A

PROJECT REPORT
ON

“Marketing survey to understand consumer perception about

uses of social media sites as a source of job opportunities”
For

Apptility Software Pvt. Ltd.

BY
Ashwini Patwa

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Table of content

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page No

1.Executive Summary 1-3

2. Introduction 4-13
• Objectives of the
study
• Scope of the study
• Limitations
3. Company Profile 14-19
4. Theoretical Background 20-25
5. Research Methodology 26-29
6. Data Analysis 30-50
7. Findings 51-52
8. Conclusion 53-54
9. Suggestions 55-56
10. Bibliography 57-58
11. Annexure 59-63
• Annexure 1
• Annexure 2

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List of Tables and Illustrations

Table Page No.

Table 6.1 31

Table 6.2 33

Table 6.3 35

Table 6.4 36

Table 6.5 38

Table 6.6 40

Table 6.7 41

Table 6.8 42

Table 6.9 44

Table 6.10 46

Table 6.11 48

Table 6.12 49

Table 6.13 50

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Figure Page No.

Fig 2.1 Different job search 9

Fig 6.1 Time spend on social media 31

Fig 6.2 Networking sites used in last 3 months 33

Fig 6.3 Website used regularly 35

Fig 6.4 Reasons for joining networking sites 36

Fig 6.5 Potential hires on social networking sites 41

Fig 6.6 Grab opportunity from social sites 42

Fig 6.7 Sources of opportunities 44

Fig 6.8 Important feature for increasing traffic 46

Fig 6.9 Most preferred resume 48

Fig 6.10 Gender 49

Fig 6.12 Age category 50

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 Cha pter 1
Ex ecuti ve Summar y

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 Executive Summary

RECENT SHIFTS in the Web 2.0 world like content co-creation, transparency and
individualized information impacts the way job searches and careers are defined. Trends
indicate the need to adopt and leverage new media or social media channels for
improving accessibility, creating a brand image and enhancing the potential of getting a
job. Blogs, podcasting, wikis and social networking are no more mere buzz words but
effective tools to get a head start in a complex web world. Jobs opportunities are also
varied and exciting as compared to few years ago. Instead of regular 9-6 assignments,
you have options of flexible timings, earning revenue from blogging, syndicating content,
selling digital photographs, person-to-person outsourcing ventures among others.

For student, it opens up numerous opportunities to build awareness, cultivate

communities, contribute to relevant discussions and improve chances of a long term
career growth.

Today, recruiters tap social networking sites for potential candidates and some
organizations hire close to 15-20 per cent by browsing pages of online participants. So
social networking job web sites emerge as new concept and are attracting many users
against traditional ways of searching jobs.

India Online survey conducted by just consultancy

It has been a year of healthy growth in the Indian online space.

All internet users at 49 million – 40 million urban, 9 million rural

33% growth in all urban users over last year

35 million ‘regular’ users – 30 million urban, 5 million rural

19% growth in regular urban users over last year

25 million ‘daily’ users

* ‘Regular’ internet users (internationally accepted definition) = internet users who

Use the internet ‘at least once a month’

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The top ten online activities undertaken by net users are:
Top 3 Online Activities % Undertaking

Emailing 91%

Job search 72%

Instant messaging / chatting 70%

Since job search is among top 3 activities carried out by net users, so it is a market with
lot of potential and Indian market for job sited is hotting up due to such potential. Also
social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut are growing at very fast pace and this
provides a suitable platform for any application to create its own user base.

The study concentrates on understanding consumer behaviors on social media as source

of job opportunities. Study is done both online and offline, since response rate in online
survey is very less so data is collected offline also.

The offline data collection is restricted to Bangalore city. Data is collected online from
opt-in mail list collected by organization and it consists of mail id of persons looking for
job. Offline data is collected from Garden City College of Science & Management
Studies and Bangalore Management Academy.

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 Cha pter 2

Intr oduction

• Ob ject iv es of Stud y

• Scope of Study

• Limitations

9
 Introduction

In India, with the grand success of the naukri.com IPO, the constant claims of leadership
between the rivals and entry of new players, the online job scene is definitely hotting up.

