I was surprised by that claim. But then I thought about it. For most of human history people communicated using their voices or pictures or even physical action. The great majority of people did not read.
But now, we all do. Only, I don't think our fundamental nature has changed. We like to SEE and HEAR messages rather than read them. That's why the moving image is all around us. We all like a nice, colourful picture with action in it!
What's that got to with how you can use video in your business?
A lot.
The revolution in communication that the Internet has unleashed is only just being understood properly. What some commentators are saying is that the Web has taken us away from a word-centered society to one in which the image has become more important again.
Simply, words are all very well, but images - especially moving ones - are back on top.
This same writer friend of mine - he does a LOT of reading! - but then, he's a writer! He told me about work carried out by the Software Usability Research Lab at Wichita State University. It showed that people don't actually 'read' web pages - they speed read them in a strange 'F' pattern. That means they read a headline, drop down the page, missing out most of the words beneath the headline, then scan across again to another bold headline - or set of bullets - and then scan down the margin to the end to find a pay-off, if there is one.
They register, and this is a staggering number, just 18% of the words on the page! So, out of every 100 words you publish on a webpage only 18 of them are likely to be read. That doesn't mean you stop using words - you've just got to use less of them.
What's also clear is that there's been an explosion of video content on the web… one of the most important communications platforms around. So, businesses has to think about how it tries to get their messages across using a tool that we are all hard wired to connect with.
A lot.
The revolution in communication that the Internet has unleashed is only just being understood properly. What some commentators are saying is that the Web has taken us away from a word-centered society to one in which the image has become more important again.
Simply, words are all very well, but images - especially moving ones - are back on top.
This same writer friend of mine - he does a LOT of reading! - but then, he's a writer! He told me about work carried out by the Software Usability Research Lab at Wichita State University. It showed that people don't actually 'read' web pages - they speed read them in a strange 'F' pattern. That means they read a headline, drop down the page, missing out most of the words beneath the headline, then scan across again to another bold headline - or set of bullets - and then scan down the margin to the end to find a pay-off, if there is one.
They register, and this is a staggering number, just 18% of the words on the page! So, out of every 100 words you publish on a webpage only 18 of them are likely to be read. That doesn't mean you stop using words - you've just got to use less of them.
What's also clear is that there's been an explosion of video content on the web… one of the most important communications platforms around. So, businesses has to think about how it tries to get their messages across using a tool that we are all hard wired to connect with.
No comments:
Post a Comment