Social Networking Sites

By Nidhi Vats

Introduction

•Websites focused on building online communities of people having shared interests. •Social networks have common themes of information sharing, person-to-person interaction and creation of shared & collaborative content.•The industry has been successful in getting a large number of people at one place, but not very successful in monetization.•Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit a social network or blogging site and the sector now accounts for almost 20% of all internet time.

Social Networking Allows to•Facilitates open communication, leading to enhanced information discovery and delivery. •Allows employees to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions and share links. •Provides an opportunity to widen business contacts. •Targets a wide audience, making it a useful and effective recruitment tool. •Improves business reputation and client base with minimal use of advertising. •Expands market research, implements marketing campaigns, delivers communications and directs interested people to specific web sites.

Orkut is a commercial site designed to help users meet new and old friends and maintain existing relationships.

Registration RequiredAvailable 48 LanguagesOwner Google IncCreated by Ourkut BüyükköktenLaunched January 24, 2004Alexa Rank 377 in August 2012Users 33 million

IT is hosted in California, in August 2008 was fully managed and operated in Brazil, by Google Brazil, in the city of Belo Horizonte. This was decided due to the large Brazilian user base and growth of legal issues.Most visited site in Brazil and India.

Orkut Social Network

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Users can change their interface from a wide range of colorful themes in library.

Each member can become a fan of any of the friends in their list and can also evaluate whether their friend is "Trustworthy", "Cool", "Sexy" on a scale of 1 to 3

Orkut allows anyone to visit anyone's profile, unless a potential visitor is on your "Ignore List"

Each member can also customize their profile preferences and can restrict information that appears on their profile from their friends and/or others

When a user logs in, they see the people in their friends list in the order of their logging in to the site, the first person being the latest one to do so.

Features

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Fake profiles A number of fake profiles exist on Orkut.Flooders In August 2005 a freeware program was made specifically for flooding Orkut. Electronic Spam

Orkut implemented an automated system to prevent spam.Hate Groups

In 2005, various cases of racism were brought to police attention and reported on in the Brazilian media. Mumbai police is seeking a ban on orkut post objections raised by politicians

Controversy

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Legal Issue

Very popular in Iran, but the website is now blocked by government.

In August 2006, the United Arab Emirates followed the footsteps of Iran in blocking the site.

Saudi Arabia is another country that has blocked access to Orkut, while Bahrain's information ministry is also under pressure to follow suit.

Legal Issue

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Google+ is a social networking platform.

It is a multilingual social networking.

Google+ integrates social services such as Google Profiles.

Google+ introduces new services identified as Circles, Hangouts and Sparks.

Google+ is available as a website and on mobile devices.

What is Google+ ?

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"Circles" enable users to organize people into groups for sharing.

Although other users may be able to view a list of people in a user's collection of Circles,

They cannot view the names of those Circles.

The privacy settings also allow users to hide the users in their Circles as well as who has them in their Circle.

Features

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"Games" (social gaming) had 16 games. Unlike Facebook games, Google+ games are located under a games tab, which gives games less visibility, and have notifications that are separate from the rest of a user's notifications.

Google+ Games

• "Sparks" enables users to identify topics they might be interested in sharing with others. "Featured interests" sparks are also available, based on topics others globally are finding interesting.

• "Messenger" is a feature available to Android, iPhone, and SMS devices for communicating through instant messaging within Circles. Additionally, users can now share photos in Messenger between their Circles.

• "Instant Upload" is specific to mobile devices; it stores photos or videos in a private album for sharing later.

Google+

• Social Network launched in 2006 by Pavel Durov • Dubbed “the Facebook” of Russia• Vision: To help people express their opinions

and find an audience, communicate with a broad community of interesting people and keep in touch with friends and family.

• Mission: To remain the fastest, most modern and aesthetically pleasing means of communicating on the internet.

Vkontakt

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• Messaging • News • Communities• Like buttons• Games• Audio and Video uploads

Functionality and Features

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In the United Kingdom, Bebo is the second best social network

It offers many of the same features as other social networking sites

free account with Bebo and upload photos, videos and information

The site is accessible also the users from United States, Australia, Canada, Poland, France and Germany.

Users of Habbo are between the age group of 13 – 18 years.

, cartoon-character

major part of the users are from the U.S., Habbo social networks is very popular in places like the United Kingdom, Japan, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Finland and more.

Effects of Social Networking Sites on People

Attention-deficit hyperactivity Disorder

The practice of logging on daily to see hundreds of new photos, comments, and user statuses have begun to take away our ability to keep our focus on something for more than an hour or two, making ADHD a very real and possible effect of SNS

Depression and Loneliness• When interacting with

someone through text messages, instant messaging, or email, a large portion of how humans interact is gone.

NarcismNarcism, or the excessive

love or admiration of oneself, has become one of the largest problems, especially in SNS users. This way of self-entitled thinking is very dangerous for any person. This can negatively affect how we see ourselves, as well as how we treat and perceive others.

Hypothesis

• Social Networking Sites become a larger portion of our lives; they have begun to damage their users, both mentally and socially.

• Collaborative• Engaging• Sense of Community• Knowledge

Management• Ease of Use• Integration• Low Cost

• Oversold• High overlap• Disorderly• Privacy Issues

• Mergers and Acquisitions

• Competing Platforms• Abuse and Exploitation• Risk of losing image

• Integration• Convert users• Expose blogs and

campaigns to community users

Strenghts Weaknesses

ThreatsOpportunities

POLITICAL- Pressure to crack down on child predators

- Increased emphasis on privacy

ECONOMIC- Greater affluence, leading to more number of users online

SOCIAL- “Everyone’s on it” & there is a pressure to Belong

TECHNOLOGY- Increases in broadband speed and penetration- Decrease in bandwidth and data center costs

PEST

External Environment Analysis

Top 10 in India(no. of users)Total Unique Visitors (000)

Site July 2009 July 2010 % change

Facebook 7,472 20,873 179

Orkut 17,069 19,871 16

Bharatstudent.com 4,292 4,432 3

Yahoo! Pulse N/A 3,507 N/A

Twitter 984 3,341 239

LinkedIn N/A 3,267 N/A

Zedge 1,767 3,206 81

Ibibo 1,562 2,960 89

Yahoo! Buzz 542 1,807 233

Shtyle.fm 407 1,550 281

Total 23,255 33,158 43

Disadvantages Of Social Networking Sites

•Opens up the possibility for hackers to commit fraud and launch spam and virus attacks. •Increases the risk of people falling prey to online scams that seem genuine, resulting in data or identity theft. •May result in negative comments from employees about the company or potential legal consequences if employees use these sites to view objectionable, illicit or offensive material. •Potentially results in lost productivity, especially if employees are busy updating profiles, etc.

• Building a Collaborative Culture• Establishing more effective two-way

communication• Creating more engaging learning experiences• Sharing current practices through a knowledge

network• Improving Employee involvement and engagement• Assessing progress more regularly and effectively

How Social Networking is changing Enterprises

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THANK YOU