Social Media Usage Behavior of Working Professionals

ABSTRACT

India ranks among top five countries when it comes to the pace of growth in internet and social media usage. Global average growth of in internet users is measly 19%, India alone is at 90%. India’s web users have 153 million active social media accounts. The social media users are increasing by 23% approximately each year. India has over 195 million Facebook users which makes India a country that has world’s largest number of Facebook users. On the other hand, India has 2nd largest Twitter users in Asia-Pacific region with 23.2 million users. India contributes a great part in social media networking sites. A huge contribution is by the youngsters who are involved in communicating and interacting with friends and family. Social media is also being used for educational purposes in order to make the students understand things better. Employees are using social media to relieve their stress and increase their professional networks. Businesses are also using social media networking sites to stay in touch with their current customers and search for potential customers. Social media is a platform which is being used for different purposes by different type of people.

This study is being carried out to understand the usage behavior of working professional towards social media. It shall also help to identify the factors that influence the social media usage behavior among the working professionals. The study focuses on identifying which sites do professionals prefer in case of non-professionals social media networking sites.

Quantitative research was selected to collect numerical data and Descriptive research method was adopted to conduct surveys. In case of sampling technique, Convenience sampling was adopted and the sample of study extended to 126 respondents. The data was collected through Questionnaires that aimed at the preference of non-professional sites and the factors that influence the usage of social media among professionals.

Data collected was analyzed using IBM SPSS 16.0 software. Factor analysis, Frequency analysis and Net Promoter Score were the three methods used to analyze data.

As per the analysis it is clear that professionals are highly involved in using social media networking sites. There are 16 different variables that influence the usage behavior of social media. These 16 variables resulted into 5 important factors: Communication, Information Technology, Refreshment, Self-Development and Interaction. In case of Non-Professional social media networking site, Facebook is more preferred and used rather than Twitter. Net Promoter Score explained that professionals prefer recommending Facebook to their co-workers.

INTRODUCTION

Overview

Before 20th century, letters were the easiest way to communicate over distance. It used to take days to convey the message as the letters were delivered by hand from one person to another. The telegraph, invented in 1792, allowed people to deliver message over a long distance with a faster speed when compared to letters. It turned up as a revolutionary way to convey short information and news. Telephone and radio were another important discoveries to communicate. Computers came into picture in 20th century, when the scientists started developing ways to create networks among computers. This is how social media was born.

CompuServe and UseNet were primitive forms of social media and allowed users a virtual platform to communicate. In year 1997, the world recognized first social media site named Six Degrees. This helped people to upload their profiles and make friends with others. Blogging came into picture and created sensation among the social media users and still popular today.

In early 2000s, social media sites like LinkedIn and MySpace gained prominence. LinkedIn came to be known as a business and employment-oriented social media networking site. People started using it for professional networking. By 2006, Twitter and Facebook became faddish to users throughout the world.

Today, Social media has become an essential part of people’s life. It has made a substantial impact on the way how people communicate with each other within past decade. It has made communication more efficient and easier. Social media is being used by people of all ages for different reasons. People communicate through emails, texts and other expanding social media modes every day. It can be operated through most of the devices like desktop, laptop, mobile and tablet. It is being used by different platforms in different forms.

Social media is used by people of two different mindsets. The first type of user is one who uses social media to ‘spend time’ while the second type of user id one who uses social media to ‘invest time’. Professional social media networking sites work well for those who want to invest their time into interacting with other professionals and learning things that shall help them in their career growth. On the other hand, non-professional social media networking sites are to spend time on entertainment and fun.

Youngsters mainly use social media networking sites to stay in touch with their family members and friends. They usually use non-professional sites to spend their time for entertainment purpose. Social media provides them a space where they can keep up with their current relationships and can also interact with new people. Social media is not confined to connection between two people, it also consists of knowledge and information that proves to be helpful for youngsters specially students.

Social media networking sites like Twitter and Facebook has changed the way political campaigns were carried out. Now, the politicians can directly interact with the voters without spending a penny. The networking sites are helping in fundraising, campaign organizing, advertising, etc. It has helped political parties in conveying their messages and building their image in front of public.

