Social Networking Reseach Report

8/2/2019 Social Networking Reseach Report

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The rapid growth of social networking that has been observed over the last two to three years is

indicative of its entry into mainstream culture and its integration into the daily lives of manypeople. In parallel with this, there has also been considerable media coverage of the growth of

social networking, its potential positive outcomes and concerns about the way that some peopleare engaging with it.

Social networking sites offer people new and varied ways to communicate via the internet

whether through their PC or their mobile phone. They allow people to easily and simply createtheir own online page or profile and to construct and display an online network of contacts, often

called friends. Users of these sites can communicate via their profile both with their friendsand with people outside their list of contacts. This can be on a one-to-one basis (much like an

email), or in a more public way such as a comment posted for all to see. For the purpose of thisresearch report we have purposely focused on the social and communications aspects of social

networking sites. We have deliberately not included either online networks dedicated to business

networking, or user-generated content (UGC) sites (as the latters primary focus is on contentcreation and sharing rather than the development of online social networks).

Like other communications tools, social networking sites have certain rules, conventions and

practices which users have to navigate to make them understood and avoid difficulties. Theserange from the etiquette of commenting on other people's profiles to understanding who one does

and doesnt add as a friend. Social networking sites also have some potential pitfalls tonegotiate, such as the unintended consequences of publicly posting sensitive personal

information, confusion over privacy settings, and contact with people one doesnt know. Thisresearch aims at finding the response of the users and non-users towards this form of

communication. It is also an attempt to profile the users among different types depending upon

their style of usage and their motivating factors.


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OBJECTIVE OF STUDY

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

To analyze the number of people using social networking sites nowadays.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVEs:

1. To find out the best social networking site.2. How much time they are spending on social networking sites.3. How many people uses mobile phone to access social networking site

Rationale and Scope of study

Social networking sites are the most visited sites on internet today. They take major chunk of the

usage time of internet for majority of users. Apart from mailing and knowledge based services

these sites are most demanded sites. In wake of this scenario there is a felt need to understand the

number of people using social networking sites today and the most favorable social networking

site among all those available on the internet.


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INTRODUCTION

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES:

At the most basic level social networking sites are sites which allow users to set up onlineprofiles or personal homepages, and develop an online social network. The profile page

functions as the users own webpage and includes profile information ranging from their date of

birth, gender, religion, politics and hometown, to their favorite films, books quotes and what theylike doing in their spare time. In addition to profile information, users can design the appearance

of their page, and add content such as photos, video clips and music files.

Users are able to build a network of connections that they can display as a list of friends. Thesefriends may be offline actual friends or acquaintances, or people they only know or have met

online, and with whom they have no other link. It is important to note that the term friend, asused on a social networking site, is different from the traditional meaning given to the term in the

offline world. In this report we will use the term as it is used on a social networking site: anyone

who has invited, or been invited by, another user, to be their friend.

In a more collaborative and peer-to-peer manner Users communicate and collaborate while at the same time contribute and participate Is shaping the way you work and interact with information on the web Mindset change towards collaborative participation Shifts the focus to the user of the information User can search, choose, consume and modify the relevant content

Business applications

The use of social network services in an enterprise context presents the potential of having amajor impact on the world of business and work(Fraser & Dutta 2008).

Social networks connect people at low cost; this can be beneficial for entrepreneurs and smallbusinesses looking to expand their contact bases. These networks often act as a customer

relationship management tool for companies selling products and services. Companies can also

use social networks for advertising in the form of banners and text ads. Since businesses operateglobally, social networks can make it easier to keep in touch with contacts around the world.

One example of social networking being used for business purposes is LinkedIn.com, which

aims to interconnect professionals. LinkedIn has over 40 million users in over 200 countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_service#CITEREFFraserDutta2008http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_businesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_businesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedInhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedInhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_businesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_businesshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entrepreneurhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_service#CITEREFFraserDutta2008


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Industry analysis

The number of social networking sites is exploding throughout the world. On the basis of content

there are their types of sites:

1. Widget or component based: Provides software applications and components.2. Aggregation/combination of information: collection of information e.g.

Download.com

3. Content sharing: users share and discuss personal and professional contents. eg orkutand facebook

4. Collaborative filtering: Data is filtered to have a focused content Eg last.fm, in.fm


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ANALYSIS OF SITES

1. ORKUTOrkut is a free-access social networking service owned and operated by Google. The service is

designed to help users meet new friends and maintain existing relationships. The website is

named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Bykkkten.

