Social sites usage behavior among XLRI studentsA project by Group – 8

Mukesh Ranjan B14158 | Rushabh Vora B14186 | Monish Agrawal b14156 |

Kiran MC B14151 | Nikhil Arora B14159 | Abhinav B14128

XLRI

ContentBackground of Study Definition of MDP, RP & RQ Conducting Qualitative Research Developing Hypothesis Questionnaire Data Collection Testing Hypothesis Drawing Managerial Implication & Conclusion Limitation of Study

Executive Summary

Objectives

With the worldwide prevalence of Facebook, the consumer social media space has grown at a remarkable rate within recent years. Social media services are aggressively targeting markets in order to create a global social media presence. However, little is known about how much, why, and how they use these sites.

The purpose of the research is to provide information about use of social media networking sites by XLRI students. Our aim is to also highlight features that are important for the students in a social networking website. Here we consider these questions with respect to Facebook, a popular social networking website.

Research Methodology

In order to understand use of such networking websites, we performed qualitative research to identify why XLRI students use these websites, how they interact, and nature of its influence. Using these data, we have formulated a set of research problem to address our management decision problem. These research problems have helped us in identification variables relevant to our study. Using these variables we proposed a set hypothesis. Finally to test these hypotheses, we have created a set of questionnaire to get real data from XLRI students.

In the 2nd phase, we plan to get real data using this questionnaire and do a data analysis to test these hypotheses.

Conclusion

This study will give insights to social networking sites on importance of various features for a student. This would help them target this specific segment which is most active on the social networking websites.

Background of Study Social networking websites are a relatively new form of online communication. The first Social networking website was SixDegrees.com, which was launched in 1997. The current popularity of Social networking websites, however, is an even more phenomenon and it wasn’t until 2003 when they were considered mainstream. The top two Social networking websites, MySpace and Facebook, began in 2003 and 2005, respectively. Today, there are various networking websites available on the Internet such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, YouTube, LinkedIn, Orkut, Google (Google Plus), Flickr, Twitter and Ning as collaborative tools for sharing and exchanging information.

Social networking websites have grown in popularity among all segments of society, but particularly among younger groups such as university students. Facebook is an example of the enormous amount of social interaction that occurs on these websites. Globally, the company has 1.35 billion users, while the daily active users are 864 million.

Social networking is what Indians spend most time on while online. According to the latest figures released by marketing research company ‘comScore’, 84% of India's Internet audience visit social networking sites. This makes India the world's seventh largest market for social networking and here are the 10 most frequented social networking websites the country.

Growing Internet penetration and a large youth population Facebook expand its user base in India to 112 million - which is the largest after the US. Facebook, which had more than 100 million users in April, saw its monthly active users (MAUs)'s base touching 112 million at the end of September. The number of daily active users from India is 52 million.

Rank Website Estimated Monthly Visitors

1 900,000,000

2 310,000,000

3 255,000,000

4 250,000,000

5 120,000,000

Literature Survey

Over the past decade, the communication uses of the Internet have become a very important part of young people's lives (e.g., Gemmill & Peterson, 2006; Jones, 2002). Social networking sites are the latest online communication tool that allows users to create a public or semi-public profile, create and view their own as well as other users' online social networks (boyd & Ellison, 2007a), and interact with people in their networks. Although research on young people's use of social networking sites is emerging (e.g., boyd & Ellison, 2007b; Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007; Valkenburg, Peter, & Schouten, 2006), questions remain regarding exactly what young people do on these sites, whom they interact with on them, and how their social networking site use relates to their other online (such as instant messaging) and offline activities.

A survey of college students in the U.S. showed that social networking sites are used for social interaction with offline acquaintances in order to maintain friendships rather than to make new friends (Ellison et al., 2007). In fact, these authors found a strong positive relationship between Facebook use and social capital, or the resources gained through social interactions. Surveys of teens and college students with social networking site memberships reveal that youth primarily use these sites to stay in touch with friends they see often and those whom they see rarely (Lenhart & Madden, 2007; Wiley & Sisson, 2006). In addition, about half of teens use social networking sites to make new friends (Lenhart & Madden, 2007) and about half of college students use them to let others “know about me” (Wiley & Sisson, 2006).

The goal of the present study is to provide information about use of social media networking sites by XLRI students. Our aim is to also highlight features that are important for the students in a social networking website using Facebook.

Management Decision Problem

Drivers for problem formulation

Six newly graduated MBA students from one of the most famous B-school in India (XLRI, Jamshedpur) decided to travel against the tide and start on a social networking site of their own. Faced with tough terrain ahead in the form of competition from some of the biggest and very popular networking sites (like Facebook, twitter) they realized the increasing complexity of business environment. They realized research, unless used with good understanding of the problem and the research process most appropriate to understand key issues, also poses its own challenges.

This has resulted in an acute need for a more in-depth understanding of issues at hand and to find the feasible solution to the business problem. For this, the need for structured and scientific business research gained their attention.

