Background
The study was conducted by the multiple award-winning services and software company Eyetrackshop, to show how a homepage on social networking sites is the first contact that a consumer often has with a brand and thus it needs to communicate with the users. Thanks to the survey the brand was able to see how they are perceived by their consumers , how an individual approach to social networks is vital and how the page was communicating with consumers.
EyeTrackShop is a services and software company that delivers fast and actionable insights for optimizing communication and design. Their innovative biometric web-based eye tracking technology has become a major force in revolutionizing how communication can be better targeted at consumers by knowing what is seen and not seen. They are specialists in market research and have assembled a world class team with extensive experience. Eyetrackshop has offices in Stockholm, London, New York City, San Francisco, and Shanghai
Strategy
The study took place between the 2nd and the 4th of March among 30 people, men and women in the age groups of 18 and younger, 19- 24, 25-34 and 50 and older. Respondents, who were rewarded for their participation by the panel company, were recruited from web panels and represented the target group.
Implementation
In the survey, the respondents’ eye/web camera is calibrated, after asking them for permission, and their gaze is tracked through the web camera. Stimuli are shown on the respondents computer screen and they look at them spontaneously these are then followed by a questionnaire.
Results
As previous studies show, the wall is the brand pages’ hot spot, regardless of whether it is a Google+ or a Facebook brand page. Almost everyone gazes at the wall (over 90%) respondents spend, on average, 3.3 seconds on the Google+ wall and they actually spend 33% more time on the Facebook wall (4.4 seconds).
The profile picture attracts the same amount of interest or visibility and ability to retain attention.
Google+ “likes” has on average 35% greater visibility than Facebook ‘likes (72% vs 47% gaze at the “likes”).
Facebook brand pages also display ads: these have on average a very high visibility with 87% seeing the ads and people spend on average 2 seconds here. The ads placed higher up do better than those further down.