Social networking site Facebook is growing rapidly in India, according to a report

by comScore. From 238,000 users in January 2007, Facebook has grown by
230 percent to 785,000 users from India in June 2007.

But Orkut is still 10 times larger than Facebook, with 7.2 million Indian users as of June
2007. It added nearly a million new users during April-June 2007.

Among social networking Web sites, Orkut, Facebook and LinkedIn are very
popular in India. While the world leader MySpace does not have much
traction here, slugging along with 399,000 Indian users.

Here are the Alexa rankings of popular social networking sites in India.

• Orkut = 2
• Facebook = 21
• Hi5 = 53
• Myspace = 65
• Linkedin = 75

About 40 percent of Indian Facebook users are women, while they

constitute 28 percent in Orkut. Indian companies like NDTV, Info Edge,
SBI and Indiatimes are already advertising on Facebook.

Homegrown social networking sites like BigAdda, Rediff iShare, Fropper, Yaari and
Minglebox are gearing up to challenge the international heavyweights. Their success will
depend on whether they are able to leverage their local knowledge and understanding of
Indian sensibilities to differentiate their offerings. The global social networking giants
start with a huge advantage--that of a large existing user base--which helps in creating the
network effect and boosting viral growth.

The growth of social networking sites is getting wider; as of February 2008, LinkedIn
had more than 19 million registered users, spanning across 150 industries. These sites,

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especially the business-oriented social networking sites, provide instant credibility to a
professional’s profile, with the referrals and recommendations of the person, thus aiding
recruiters in captivating their mindshare. Thus, today many job seekers and recruiters in
India are making use of sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Orkut, Big Adda, Hi5, Brijj,
Yaari, Fropper, Ryze, Xing, etc., to identify the right and potential candidates, including
international talent, at minimal cost.

This shows that social networking is getting into new shape by extending its use for
professional networking and networking for job search.

Advantage for recruiters

For recruiters, social networking sites come to the rescue when one is looking out for
candidates having niche skills or for roles based in alien geographies. For instance, if an
IT services firm wants to hire a regional head for its Media and Entertainment business
based in Boston, it won’t find much value in uploading this position on job sites and
that’s where networking sites come into play when one is looking for candidates for roles
based in far-off places.

India is one of LinkedIn’s largest and fastest-growing countries, and recruitment plays a
big role in that. Social media sites are quite useful on a global basis. Such sites become a
breeding ground from which recruiters can select the best of the pack.

CodeMunch.com which is a social networking job portal is an initiative to capture a piece

of cake in this hot market.

Social networking sites vs job sites

Social networking sites can be used by recruitment agencies as people who are not very
active job seekers can be contacted and offered job proposals, since these people usually
don’t put up their CV on job sites. But he agreed that getting senior and experienced
people through these sites is quite difficult. He added, “Very few senior employees are
using social networking sites; it is mostly accessed by the younger generation and hence
it is beneficial for the IT/ BPO companies as they are usually in search of young talent.
But tools such as job preference, location required, etc. that are available on job sites are
not available at the networking sites.” TalentAhead India first looks at the person’s profile
present on these networking sites and if it matches the job requirement, they mail the job
offer to the person.

In the long run, social networking sites would be a key differentiator in the recruitment
market. All corporate can pay a subscription fee and get access to Naukri, JobsAhead or
Monster to access the candidate database. The ability to tap passive job seekers through
the Internet is a skill and would be a key differentiator in the coming years.”

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Most job sites will have a larger quantity of jobs posted than a site like LinkedIn does.
However, in terms of the size of the candidate pool, and the contextual information that a
recruiter can find out about a candidate, and vice-versa, social networking sites are
definitely better on this front. The fact is that many people are not active on the job
market; therefore they aren’t proactively visiting jobs boards. Hence much hiring is done
through a network of referrals; job portals cannot fulfill all of the needs in the hiring
process.

Direct hiring by companies

Hiring is a very important decision for both the company and the candidate, and it
involves a large degree of trust on both sides. Even before the advent of online, referrals
played a large role in the hiring process but the companies’ HR department making direct
use of these sites for hiring people is still at the nascent stage.