Founders: Monish| Rushabh | Mukesh | Kiran | Nikhil | Abhinav

Exercise before Problem Definition

1. Discussion with Decision makers:

As decided by the decision makers they want to drive more and more traffic to their social networking site by making it more appealing to the youth. They want to start targeting youth from the colleges itself and hence we have devised our MDP keeping in mind the college students and the objective to identify factors which make social networking site appealing to the college students.

2. Qualitative Research:

Qualitative research is very important for our purpose in order to prune down the number of variables to be analyzed. Also it gives us a chance to examine the finer points, the

Management Decision Problem

How to make the proposed social networking site more appealing to XLRI students

Research Problem 1

To determine current usage behavior of XLRI students

Research Question 1.1

Why do students at XLRI use social media?

Hypothesis

H1: XLRI students use social media for professional networking

H1a: XLRI students do not use social media for professional networking

H2: Students use it for staying connected with recent events

H2a: Students do not use it for staying connected with recent events

H3: Students use it for chatting

H3a: Students do not use it for chatting

H4: Students use it for playing games

H4a: Students do not use it for playing games

Research Question 1.2

How long do they surf the social networking site?

Hypothesis

H1: Students spend at least an hour daily on social networking sites

H1a: Students do not spend at least an hour daily on social networking sites

Research Question 1.3

When do people prefer online communication to face-to-face communication?

Hypothesis

H1: Students prefer online communication to broadcast message simultaneously to multiple people.

H1a: Students prefer face-to-face communication in such situations.

H2: Student prefer online communication to improve relationship with others

H2a: Student prefer face-to-face communication to improve relationship with others

H3: Students prefer online communication to establish contacts with new people

H3a: Students prefer face-to-face communication to establish contacts with new people

Research Problem 2

Determine the factors that affect user’s choice of Social Networking Sites

Research Question 2.1

Which features do users prefer on the social networking sites they are currently using like facebook and twitter?

HypothesisH1: Students want easy search

H2: Students are concerned about privacy of personal information

H3: Students want their SNSs to be inter-connectable

H4: Photo and video sharing is preferred by students

Research Question 2.2

What is the impact of peers in deciding a particular choice?

Hypothesis

H1: Students prefer to use the same social networking site as others

H2: Number of active friends determines the time spent on social networking websites

Research Question 2.3How important is user’s background in determining the choice of a social networking site?

HypothesisH1: Students having prior work experience tends to use LinkedIn more as compared to others

H2: Politically inclined students tend to use twitter more

Research Problem 3

To determine the preferred medium of usage

Research Question 3.1Which is the most preferred medium to connect to social networking sites?

HypothesisH1: Mobile phones are preferred to laptops

H2: Laptops are preferred to mobile phones

Research Question 3.2Why do they prefer a particular mode of usage?

HypothesisH1: Availability impacts selection of the medium

H2: Features impact selection of a medium

H3: Ease of use impacts selection of medium

Research Question 3.3When do they prefer a particular mode of usage?

HypothesisH1: Mobiles are preferred for casual work

H2: PCs are preferred when working in rooms

H3: PCs are preferred for urgent work

Questionnaire

Questionnaire

1. Which of the following are your reasons for social media use? (you can mark multiple options)a. Professional networkingb. Being connected with recent eventsc. Chattingd. Playing gamese. Others (Please specify)

2. How long do you use social media sites daily?a. Less than one hourb. 1 - 2 hoursc. 2 - 3 hoursd. More than 3 hours

3. How do you send broadcast message to multiple people?a. Online sites and appsb. Face to Face interaction with everyonec. Send text message to alld. Call everyone

4. Which medium do you prefer to improve your relationship with othersa. Online sites and appsb. Face to face interactionc. Text messagesd. Phone calls

5. How do you improve your contacts with new people?a. Online sites and appsb. Face to face interaction with everyonec. Text messagesd. Phone calls

6. Which of the following features do you like in a social networking site? (you can mark multiple options)a. Easy searchb. Privacyc. Inter-connectability between networking sites(e.g.: YouTube video can play in Facebook)d. Photo and video sharinge. Others (Please specify)

7. Which of the following is correcta. I like to use site which my friends are usingb. I like to be the first mover to a new sitec. I like to use lesser known sitesd. Number of users on a site determine my choice

8. What is your Work experiencea. Less than 1 yearb. 1-3 yearsc. Greater than 3 years

9. Chose the options that best suit your personalitya. Politically inclinedb. Professionally networked c. Socially awared. None of the above

10. You connect to the social networking sites ona. Cellphoneb. Laptopsc. Tabletd. Shared PC like cyber café, classroom computer

11. Why did you choose the option in the above questionsa. Easy availability

b. Richness of featuresc. Ease of used. Others, please specify ( )

12. Which mode do you prefer for casual work a. Cellphoneb. Laptopsc. Tabletd. Shared PC like cyber café, classroom computer

13. Which mode do you prefer for urgent worka. Cellphoneb. Laptopsc. Tabletd. Shared PC like cyber café, classroom computer

14. Which mode do you prefer when working from hostel rooms a. Cellphoneb. Laptopsc. Tabletd. Shared PC like cyber café, classroom computer