USE OF ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BY COLLEGE STUDENTS AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR MARKETINGA CASE STUDY IN TRIPURA

PURPOSE: Study is to explore the relevant

factors applicable for online marketing by studying awareness, purpose of use and usage of SNS.

NEED: These studies have basically focused

on the usage and awareness, it is necessary to know how the online advertisements coming on the SNS is effective for the students.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1. Why does social networking remain popular within this group?

2. To find whether there is a significant difference in the usage of SNS among UG & PG students or not.

3. To find whether there is a significant difference in the usage of SNS among Male & Female students or not.

4. To drive out the implications for marketing.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION- Structured questionnaire.

SAMPLE SIZE- 300 (ICFAI University, Tripura)

METHODS OF ANALYSIS- Simple descriptive statistical analysis and ANOVA test.

DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

GENDER: Male- 85% Female-14% AGE GROUP: 18-21years-88.3% 21-24years-9% 24-27years-2.5% EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATION: UG-86.3% PG-13.7%

Obj 1:

Social network membership:

Not members of any site – 30.3%

MEMBERSHIP PERCENTAGE

ONE SITE 18%

TWO SITE 19.7%

MORE THAN TWO SITES 32%

TOTAL 69.7%

Reason behind use:

REASON PERCENTAGE

Personal development 21.7%

Making new friends 27%

Sharing new ideas 32.3%

Getting up to data information 13.3%

Others 5.7%

BEST METHOD OF NETWORKING

METHODS OF NETWORKING

PERCENTAGE

Conference call 10%

Message sharing 36%

E-mail 37.7%

Online news 16.3%

MOST CONTACTED PEOPLE:MOST CONTACTED PEOPLE

PERCENTAGE

College friends 51.7%

School friends 34.7%

Relatives 10.7%

Anybody 3%

FREQUENCY OF VISIT

FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

Once in a week 31%

Daily 26%

Several times in a day

18.7%

USE OF DIFFERENT POPULAR NETWORKING SITE

Never visited Twitter- 77.7%

Visited My Space ocassionally-18.7%

Visited Facebook monthly-10%

Visited Orkut weekly- 28.7%

Visited Orkut daily-43.7%

REASON BEHIND USE:

REASON OF VISIT PERCENTAGETouch wit friends 69%

Planning events 9.3%

Making new friends 11%

Dating 2.7%

Local events information 4.3%

Passing time 3.7%

NUMBER OF CLOSE FRIENDS IN CONTACTCONTACT PERCENTAGE1-4 close friends 39.3%

5-10 close friends 31.7%

More than 10 29%

CREATION SITES USED BY STUDENTSCREATION SITES EXCEPTIONAL

BASISREGULAR BASIS

You tube 40% 5.33%

Photo sharing site 38% 8.6%

Wikipedia 33% 12.3%

Flicker 12.6% 2.33%

ONLINE INFORMAION SHARINGSHARE INFO WITH FRNDS ABOUT PRODUCT

SATISFIED PRODUCT NON-SATISFIED PRODUCT

Shared info regularly

46.3% 50%

Shared info sometimes

51.3% 39%

Never shared 2.3% 11%

Obj 2:

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS: B.Tech. program-69% BCA course- 15% MBA course-12% B.Sc. Course-1.3% BHTM course-1.3% MCA course-0.7%

TIME SPENT ONLINE:Time spent- 90.3% and did not spend

time-9.7%

HO =The mean of UG & PG students are same in relation to online activities.

H1 = The mean of UG & PG students are not same in relation to online activities.

TIME SPENT PERCENTAGEMore than one hour 49%

2 to 3 hrs 37.3%

3 to 4 hrs 7.3%

More than 4 hrs 6.3%

ANOVA TEST FOR 2nd objective

ANOVA RESULTS OF THE ONLINE ACTIVITIES AND GRADUATION LEVEL

Keeping in touch with others , online communities, instant messaging, study/research and playing games rejects null hypothesis but all other online activities accepts null hypothesis

ACTIVITIES F Sig.

Email 0.064 0.800

Instant messaging

3.018 0.083

Getting news 0.188 0.664

Playing games 11.123 0.001

Shopping 0.201 0.654

Keeping in touch with others

4.110 0.044

Online communities

3.225 0.074

Study/ research 7.524 0.006

HO=The mean of UG&PG students are same in relation to spending time with different media H1 =The mean of UG&PG students are not same in relation to spending time with different media

ANOVA RESULTS OF SPENDING TIME ON MEDIA AND GRADUATION LEVEL

Only for television reject null hypothesis and all other cases accept null hypothesis.

MEDIUM F Sig.Newspapers 0.302 0.583

Television 2.842 0.093

Radio 0.114 0.736

Internet 1.734 0.189

Mobile phone 0.008 0.928

Obj 3: GENDER AND USAGE OF EMAIL , INSTANT MESSAGING AND PLAYING GAMES

VERY IMPORTANT

IMPORTANT

QUITE IMPORTANT

CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IT

NOT IMPORTANT

E-mail 36% 35.7% 21.7% - 1.7%

Instant messaging

17.7% 37.3% 29.3% 4.3% 11.3%

Playing games

7% 20.3% 24.3% 9% 39.3%

HO=The mean of female & male students are same in relation to the online activities H1 =The mean of female & male students are not same in relation to the online activities

ANOVA RESULT FOR THE ONLINE ACTIVITIES & GENDER CLASSIFICATIONACTIVITIES F Sig.

E-mail 0.143 0.706

Instant messaging

1.532 0.217

Getting news 0.562 0.454

Playing games 0.956 0.329

Shopping 0.208 0.648

Keeping in touch with others

0.000 0.982

Online communities

0.108 0.742

study/research 4.867 0.028

There is a significant difference in study/research between genders. There is no significant different in other online activities between genders

HO=The mean of female & male students are same in relation to spending time with different media H1 =The mean of female & male students are not same in relation to spending time with different media

ANOVA RESULTS FOR SPENDING TIME ON MEDIA & GENDER CLASSIFICATION

There is significant difference genders in case of newspapers, radio, the internet, mobile phones. But there is a significant difference in spending time with television between the genders

MEDIUM F Sig.

News paper 1.824 0.178

Television 4.805 0.029

Radio 0.123 0.726

Internet 0.445 0.505

Mobile phone 0.629 0.429

HO=The mean of female & male students are same in relation to the use of different networking sites H1 =The mean of female & male students are not same in relation to the use of different networking sites

ANOVA RESULTS FOR SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES & GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

There is no significant difference between genders and google groups and my space and but there is a significant difference between means of gender and for all other cases

SNS F Sig.

Orkut 0.480 0.489

My space 3.689 0.056

Facebook 0.206 0.650

Yahoo groups 2.536 0.112

Google groups 4.029 0.046

twitter 1.000 0.318

HO=The mean of female & male students are same in relation to content creation sites H1 =The mean of female & male students are not same in relation to content creation sites

ANOVA RESULTS OF CONTENT CREATION SITES & GENDER CLASSIFICATION

Flickr & wikipedia rejects the null hypothesis but for you tube and photo sharing sites accepts the null hypothesis

CONTENT CREATION SITES

F Sig.

You tube 0.006 0.936

Flickr 4.076 0.044

Wikipedia 3.932 0.048

Photo/video sharing sites

0.444 0.506

SUGGESTIONS

Marketers need to concentrate on SNS than traditional medias

They should ensure product quality before placing online advertisements

Advertisers should upload content that is viewed easily