Lost Signals: Staying on Top of User Engagement

I was at the gym today working out on an Adaptive Motion Trainer listening to music. Playing on the TV mounted from the ceiling was Fox News. Glancing up at it from time to time, I noticed at one point the screen had turned blue and had text that said, "lost signal." Now, interpret that as you may, but it got me thinking about engaging users and how difficult it can be to stay on top of the rate of change in users expectations.

For many us of, we are the spoon that feeds decision makers with pertinent information about what our audiences find engaging; the most important aspect in driving traffic to our websites. This allows managers to make the best decisions to help drive business. Whether the use of a cool jQuery plug-in, or perfectly formatted and concise content in a world of 140 characters or less, we must constantly evolve to understand what our audience finds engaging. With all the available information users now have in the palm of their hand, if your content isn't engaging, they’ll quickly become bored and go elsewhere to be entertained. 

Those writing web copy for products or services need to understand this. Too many times I see website content with the text equivalent of a magazine article. This is not keeping up with today’s user expectations of 140 characters or quick Facebook posts. Not saying your copy should be 140 characters or less, but you need to make content short and very engaging. If your content is long and drawn out, users are outta there and the signal is lost.

You may be thinking, well, this blog posting is pretty long and drawn out. Maybe so, but I've gotten you this far, right?

How does one stay on top of the latest trends in user engagement? How do you continue to transmit a strong signal that your readers will receive loud and clear? Here’s some sources that can help maintain peak transmitting performance.

Web Design Magazines: I have a few favorites here that I read regularly. Website Magazine, Six Revisions, and Smashing Magazine. I suggest subscribing to their RSS feeds and read them daily. Lots of good older articles too that are still pertinent.

Inbound Marketing: If you don’t know of Rand Fishkin, you should. Moz.com is a great resource of inbounding marketing ideas and techniques to cover SEO, social media, etc, etc. Follow Rand on Twitter @RandFish. I also suggest HubSpot https://library.hubspot.com/. I suggest following them on Twitter @HubSpot also.

Usability: the king of website usability is (IMO) is Jakob Neilson. I suggest signing up for the Neilson Norman email newsletter to receive great articles to your inbox: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/subscribe/

Web programming and a lot of other really great tutorial: Lynda.com. If you need to learn about responsive design, JavaScript, jQuery, PhotoShop, Your Online Brand, and a ton of other things, this site will keep you current. You need to subscribe and you can pay monthly ($37.50) or by year ($375). Either way, you can’t put a price tag on what you’ll learn and to provide to your boss in the way of knowledge.

Twitter: Twitter is a great source of what’s happening RIGHT NOW, but have a good idea of good vs not-so-good, and hot off the press content vs. has some cobwebs in what people post.

What sources do you use to stay on top of what’s happening to increase your user engagement and better decision making?