Searching blogs or social networking sites can be time consuming and may not yield the
ROI in a shorter time frame. As we invest time and resources, we would be able to
identify patterns to tap passive candidates who fit into the requirement. Like any other
profession, e-sourcing requires considerable skill set. This is one of the reasons the
acceptance levels would be slow among corporate or small-time recruiters.

Some of the HR consultants and HR managers have started checking out candidate’s
profiles on Orkut, which is in line with the international trend followed on MySpace,
etc... There are also large communities of corporate companies which give access to
information on people working in the same organization, even their discussions. Many
companies succeed by looking for future employees on social networking sites. HR
managers feel that the quality of response is good and helps create a good database of
candidates to be tapped subsequently. Easy accessibility to the service, plus the market
pull that India holds right now on the international community means that it is feasible to
use the service for hiring. Corporate alumni networks can be a powerful tool for
recruitment and even brand building.”

Candidates can include keywords and descriptions about themselves that will enable their
profile to be easily accessed when recruiters and hiring managers search for a specific
skill on these sites. Thus, online social networking sites are an platform to find the right
fit for job seekers and recruiters and it seems beneficial to all—the recruitment agencies,
companies, candidates and not to forget the sites themselves.

Advantages and disadvantages of using social networking

sites for recruitment

Advantages

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 • Wider reach as large number of people post their
profiles online
• Ability to identify both active (job portals) and
passive (social networking sites) job seekers
• Attains significant cost reduction
• Assesses the candidates to greater extent like
behavioral attributes, as individuals tend to open up
more in their social network
• Reach out to candidates with niche skills
• Access to different international talent pools
• Provides instant credibility to a professional’s profile
with the referrals and recommendations on the
person

Disadvantages

• Job portal search can yield immediate results, but

passive headhunting through social networking sites
can be time consuming till sourcing patterns are
identified

• Pointed searches either not possible or do not yield

accurate results

Now coming over to social media, Companies in India, especially all IT companies, have
started recruiting through social media networks and blogs. This is a very good trend
coming up as recruiters get a chance to make a background check of the person they are
recruiting. Websites like Orkut, Facebook and other social media websites are the new
hunting places for HR Teams these days to scout for talent that can deliver very good
results.

The figure provided below shows the active, passive and social search for job.

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 Active Search:

Social Passive:
Network s
Social Search:

Meetings,
Em ail

Busine
Businesse
sses,s,
postings
Companies,
Companies,
Jobs
Jobs

RSS

Fig. 2.1 Different job search (Taken from www.slideshare.com)

IT companies like WIPRO, HCL and Tata Consultancy Services are counting on social
media very much. Social media sites are places where professionals are looking forward
to build relationships with other professionals. There are many communities on both
Facebook and Orkut which professionals join in order to increase their knowledge of
their respective fields. Many professionals exchange a lot of crucial notes on these
communities which helps them build a reputation of their own. This certainly leads to
recruiting from these social networking sites.

Ravishankar B of HCL Global, Head - Resource Management group was quoted as

saying:

“We have a separate team of recruiters who scan blogs, websites such as LinkedIn
and Facebook for hiring. We use social media to recruit more than 100 people a
month. Over the next two years, one-third of our total recruitment will come from
social media,”

There are even specialized professional networks like LinkedIn and Ryze which cater to
the needs of professionals only. These professionals mainly register these sites in order to
already keep in touch with past as well as present colleagues. Thus, this is clearly an
opportunity for HR agencies and HR teams to collect relevant data, reputation and other
crucial data relating to the prospect in question through contacting the colleagues
connected to the prospect on the site.

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Nowadays, even senior professionals are catching up fast on the blogging scene and
writing content that develops a rapport with a lot of visitors. These senior professionals
write on blogs to develop a reputation for themselves and establish themselves as experts
in their respective areas of work. This way they are attracting companies to recruit them
by initiating them to read the quality of content that is put up on their blog.

