Summary

• Usability of postings to timeline-based social media, where a company's messages appear intermixed in a stream or feed with those of the users' friends
• Design of companies' profiles on social networking sites
• Usability of RSS news feeds
• Design of sign-up pages for RSS feeds
• Usability considerations for how the social networking features and RSS are presented and promoted on a company's main website and in email newsletters

This report is based on empirical observations of actual user behavior, as people accessed messages and postings from more than 120 companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, as well as these organizations' RSS feeds.

Usability findings were triangulated from a blend of user research methods:

• Traditional user testing, in a one-on-one setting
• Eyetracking
• Field studies in users' offices
• Diary studies, to follow long-term use

This work contrasts with most other advice on social media and RSS, which is either based on pure speculation or at best asking people what they like, as opposed to watching them while they're online. What people say and what they do often differ dramatically.

The report contains 109 design guidelines for improving the user experience of walls, streams, and feeds:

• 85 guidelines for social media
• 24 guidelines for RSS feeds

> Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox summarizing the report

Table of Contents

1. Executive Summary
2. Research Overview
3. Social Networks
   • Why People Join Social Networks
   • Use of Social Networks
   • Accessing Social Networks
   • Finding Companies and Organizations on Social Networks
   • Choosing which Companies and Organizations to Follow
   • Common Message Problems
   • Getting Started on Social Networks
4. RSS Feeds
   • Why People Use RSS
   • Use of RSS
   • Most-Used RSS readers
   • Accessing RSS
   • Learning about RSS Feeds
   • Choosing RSS Feeds
   • Common Problems With RSS Items
5. Deciding Which Delivery Method to Use
6. Design Guidelines: Social Networks (85 Guidelines)
   • Message Content
   • Message Frequency and Timing
   • Voice and Tone
   • Engaging Followers and Facilitating Discussion
   • Profile Information and Design
   • Building a Following and Promoting a Social Network Presence
7. Design Guidelines: RSS/News Feeds (24 Guidelines)
   • News Feed Content
   • News Feed Frequency
   • Promoting RSS News Feeds
8. Subjective Satisfaction: Message Ratings
   • Usefulness
   • Information
   • Writing
   • Trust
   • Value
9. Methodology: First Study (RSS Feeds)
   • One-on-One Usability Test Sessions
   • Field Studies
10. Methodology: Second Study (Social Networks and RSS Feeds)
    • One-on-One Usability Test Sessions
    • Diary Study
11. Appendix
    • Companies and Organizations Included in Study

What You Get

• Checklist of 109 specific design recommendations: Review your online customization process for these 109 items, and you will discover several things that need improvement.
  • The average website typically violates about half of our usability guidelines. You might have the one perfect site in the world that does everything right, but the odds are against you. It is safest to score your design against a checklist of usability guidelines to make sure you don't do anything wrong.
  • Since most companies have conducted less user research on their social media presence and/or their RSS feeds than they have done on their main website, you probably have more things to fix/improve in this space than in your site design.
• Description of how users actually behave when accessing postings from companies, government agencies, and non-profit organizations on 4 different social networks (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn) as well as RSS feeds.
• The differentiating factors that determined users' reactions to different postings and different designs of companies' and organizations' social media presence.
• 208 color screenshots with descriptions of why they worked well or caused problems in usability testing.

Who Should Read This Report?

• In charge of social media strategy
• Writing postings and/or news items for social media and/or RSS feeds
• Designing an organization's pages or profiles on social media
• Designing a website's page(s) for signing up for RSS feeds

Even though the download is free, this report is still copyrighted information. Please do not distribute the PDF file on the Internet (or otherwise), but instead link to this page where people can download their own copy. (And please do link here — to this HTML page — and not directly to the PDF file, following the guideline to use a gateway page to avoid "PDF shock.")

Download Report (free download: 210-page PDF file, 8 MB)