The old rules of attention focus no longer apply to the new generation of social networks a la Pinterest. Not only has the focus shifted from profiles to interest areas, but the way people explore the pages is fundamentally different too.
Our latest addition to the Northzone family, EyeTrackShop, has just released a captivating analysis on how people browse Pinterest. Instead of going from left to right -symbolic of text-centric content- and up and down, the interest on Pineterest is mainly in the centre of a page. In fact elements such as colours and faces severely affects eye movement and focus.
Mashable today published an article outlining some of the other key insights:
– Top pins pop. Pins that were front and center were seen by the highest percentage of viewers.
– Faces attract attention. As with most social media sites, respondents looked at faces on Pinterest at more than objects.
– Profile information isn’t always as noticeable as profile content. Profile image and information may dominate attention on Facebook, but on Pinterest fewer people noticed it than noticed content.
– The percentage of people who looked at profile information at the top of brand pages in the study was the same or lower than that of the pages’ most-looked-at pins. On average, this info was looked at second, not first.
– Brand pages are just as popular as category pages. Participants were slightly more likely to say brand pages made them want to repin stuff, recommend the page to friends and tell their friends about it. More of them also said the pages were definitely inspiring and had good pieces of advice.
– People like brands better after viewing their Pinterest pages. The majority of participants said that viewing a brand’s page improved their opinion about the brand and said they were more likely to purchase something from it.
This is interesting insight as we enter an era of real analytics. Companies like EyeTrackShop and Tobii make this possible through eyetracking technology which makes it possible to collect the most accurate and analytically relevant raw data: eye movement. The technology enables the user to understand how long a consumer spends looking at content, where it starts and stops, how focused the consumer is, etc., which can help marketers develop better campaigns.