According to Ravishankar B of HCL Global :

“Around 25-30% of senior hiring comes through social media. It includes portfolios
such as group managers and general managers,”

The trend of recruiting from social media sites is here to stay and will grow eventually as
targeted hiring can take place for free and that too with a background check on all social
media sites like LinkedIn and Orkut. Though the person commenting on the prospect can
be found to be bias at times, the prospect might be also connected to other networking
sites where they have a different set of people to interact with. The reviewer can visit
other social media sites to know more about the prospect in question and form a
conclusion by synchronizing all comments. Apart from recruiting through job portals,
campuses and other mediums; social media sites are going to be one of the coolest ways
to recruiting talent.

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 Objectives

Primary objective
• To find perception of respondent about social networking sites as job
source.

Secondary objectives
• Website measurement

• Finding market potential of Codemunch applications on Facebook and

Orkut.

• Identifying ways for marketing of applications on Facebook.

• Understanding consumer behaviors in social media space.

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 Scope of Study

The scope of study is confined to know user perception about social media network as
source of job opportunities. Research is done only with reference to
www.codemunch.com.

In this research study, views and experience of users of social media was taken by
considering various factors of social media such as social networking site, weblog, etc.
with reference to job opportunities present on them.

TIME:
The time duration of the project has been as follows:

Secondary data collection was started from 19th May to 27th May 2008.

The study would involve collection of primary data from 27th May 2008 and ended on
19th July 2008.

GEOGRAPHY:
The geographical scope of the offline data collection was restricted to the Bangalore.

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 LIMITATIONS

 The study was based on perceptions, ideas and preferences of the respondents,
which are complex in nature and depends on the subjectivity of the individual.

 The project Report was to be completed within a time period and this was another
constraint for the study.

 Response rate for online data collection was very low.

 Third party tool used for collecting online data provides only limited access and
features.

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 Cha pter 3

Company pr ofi le

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 Company profile

Apptility is a privately held San Jose-based software development company. It creates

innovative software solutions for end consumers as well as enterprise customers. Its
products and services are driven by open source and social computing architecture.

Apptility LLC, an open source software adoption services firm that provides enterprises
with innovative on-demand services and business solutions to cost-effectively manage IT
business challenges. Its offices are located at leading technology hubs of the world - San
Jose, California and Bangalore, India.

It provides online business solutions by leveraging internet technologies, open source and
emerging social computing tools. Its approach combines Web 2.0 concepts with
enterprise-grade processes.

Partial list of its customers

• TheGreenOffice
• Splunk
• Zmanda
• Skyrun
• InfiniteMassage
• SustainableSpaces
• InterAct Public Safety
• Sterling Commerce
• MCN Healthcare
• Verisign

Apart from providing online business solutions to end customers and enterprise customer,
it also has some home products and research initiatives.

Research initiatives include

• Disclosure norms, online stereotyping, user interface as a literacy tool, social

collaboration, breaking cultural barriers using social tools, extending open source
concept to enterprise processes etc.
• We also do customer funded research projects.

To enhance research initiatives openAlgo has been established.

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OpenAlgo

OpenAlgo works closely with clients to develop research and knowledge products. We
conduct surveys, community research, develop industry insights and strategy reports.

Research Services

OpenAlgo has established research framework to deliver a clear understanding of market

needs, best practices and technology adoption issues and trends in business and
technology areas of open source. These areas range from licensing, community activism,
and business models to technology areas in open source business applications. OpenAlgo
leverages its access to business and technology members from open source organizations.

Research Products

• Research Alerts
• Survey Data
• Custom Survey
• Community Watch
• Vendor Profile
• Annual Segment Analysis

Its ongoing survey collects insights from more than 100 open source business
applications. The results provide the fertile basis of research and provides client with
valuable knowledge and action-oriented insights.

Home Products

Portfolio of its current and proposed initiatives

CultureBuilder

Boundary-less organizations need new way to communicate and reinforce IT compliance

culture.

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Social Labs
Social computing / Social transformation / Social entrepreneurship

Social Labs is born out of a desire to apply technology into new areas. Our everyday
exposure to Internet and web applications made us realize that LOT more needs to be
done before the full potential of technology reaches everybody.

There are real challenges out there such as digital divide, online stereotyping, and
technical knowledge asymmetry to name few. To understand these issues it is an effort to
build discovery-oriented innovation process. Using rapid prototyping and lot of does-it-
make-sense approach we intend to explore solutions. There is not much expectation or
marketing timeline associated with these projects.

