I received this image from a friend a while ago when we were both sitting in a very boring lecture where nobody seemed to pay attention to what was going on. And looking at the image distracted me even more and made me think: What went wrong there? Did the speaker even notice that? Attendees glued to their smartphone screens but not to his slides, and definitely not his presentation.

What was missing was the connection to the real world, between speaker, audience and what the value of the information could be in our daily lives. Establishing this connection is something that is more important for businesses in all industries than ever before.

If you are looking at your screen all day you might forget that your actual audience is human. They are out there and they do not want pixels but the solution to a real life problem.I seriously believe that knowing your audience and connecting with it emotionally means everything. Danny Brown commented in a thought-provoking blogpost that we are the “connection generation” - and he is damn right about that. Is the product you are building only a bunch of pixels?

Think about it.

Recent changes by Facebook to its Edge Rank algorithm brought an onslaught of criticism from brands and advertisers. Edge Rank determines which posts show up in Facebook users’ news feeds; since the change, brands have been seeing a decline in views of posts they make to their pages as the algorithm favors posts from individual profiles rather than pages. Now, there’s an answer. Facebook has created a feed where users can see only the posts from Pages they like. In addition to making up about 20 percent of news feed content, users can look at their very own Pages-only view any time.

So is that good news, or bad?

The answer is mixed, but mostly good. Unlike the other newsfeed views, “most recent” and “top stories,” users have to look for Pages updates in the Pages tab in the left hand navigation bar. It’s not the most obvious integration for most; after all, how many people spend time in their Pages menu?

However, once alerted to the change, the Pages feed offers a great resource for people looking for updates from their favorite brands, bands, businesses, and celebrities. Posts that were once buried by Edge Rank are available to be uncovered with ease — all the more important during the time of year when consumers are looking for holiday shopping deals or recipe ideas, for example.

ReadWriteWeb suggests another plus: Brand-weary consumers may stick to Facebook if they don’t feel they’re getting a lot of unwanted advertising shown to them all the time. They point out that a U.K. poll from the summer shows people like multiple pages but hide them from their news feed. With Facebook’s new model, maybe users get a better deal. Facebook fans now have  a way to maintain valuable connections on their own terms.

Have you tried the Pages view? What do you think? Is it helping you connect to people and products you don’t often see in your news feed?

TIP: Let fans know they can ensure updates from your Page by alerting them to the “Get Notifications” option. Users can hover over the “Liked” button on a favorite page and then click “Get Notifications” to get updates similar to those from close friends.