Although Orkut is less popular in the United States than competitors Facebookand MySpace, it

is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil.[2] In fact, as of December 2009, 47.6% of

Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 38.5%

Features:

Themes Photo sharing Video sharing Gaming and horoscopes applications Communities2. FACEBOOK

Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook,

Inc.[1] Users can add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profiles to

notify friends about themselves. Additionally, users can join networks organized by city,workplace, school, and region. The website's name stems from the colloquial name of books

given at the start of the academic year by university administrations with the intention of helping

students to get to know each other better.

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow computer science

students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while he was a student atHarvard University. The website's membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was

expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later

expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to

anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 350 million active users

worldwide.

Features:

Themes Photo and video sharing Sending gifts Educational and other applications
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut_B%C3%BCy%C3%BCkk%C3%B6ktenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpacehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#cite_note-Growth-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Saverinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dustin_Moskovitzhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hughes_%28Facebook%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Leaguehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Leaguehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Universityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Hughes_%28Facebook%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dustin_Moskovitzhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Saverinhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Zuckerberghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook#cite_note-Growth-0http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_servicehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut#cite_note-1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpacehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkut_B%C3%BCy%C3%BCkk%C3%B6ktenhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networking_service


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3. TWITTERTwitter is an online social networking service and micro blogging service that enables its users

to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets". It was created in

March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July. The service rapidly gained worldwide

popularity, with over 300 million users as of 2011, generating over 300 million tweets andhandling over 1.6 billion search queries per day. It has been described as "the SMS of the

Internet."

Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco, with additional servers and offices in New York City.

Features

Messages Tweet contents Rankings Adding and following content Trends Authentication Demographics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogginghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging


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4. GOOGLE PLUSGoogle+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus, sometimes abbreviated as G+) is asocial networking and identity service, operated by Google Inc.

The service was launched on June 28, 2011, in an invitation-only "field testing" phase. Earlyinvites were soon suspended due to an "insane demand" for new accounts. On September 20,

2011, Google+ was opened to everyone 18 years of age or older without the need for an

invitation. It was opened for a younger age group (13+ years old in US and most countries, 14+in South Korea and Spain, 16+ in Netherlands) on January 26, 2012.

Google+ integrates social services such as Google Profiles and Google Buzz, and introduces newservices identified as Circles, Hangouts and Sparks. Google+ is available as a website and on

mobile devices. Sources such as The New York Times have declared it Google's biggest attempt

to rival the social networkFacebook, which has over 800 million users. Google+ is considered

the company's fourth foray into social networking, following Google Buzz (launched 2010,

retired in 2011), Google Friend Connect (launched 2008, to be retired by March 2012) and orkut(launched in 2004, now operated entirely by subsidiary Google Brazil).

Features

Stream Circle Hangouts Messengers Instant upload Spark Games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_networkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network


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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Primary data is collected through personal interviews with the help of structured questionnaires.

Sampling Technique: Convenient Sampling

Sample Unit: Members of houses with internet connection

Sample Frame: SNS users and non-users in Mohali

Sample Size: 30

QUESTIONAIRE DESIGN:

Questionnaire was divided into five major heads:

General information Time spent on sites Activities Their analysis of sites

DATA ANALYSIS:

We had 30 filled up questionnaire. The data from these questionnaires was analyzed through

following techniques.

CLUSTER ANALYSIS: Cluster analysis or clustering is the assignment of a set of

observations into subsets (called clusters) so that observations in the same cluster are similar in

some sense. Depending upon the various motivating factors and the styles of usage heretical

clustering techniques was applied. There was no need felt for factor analysis as only few

variables emerged from the study


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RESULTS

Q1. Which of these social networks are you a member of?

Q2. Which is your favorite social networking site?

25

15

4

8

6

SNS

Facebook

Orkut

Twitter

Google Plus

Other

19

6

23

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Facebook Orkut Google Plus Twitter

Favorite SNS


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Q3. Do you use social networks to interact with new people you do not know?

Q4. How many times do you use social networks?

3

8

9

6

4

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

13

9

7

1

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

Daily

3 times a week

Once a week

Once a month


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Q5. Rate your favorite social network in terms of user friendliness.

Q6. Can you access your social network via mobile phone?

9

18

3

0

0

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Excellent

Good

Average

Poor

Very Poor

21

9

0 5 10 15 20 25

Yes

No


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Q7. Can you access your favorite social network effectively using a slow connection?

Q8. Do you use video chat when using social networks?

6

24

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Yes

No

17

13

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18

Yes

No


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Q9. Do you use social networking sites for playing network games?

Q10. What time do you frequently use social networks?

4

9

11

4

2

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

Neutral

Agree

Strongly Agree

2

0

7

21

0 5 10 15 20 25

In the morning

In the afternoon

In the evening

Random times

Social Networking Reseach Report

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