Have you ever wondered what people view when they visit your social media profile?  Now you may have a better idea, after a new study from Mashable, who teamed up with EyeTrackShop, took a look into what 30 people viewed while visiting social network sites.

The study found that the most viewed object on Facebook and other social media sites is the profile photo.  This should really go as no surprise as that’s the prominent feature on many sites.  However, on LinkedIn, results showed that a person’s job title was more important than anything else on the site.

Who your friends are and who you are connected with is also a major attention grabber on social networks.  The study showed people’s eyes did travel to and peruse who your friends are and what they’re posting.

Last but not least, the study showed that the content that was most viewed was at the top, which isn’t much of a surprise.  Most people take a quick glance at what’s going on in their social world.  This may leave most older posts ignored, as most sites place fresh content at the top of feeds.

While a study of 30 people isn’t a great sample size, it does provide some good insight.  This study shows that people do pay attention to photos, mainly what you show of yourself to the world and the pictures of who you associate with.  It also shows that most people spend more time at the top of the page, meaning older content may tend to be ignored by quick glances.  Hopefully this new data will create greater awareness of what’s on your social profiles.  Will these new insights cause you to alter what you show to the social world?