Guidelines for innovation are following:

• Think global and test local.

• Quick Does-it-make-sense test.
• Unexplored assumptions reveal more than the assumptions that are well
articulated.
• Culture and behavior change matters more than the technological change.
• You can not be a serious innovator unless you are willing and able to play.
• Playing with scarcity evokes different improvisations than playing with
abundance.
• Prototype driven culture makes happy employees.

OpenAppDotOrg

Experiment in unlocking the knowledge which gets generated just before the actual
development process.

Stereowipe

Concept to track and contain cultural stereotyping as it exists on Internet.

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Social CRM

Social CRM provides an entirely new way to manage your customer relationship. Using
conversational model it adds agility and responsiveness to the customer interaction
processes. Current generation CRM systems lack the necessary agility and are geared
towards building customer repositories.

Codemunch

Social resume builder to acquire skills for the new world.

On CodeMunch 47 different domains are covered, it provides for all of them a different
UI and functionality. It means a guy of any domain can easily register himself on
CodeMunch. Only the relevant data in a very precise manner is asked, keeping in mind
its domain. On the basis of data provided social resume is developed, known as his
“SkillMunch” page.

Once profile is complete 75% or more than this then one can download resume as a clear,
robust & in a well formatted template, just free of cost. One doesn’t have to spend a
single penny from your pocket for your standard resume.

Group module is interesting and equally helpful for fresher, as well as for professional
ones. It helps to enhance your knowledge, and to show case skills.
Actually on CodeMunch, Group is an individual entity which has its different forums.
Any body, can post a question there, reply for a question.

On CodeMunch, motive is to make your resume social, make skill set relevant to the
world you live. Therefore, CodeMunch adopts a unique social resume model to achieve
professional resume with the help of peer ratings and comments by others.

It provides a facility to send message individually to any of the CodeMunch users.

One can put badges provided, on blog or on social profile page.

There is search functionality also. Now not only with username, search can be done with
username, real name, location and of course with technical info.

There are three, or four different templates for resume download. Recruiters section is
still in design phase.

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CodeMunch Facebook and Orkut Application:

Orkut and Facebook provides facility to develop applications and these applications are
integrated on profile if users. In order to leverage huge potential present on Orkut and
Facebook these applications are developed. The application developed if integrated on
profile then it shows resume on present profile on Orkut or Facebook. So the application
is pretty good for those who are looking for job and uses Orkut or Facebook to develop
and maintain there social network.

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 Cha pter 4

T heor etica l Bac kg round

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 Theoretical Background

Social media is the use of electronic and Internet tools for the purpose of sharing and
discussing information and experiences with other human beings. The term most often
refers to activities that integrate technology, social interaction, and the construction of
words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information
is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and "building" of shared meaning among
communities, as people share their stories and experiences.

Distinction from traditional media

Social media or social networking (one example of social media) has a number of
characteristics that make them fundamentally different from traditional media such as
newspapers, television, books, and radio. Primarily, social media depend on interactions
between people as the discussion and integration of words build shared-meaning, using
technology as a conduit.

Social media utilities create opportunities for the use of both inductive and deductive
logic by their users. Claims or warrants are quickly transitioned into generalizations due
to the manner in which shared statements are posted and viewed by all. The speed of
communication, breadth, and depth, and ability to see how the words build a case solicits
the use of rhetoric. Induction is frequently used as a means to validate or authenticate
different users' statements and words. Rhetoric is an important part of today’s language in
social media.

Social media is not finite: there are not a set number of pages or hours. The audience can
participate in social media by adding comments or even editing the stories themselves.
Content in social media can take the form of text, graphics, audio, or video. Several
formats can be mixed. Social media is typically available via feeds, enabling users to
subscribe via feed readers, and allowing other publishers to create mashups.

"Social media" signifies a broad spectrum of topics and has several different
connotations. In the context of Internet marketing, Social Media refers to a collective
group of web properties that are driven by users. For example, blogs, discussion boards,
vlogs, video sharing sites and dating sites. Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the
process of trying to get ones content more widely distributed across multiple Social
Media networks.