Business are using social media networking sites to gain more customers and for brand awareness. Sites like Facebook give a platform to display their advertisements and thus, increasing the rate of conversion of leads. The businesses can share their content and offers at a faster speed and to a larger audience. The social media networking sites help them to keep a track of the steps taken by competitors. It also gives an opportunity to build strong relationship with customers so as to turn them into loyal customers.

Employees are using social media networking sites like LinkedIn to increase their professional networks. Through social media networking sites, recruiters can find right employees for different positions. Employees can share their official achievements through such sites. Social media sites help employees to find right jobs for themselves and apply for the same.

As social media is gaining popularity among working professionals it is important to understand the usage behavior of social media networking sites. There are two types of social media networking sites: professional social media networking sites and non-professional social media networking sites. Professional social media networking sites like LinkedIn play an important role in professional’s life by enabling them to increase their networks. On the other hand, Non-Professional social media networking sites are entertaining and provide a platform where professionals can connect with their family and friends easily.

There are certain factors that influence social media usage behavior of working professionals. The factors like easy communication, the quality of information that social media provides, the level of relaxation and entertainment it provides and so on. The ease of use of social media is also a factor that enables a professional to use or not to the respective site. Facebook and Twitter are non-professional social media networking sites that can be taken to examine the social media usage behavior among the working professionals.

The purpose of this study is to understand the social media usage behavior of working professionals. The study also focuses on the factors that influence the usage behavior of social media among working professionals.

Objectives of the study

- To study about the social media usage behavior of working professionals.
- To understand the factors that influences the usage behavior of social media among working professionals.
- To study the usage of Non-Professional (Facebook and Twitter) social media networking sites.

Scope of the study

The study enables to have a definite insight on understanding the social media usage behavior of working professionals. The study focuses on types of Non-Professional social media networking sites. Non-Professional social media networking sites are confined to Facebook and Twitter.It is specifically being performed to understand which site is preferred over the other. The study is not limited to social media networking sites; it also examines the behavior of working professionals in the usage of social media sites. The study covers all the parameters performed by social media with respect to working professionals.

Limitations of the study

There are few limitations to this study, which are as follows:

- Time Constraint: As the Duration of the project is 60 days so the survey cannot be conducted on a very large sample size.
- Co-operation: Co-operation of the sample unit cannot be predicted. Plus the information provided by them is not always correct.
- Sample Size: Sample size is small, therefore, there may be difference in reality and the finding
- Sample Unit: The sample unit includes professionals mostly working in service based organizations.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Social media is a trend that is increasing its importance in our lives day by day and is influencing our lifestyle. Its use is on boom nowadays. It is a platform that has made life easier by quick sharing of ideas, thoughts and almost everything a person wants to share. Social media is a new standard when it is about communicating everything from huge life events like marriage to minute particulars like having dinner. It has made interaction and communication much easier and interesting. It is being used by each and every person in today’s world.

Social Media probably started 20 years back when Bruce and Susan Abelson introduced “Open Diary” that brought together different diary writers into one community. Formally Social Media can be defined as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content." There are different types of social media networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Second Life and many more. These sites cannot be differentiated into different categories as more and more sites are introduced every other day. Theories like media research and social processes are used to classify these social media networking sites. Social presence is a factor that decides how a person can influence his communication partner on social media. The higher the social presence the more influential the person can be. Social presentation is also a concept that is closely related to social media. Social presentation can be referred to the desire of controlling how people think about someone or what image they have built about someone (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).

Social media has done an exemplary job in bridging the communication gap between people. Different social media tools help in interaction to everyone around in the shortest possible time. Social media has the potential to influence our social lives, on community level as well as interpersonal level. Social media is also used at business level to interact with the customers. The study reveals the advantages of social media: sharing of idea, tools of communication, source of information, important marketing tool, important crisis communication tool, important customer interaction tool, cost effective and less time consuming (Baruah, 2012).

Role of social media

Social Media plays an important role in providing a space for the participants to share the content. It helps in creating positive social interaction between people and at the same time they contribute for free. It enables people to keep up with their old relationships and build new relationships. Social Media is not confined to interaction and communication between people only, it extends to provide platform for education, politics, sports, travel, journalism and business as well.

