Amy Eisman’s session today fascinated me. Amy is director of writing programs in the School of Communications at American University in Washington, D.C. She was a Gannett editor for 17 years and has since worked at AOL and was a Fulbright lecturer in Moscow. She teaches writing for convergent media and created an online course exploring business and journalism’s relationship.

Big guns, yet again. Today was all about the Web and how people read. Fascinating stuff.

Here are a few things I’m taking away from her session:

Rethink who your online competition is in your market. Google is everyone’s competition now.

Rethink how you do your job. Are you spending your time on things that are tractable and are a good investment of resources?

Try to think like an entrepreneur. Look for ways to attach revenue or sponsorship to the appropriate products.

Social networking is not a fad. It’s here to stay, and will only increase in popularity. Get used to it and learn how to make it work in your market.

Own your brand. Make sure you have a consistent social networking brand and work to develop it across platforms.

Readers have expectations: Readers want better, more compelling visual presentations. More visual doesn’t always mean VIDEO.

When creating a video Amy said keep it under three minutes, max.

Users expect aggregation of news and information from sources other than your site. Don’t dash their expectations.

The Web is still working out the bugs with user-generated content.

Reporters and editors should be reading story comments and checking in on forums.

Power is shifting from reporters and editors to individuals. Make it work for your organization.

Reporters and news organization should always be conscious of their brand and develop it.

Online users expect frequent updates and will go where they get them. If a blogger is posting more frequent updates the user finds accurate and useful, that’s where the user will go.

Online users expect mobility. Make sure you are getting content to users and where and on the device they want it on.

Usability rules. Usability is as important as content. Make sure people are clear on how to navigate your site and paper.

Encourage experimentation. Create a workplace that inspires experimentation. Don’t be afraid to misstep or fail. Just make sure you learn from those mistakes and missteps. Start with baby steps.

A couple more points Amy made:

• Young readers and online users think new and social media are enhancing journalism. Social media is getting started, so get on board.
• The big new payoff is yet to come. Better get users to your site, so when it does come, you're ready.
• Throw away the old newsroom organization charts and make the changes NOW!
• Make sure you give people a place to go when news happens.
• No one needs the old “gatekeepers” anymore. We have been replaced.
• Editors are now becoming curators of information as we aggregate more content.

A few more things to consider:

• Readers are text-oriented online.
• Content counts for only 20 percent of usability.
• Users will scroll down a page only if the content is useful to them.
• "Please" is not a useful word online.
• Users always want a payoff or a surprise.

For writing online:

• We read left to right, up then down, in an “F” shaped pattern.
• Use keywords for search triggers in headlines and the first few lines of copy.
• Use sub-heads for stories more than 15 inches. Use keywords in them as well.
• Build single-thought paragraphs.
• When scanning a page, our eyes read only the first few words and then scan on if nothing interests them.

Much to consider.