Social Media has two important aspects. The first, SMO, refers to on-page tactics through
which a webmaster can improve a website for the age of social media. Such optimization
includes adding links to services such as Digg, Reddit and Del.icio.us so that their pages
can be easily 'saved and submitted' to and for these services.

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Social Media Marketing, on the other hand, is an off-page characteristic of Social Media.
This includes writing content that is remarkable, unique, and newsworthy. This content
can then be marketed by popularizing it or even by creating a “viral” video on YouTube
and other video sites. Social Media is about being social so this off-page work can
include getting involved in other similar blogs, forums, and niche communities. Search
Engine Marketing or SEM involves utilization of all available Social Networking
platforms to brand a product using Search Engine Optimization or SEO techniques of
communication, to the end consumer.

Description

Social media can take many different forms, including Internet forums, weblogs, wikis,
podcasts, pictures and video. Technologies include: blogs, picture-sharing, vlogs, wall-
postings, email, instant messaging, music-sharing, crowdsourcing, and voice over IP, to
name a few. Examples of social media applications are Google Groups (reference, social
networking), Wikipedia (reference), MySpace (social networking), Facebook (social
networking), Youmeo (social network aggregation), Last.fm (personal music), YouTube
(social networking and video sharing), Avatars United (social networking), Second Life
(virtual reality), Flickr (photo sharing), Twitter (social networking and microblogging)
and other microblogs such as Jaiku and Pownce. Many of these social media services can
be integrated via social network aggregation platforms like Mybloglog and Plaxo.

Examples of social media applications include:

Communication

• Blogs: Wordpress, TypePad, Blogger (service)

• Microblogs / Presence apps: Twitter and Pownce
• Social networking: Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Avatars United
• Social network aggregation: FriendFeed, SocialThing,Youmeo
• Events: Upcoming.org, Eventful

Collaboration

• Wikis: Wikipedia, PBWiki

• Social bookmarking: del.icio.us and StumbleUpon
• Social News Sites: Digg, Mixx and Reddit
• Opinion sites: epinions, Amazon reviews, Yelp

Multimedia

• Photo sharing: Flickr and Zooomr

• Video sharing: YouTube and Vimeo
• Livecasting: Ustream and Justin.tv

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 • Audio and Music Sharing: imeem

Entertainment

• Virtual worlds: Second Life

• Online gaming: World of Warcraft
• Game sharing: Miniclip.com

Description of terms

A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an
individual, with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material
such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological
order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more
personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs,
Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments
in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily
textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches
(sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a
wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which
consists of blogs with very short posts.

Micro-blogging is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates
(usually 140 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a
restricted group which can be chosen by the user. These messages can be submitted by a
variety of means, including text messaging, instant messaging, email, MP3 or the web.

The most popular service is Twitter, which was launched in July 2006 and won the Web
Award in the blog category at the 2007 South by Southwest Conference in Austin, Texas.
The main competitor to Twitter has been Jaiku (although this has since been acquired by
Google and closed public registrations).

RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works such as
blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format.An RSS document
(which is called a "feed," "web feed,"or "channel") includes full or summarized text plus
metadata such as publish dates and authors. RSS is also used to distribute sound or video,
as in podcasting. Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content quickly
and automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from
favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place.

RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader," "feed reader," or an
"aggregator," which can be web-based or desktop-based. A standardized XML file format

28
allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The
user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS
icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's
subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and
provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.

The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats: "Really Simple Syndication
(RSS 2.0)", "RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90)", or "Rich Site Summary (RSS
0.91)".

Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and
manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata.

In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to
remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, and can be saved privately,
shared only with specified people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or
another combination of public and private domains. The allowed people can usually view
these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, or via a search engine.

Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their bookmarks with
informal tags instead of the traditional browser-based system of folders, although some
services feature categories/folders or a combination of folders and tags. They also enable
viewing bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the
number of users who have bookmarked them. Some social bookmarking services also
draw inferences from the relationship of tags to create clusters of tags or bookmarks.

Many social bookmarking services provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks,
including lists organized by tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new
bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users.

