A new report has revealed that Facebook users prefer videos and pictures rather than a lot of text. The Hitwise study showed that when it comes to news, Facebookers favour broadcast type media over print.

The study looked at the type of news sites that Facebook users accessed and it found that those with more video-based and photo-based content were the most popular.

Therefore, this is a trend that could be worth noting if you’re a business that hopes to engage potential customers through Facebook.

The chances are that Facebook users are more likely to pay attention to your brand and information/content if it comes in the form of pictures or video.

It’s about time you thought about some kind of audio/video training, or at least bought yourself a simple digital camera and video. Marketing styles and strategies are changing fast these days.

It might surprise you to hear that YouTube is the second largest search engine. This massive web player attracts hundreds of millions of users a month, while 15 hours of video are uploaded every minute. All of which makes YouTube a great tool for website owners, especially if you have a bit of videoing ability.

Video ranking
The key to making good use of YouTube’s SEO and marketing potential is to aim to improve your video ranking. Here are some tips for improving your video ranking:
* Include an accurate and descriptive title.
* Make sure your description is, well, descriptive. It should be accurate and unique, and written with complete sentences.
* Descriptive keyword tags but avoid “keyword stuffing”.

Social networking
But YouTube is much more than just a video search engine. It’s also considered to be a powerful social networking community site. Which means that community opinion counts. As with any other community on the web, your best results will come if you actively participate. So, ideally, you should be aiming to share videos with other members. Try experimenting with:
* Annotations,
* Video responses
* Thumbnails.

Embedding
What’s more, YouTubers should also ensure their videos are embedded to make them more “discoverable”.

Analytics tool
Find out more about videos on YouTube by using the analytics tool to:
* Check demographics
* Find where video are posted
* Discover who posted videos
* Check Hot Spots, that is you can pinpoint the specific parts of the video that get viewed the most.

There’s a whole world of YouTube marketing out there that many people haven’t even considered. Now start filming!

You can’t help but notice a fast-growing trend for embedding video into websites. And videos can have big advantages for on-line business – but only if the videos are well made, well executed and to the point.

It’s like everything on-line: you have just a few seconds to impress a new visitor and anything – including design, text and video – that looks a bit dodgy will be an instant turn-off.

The key is to offer video that truly offers added value because of unique and informative videoing. Also make sure you keep the video short and to the point.

If you stick to all these points (and maybe it is better to hire a pro to do your videos for you) then in many cases videos can actually offer a whole lot more than words. For example, if you wanted to tell a potential customer about the latest Wii game then it’s quicker and more effective to show them a video of the game in action than to try to explain the game in words.

Why not tell us about the good videos you’ve seen – and the bad.

You can never predict what will happen in the world of web design in the coming year. So often, technology moves faster and in more amazing ways than you could ever imagine. But there are some design growths to look out for over the coming 12 months.

Vids: The way to get ahead with your website is to include video delivered by Flash. To do this, designers need to be familiar with the workings of sites such as YouTube and Viddler. Get to grips with this and your website just got even more attractive to typically fickle visitors.

Widgets: Interactive widgets are growing – and will definitely get bigger in 2009.

Social media: Hot social media techniques such as using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, that provide more links to websites, will undoubtedly have a large presence and a greater influence. Look out for automatic distribution, too.

Design styles: Ever more exciting designs and even hand-drawn websites are likely trends for 2009. It’s good news for arty types – and a way to ensure your website stands out from the crowds.

Web design for mobiles: Mobile web use is predicted to grow so watch out for more streamlined websites that will be better suited to the smaller devices.