigated how 232 consumers viewed thousands of web pages shows that web users typically scan content in an “f-shaped pattern” … two horizontal scans, followed by a vertical scan.

The following heatmaps are drawn from the eyetracking studies of three websites. The areas where users looked the most are colored red; the yellow areas indicate fewer views, followed by the least-viewed blue areas. Gray areas didn’t attract any fixations. These particular heatmaps show how users typically read three different types of Web pages:

• an article in the “about us” section of a corporate website (far left),
• a product page on an e-commerce site (center), and
• a search engine results page (SERP; far right).

Implications of the F Pattern

The F pattern’s implications for Web design are clear and show the importance of following the guidelines for writing for the Web instead of repurposing print content:

• Users won’t read your text thoroughly in a word-by-word manner. Exhaustive reading is rare, especially when prospective customers are conducting their initial research to compile a shortlist of vendors. Yes, some people will read more, but most won’t.
• The first two paragraphs must state the most important information. There’s some hope that users will actually read this material, though they’ll probably read more of the first paragraph than the second.
• Start subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words that users will notice when scanning down the left side of your content in the final stem of their F-behavior. They’ll read the third word on a line much less often than the first two words.

For further information you can view the full article I have paraphrased above at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html

1. Use Colour

Black and white is boring. Colour adds impact and helps the viewer focus on what’s improtant.

2. Use bullet points

Long sentences will require you and the audience to read your slides. You will lose credibility if you have to read and the audience will ignore you while they scan ahead. Start by eliminating articles such as the, an, a, etc. Focus on the concept, not the words.

3. Keep it short and simple (the KISS principle)

Busy slides and handouts will distract and confuse your audience. Use lots of white space and apply the “5 X 5 Rule”. No more than 5 words on a line. No more than 5 lines on a slide.

4. Don’t use too many slides

You are the presenter. Your slides and handouts are simply an aid to support your message. Here’s a formula to keep you on track. Allow 1.5 minutes per slide.

5. Use 1 or 2 fonts only

Variety is good for speaking but not when choosing fonts for a presentation. Limit yourself to one or two fonts. A good option is to use a serif font for the titles (e.g. Times Roman) and a sans serif for the bullets (e.g. Arial).

6. Size matters

If your audience has to squint to read the slide your font size is too small. Your slides need to be legible from the back row. Start by using 36 pt text in the title and 30 pt text in bullet points and adjust from there (but not by too much).

7. Talk to the audience (not the screen)

When you talk to the screen you lose your connection with your audience. If you need to look at the screen to refresh your memory use the Touch-Turn-Talk technique. Touch the screen with your eyes and silently read, turn your head toward the audience, then talk the point to one person, eye-to-eye. Finish your last word on a person, then go back and look at the next point.

8. Don’t be afraid of silence

People are afraid of silence so they often talk while they change their slides. This creates an impression of nervousness. Instead, pause while changing your slide, state your transition or segue and make your next point.

9. Make use of graphics

Most people think in pictures, not words! So, if you want people to remember your message, use graphics. Symbols such as check marks, dollar signs, and arrows save space and aid comprehension, whilst graphs and flow charts make numbers and complex material much easier to understand.

10. Check for typos

Typos are unprofessional and distracting. Spell check and proof every handout and slide then ask an objective person to check for errors. You may miss something because you’re too close to it.

My thanks to Trevor Ambrose for these timely reminders. For more information visit http://www.changingtools.com

In many cases, this need is expressed as “We need a facebook presence” … and in some cases this may be quite right.

However, there’s more to developing an appropriate Social Media Strategy than simply creating a facebook fan page.

I found the following graphic provided me with a particularly helpful strategic framewrok. Hope you do to.

There is quite a lot of good information available online to help you select the right sites, but here’s one pice of analysis that I particularly like:

There were a whole bunch of reasons behind this decision, including a desire to make sure that vistors returning to our site noticed the chages we had made. Another being that we wanted a site that provided us with an easy way of bringing “new news” to the immediate attention of repeat visitors.

This desire to highlight “new news” was, in turn, based partly on an article I read on “change blindness” – which suggested that when you refresh a screen or make one change on it, most people will not even notice the changes you have made.

The video below of a Harvard experiment on change blindness highlights this issue nicely.

The key learning: “Just because you make what you consider to be an important visual change to a web page, does not guarantee that anyone will notice it”.