As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features
such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks
from browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation, and groups or other social
network features.

Social network aggregation is the process of collecting content from multiple social
network services, such as MySpace or Facebook. The task is often performed by a social
network aggregator, which pulls together information into a single location, or helps a
user consolidate multiple social networking profiles into one profile. Various aggregation
services provide tools or widgets to allow users to consolidate messages, track friends,
combine bookmarks, search across multiple social networking sites, read RSS feeds for
multiple social networks, see when their name is mentioned on various sites, access their
profiles from a single interface, provide "lifestreams", etc.

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Social network aggregation services attempt to organize or simplify a user's social
networking experience, although the idea has been satirized by the concept of a "social
network aggregator aggregator."

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share
interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of
others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for
users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

Social networking has created powerful new ways to communicate and share
information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people,
and it now seems that social networking will be an enduring part of everyday life. The
main types of social networking services are those which contain directories of some
categories (such as former classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-
description pages), and recommender systems linked to trust. Popular methods now
combine many of these, with MySpace and Facebook being the most widely used in
North America; Bebo, MySpace, Skyrock Blog, StudiVZ, Youmeo, Facebook and Hi5 in
parts of Europe; Orkut and Hi5 in South America and Central America; and Friendster,
Orkut, and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

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 Cha pter 5

Resear ch Methodolog y

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 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research is an art of scientific investigation. It is defined as “A careful investigation or

enquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge”.

Research is a movement from the known to the unknown. It is actually a voyage of

discovery. Research refers to the systematic method consisting of enunciating the
problem, collecting the facts or data, analyzing the facts and reaching certain conclusions
in the form of solutions towards the concerned problem.

Research design
A research design specifies the methods and procedures for conducting a particular study.
Broadly speaking, there are 3 categories of research design – exploratory, descriptive and
casual research.

An exploratory research focuses on the discovery of ideas and is generally based on

secondary data. A descriptive study is undertaken when the researcher wants to know the
characteristics of certain groups such as age, educational level, income, occupation, etc. A
casual research is undertaken when the researcher is interested in knowing the cause and
effect relationship between two or more variables.

The type of research used in this study is descriptive research. The study was structured
and was rigid and its approach remained the same throughout the study.

Research design is the blue print of the action for this study.

Following method was adopted during study-

 Review of literature and take data from distributor to understand recent development
in the field.
 Defining objective of the study.
 Formation of questionnaire to capture primary data.
 Analysis and interpretation of primary data.

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 Conclusion out of primary and secondary data.

Sources of data
The sources of data used in this project report are both primary and secondary data.

Primary data:

Primary data consists of original information gathered for specific purposes at hand.
These are gathered for a specific purpose or for a specific research project. Primary data
was collected online and offline. Offline data collection was done from students.

Secondary data:

Secondary data consists of information that already exist and that were being collected in
the past for some other purposes. Secondary data used in this study were collected from
external sources like books, blogs, wiki etc. Some websites which were really helpful are
www.slideshare.com , www.scribd.com .

Sample design
Sampling technique adopted

The sampling technique used for offline survey was convenience sampling. The
respondents in the sample were included merely on account that they are management
students. For online survey, a non-probabilistic convenience sampling method was
adopted. The maid ids of respondents are compiled from in-house opt-in email lists.

Population:

All students pursuing management courses comprise population for offline survey.

Tools and techniques adopted

Data was collected with the help of questionnaire. The questionnaire is of structured non-
disguised type. The questions are of mixed type. The contact method used in the offline
survey was personal interview method. The duration of each interview was 15 minutes.
The researcher went to the students personally and asked the questions from the prepared
questionnaire and the answers were noted down on the questionnaire.

For online survey, questionnaire was prepared using third party tool
(www.surveygizmo.com), email for filling questionnaire was send to potential respondent

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and response was collected on the third party site on which questionnaire was prepared.
The third party tool made data reliable owing to the self-reported demographic
attributes of the respondents.

The email invitations provided a direct link to the survey, and contained the language
which is given in Annexure 1.

This was complete method followed for conducting study.

