New eye-tracking study shows what matters on Facebook pages

For all the uses Facebook has, it sure can be a confusing site. One of the greatest complaints levied against the social platform is its cluttered interface – when users are viewing personal profiles or branded pages, they are also being subjected to real-time news tickers, advertisements and a bevy of seemingly superficial information.

So when people click through to a branded Facebook profile page, what are they actually looking at? This is a question that many entrepreneurs struggle with. As any online marketer would say, location is key – knowing where to focus and place links and content could help brands drive customers to their small business websites.

By the numbers: Heat maps determine how consumers look at Facebook

A new eye-tracking study, performed by EyeTrackShop, seeks to put this question to rest. The measurement firm recently teamed up with Mashable to find out precisely what consumers look at, and in what order, on Facebook pages.

EyeTrackShop's research found that consumers first look at the center panel of Facebook, where the wall or newsfeed typically resides. Then, their eyes shift left to the area where they will usually find a company picture and subsequent links (or friends, on a personal profile). After that, they bounce to the other side of the page – the portion of the page where advertisements and other followers are listed. Finally, they look at the top tool bar.

The same goes for other social pages

While Facebook was the prime subject of the study, the same general viewing patterns were observed on other social sites as well. Google+, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn – regardless of the site analyzed, consumers viewed the main information panel first, then the area where pictures are generally posted and the finally the navigation bar.

Furthermore, users' eyes also gravitated toward specific spots during each of these phases. For example, in the central section, the top half of page gets the most attention. This highlights the need to keep brand pages updated with any new information or relevant media.

"The further something is down a page, the fewer number of people look at it. This was true on both content-focused profiles such as Pinterest and Digg as well as socially focused profiles such as Facebook. On the Twitter and YouTube profiles, the effect was less extreme," notes Mashable.

On the left-hand side of site, the profile or brand picture tends to generate the most views. Small business owners should definitely choose images that are interesting and representative of their companies – a picture is a necessity, don't create a Facebook page (or any social media profile) without one.

"Profile pictures matter," the news source added. "The site feature that attracted most attention on Klout, Facebook and StumbleUpon was the profile photo."

There were some outliers, however. For example, on LinkedIn, people looking at professional profiles were more likely to notice a job title than the person's picture. However, this was an exception to the rule, and isn't something that should necessarily be changed for every social network.

Having a professional social media profile – with all the links, pictures and content to keep viewers engaged – is crucial to driving potential leads to small business websites. Now that you understand which areas of social sites consumers tend to look at, you can make the changes to take advantage of their viewing habits.

How is your social media page currently formatted? If fans viewed your social media profile, would it have content in all the right places? 

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