Sample size:

For online survey sample size was 46. Total invitations send for this was about 1200.
There were about 170 uncompleted or abandoned surveys which were rejected. This
makes the ratio about 27%.

For offline survey sample size was 200.

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 Cha pter 6

Data Anal ys is

35
Cha pter 7

Find ings

36
 Find ings

• Orkut is most popular site among respondents as about 85% of them use it
regularly.

• Most of respondents join social networking sites for making new fiends but
networking together form a good percentage, showing the importance of
networking.

• Blogging, Photo or video sharing and social bookmarking are most commonly
used forms of social media making them ideal platform for popularizing site and
applications.

• Despite the growing popularity of social media in providing job opportunities,

65% of respondents in our survey have not looked for potential hires on social
media sites.

• If average is seen, respondents give average rating to website.

• Networkings (personal and professional) are identified as major source of

opportunities.

• Placing link on social profile is considered most trusted source for increasing
traffic on resume.

• Traditional resume is preferred most by respondents, followed by online resume.

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Cha pter 8

Conc lus ion

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 Conclusion

Orkut is most popular social networking sites followed by Facebook among respondents,
so they provide excellent platform for popularizing website by means of application.
Applications with effective viral effect can make a big success on these platforms.

Weblog is used most frequently by respondents so blogging is a good way to promote

website. Social bookmarking is followed by blogging and it also plays a great role in
increasing rating of website. So more concentration must be on blogging and social
bookmarking as compared to other forms of social media like RSS.

There is an urge to improve content of weblog on company’s blogging page. Also layout
need to be improves a lot. Whereas other features such as ease of navigation and content
on groups and forums are pretty good.

Placing link on social profile is preferred by most of respondent in order to increase

traffic on resume. This gives a good indication for application as with applications
resume is shown on social profile of respondent.

A good percentage of respondents looks for potential hires on social networking sites and
also post resume grabbing opportunities from these sites. So the applications can spread
well and serve well the purpose of person looking job.

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Cha pter 9

Su ggesti on

40
 Sug gest ions

• Layout and blog content need to be improved. For proper marketing of website
weblog, social bookmarking must be used as it makes the website popular.

• Proper groups and forums must be selected on Orkut and Facebook to popularize
website and applications.

• There is a need to educate people about the website and use of social media for
job opportunities. This can be by running an adverting campaign.

41
 Ch apter 10

Bib li og raphy

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 Bibliography
A. BOOKS

Kothari, C.R, Research Methodology, Second Edition, New Delhi, Wishwa

Prakashan, 1990

B. WEBSITES

www.apptility.com

www.socialcrm.com

www.codemunch.com

http://www.watblog.com/2007/11/30/companies-start-recruiting-through-social-
media-websites/

http://www.watblog.com/2007/11/28/new-develpments-at-facebook-a-change-in-the-
social-media-marketing-scenario/

http://www.rediff.com/getahead/2007/sep/24brand.htm

http://www.pluggd.in/2008/02/popular-social-networking-sites-around-the-world-
no-signs-of-facebook-in-india/

http://www.vault.com/nr/newsmain.jsp?nr_page=3&ch_id=420&article_id=3146413
9

http://www.watblog.com/2006/12/05/social-networking-online-jobs/

http://www.openpr.com/news/archive/22184/Apptility-Software-Pvt-Ltd.html

http://www.ajuby.com:80/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media

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Ch apter 11

Anne xur e
• Anne xur e 1

• Anne xur e 2

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 Annexure 1
This annexure contains email format which is an invitation for taking part in survey. This
email invitation was send for online survey.

Hi [Name here],

We are conducting a web-based survey to understand consumer perception about uses of

social media sites as a source of job opportunities. Please take part in this survey! The
data you are providing will really help a lot and is for academic purpose. This is
completely anonymous (not that it matters much), so nobody, even people looking at the
results, will know who answered what. It's short, so this will be over quickly and
painlessly.

We hope you'll take 10-15 minutes to fill out our survey, which you will find at
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/60908/socialmedia

I hope you enjoy taking the survey and sharing your views about the social media. If you
have any questions, please feel free to contact me at ashwinpatwa@gmail.com.

Thank you,

Ashwini Patwa

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