Social media is being used by faculty members to share education content at higher levels of education. 30% of the faculty posted content for the students to be referred when outside the classrooms. 40% of the faculty gives assignments that require students to read or view social media. Online video is one of the most common mode of education in today’s world. The faculty shares online videos so that students can understand the topic in a better manner. The videos are not only an outside source but are also used inside the classrooms to make lectures easier and interesting. Online classes are another mode of teaching that was introduced with social media. Podcasts and blogs are another popular ways to spread more knowledge and understanding among the students (Moran et. al., 2011).

Social media plays a significant role in communicating the strategies of the companies to the customers. The researches so far, has determined that these sites has low entry cost and they offer a platform where companies can easily interact with customers. Social media networking sites has high potential of building brand image and company reputation. Companies can build strong relationship with current as well as potential customers by collaborative communication, customer feedback and through providing customer service and support. Small and media size enterprises are usually more benefited through the use of social media because of moderate costs and flexibility. Through social media companies are able to reach customers at different touch points rather than only through one channel. Large audience can be covered through social media networking sites without spending much money (Ratliff and Kunz, 2014).

The traditional communication strategies used by companies to interact with the customers, changed with the arrival of phenomenon of social media. Social Media is considered as a new promotion mix tool. The companies can use blogs and Facebook as IMC tools to communicate their message. Social media assist the customers in communicating to another customer. It is a platform where the customers can share their reviews not only with their friends but with hundreds or thousands of other people (Mangold and Faulds, 2009).

The consumers are allowed to access information about the products and services and give feedback on social media. This helps the companies to address the problems of the customers directly. Social media helps the businesses to grow their customer base as well as share marketing content with a large audience. Within the hotel industry, social media is an important aspect as it costs less. Bed and breakfast industry can create brand awareness through the social networking sites. The customer reviews can increase the goodwill of the brand. Social media can be proved to be beneficial only if the businesses indulge in these practices on continuous basis (Momany, 2015).

Social Media also plays an important role in case of emergencies and disasters. Social media like Facebook has been contributing in supporting various emergency-based organizations. The organization use social media to communicate to people who are in danger due to some disaster or emergency, disseminating communication and in planning emergency exercises to rescue people. Moreover, social media is commonly used by individuals to inform friends and families and warn them about disastrous situations and unsafe places. It is also used to raise funds for relief. In case of some emergency or disasters, victims cannot reach human help because of barriers of communication. At such time social media being used through phones can prove to be helpful for the victims to tell others about their location and existence (Lindsay, 2011).

Social Media Usage based on demographics

There is a strong correlation between age and social media. The most likely users of social media are young adults aged 18 to 29. In case of social media usage by gender, there is not much statistical difference between the rates at which women and men use social media. The educational attainment can also be a demographic factor to understand the usage of social media. The youth with higher education levels are more likely to use social media rather than the one with lower education level. The higher the level of household income the more they are indulged in social media usage. As social media has grown, the rural community is adopting is very fast (Perrin, 2015).

The "Social Media Habits and Privacy Concerns Survey" findings can make us understand the gender based usage of social media. Men and women share a range of personal information on social media, but when it comes to more sensitive information then women are likely to be more attentive than men. It is found that women are less willing to share their location and email address on social media sites while men are indulged more in doing so. Among the non-users of social media -40% of women were concerned about the privacy or personal security as compared to 30% of the men. The respondents of the survey were divided into four age groups. There were not large differences on the usage of social media among the age-based segment. The survey helped to understand the core reason of usage of social media by the respondents. The highest percentage of men as well as women agreed that they use social media networking sites as "They help me find long lost friends and relatives." It was also found that the most performing activities by the respondents were reading the profiles and observing the profiles. They spent most of the time in updating their status and liking/disliking profiles. Both the genders have made usage of social media networking sites as a part of their daily routine (Seymour, 2012).

The user's personality has direct relationship with the usage of social media networking sites. The Five-Factor-Model or Big-Five has been used to investigate how personality is linked with the usage of social media networking sites. The Big-Five includes the following factors: Neuroticism, Openness, Extraversion, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness. The study uses Facebook and Twitter to measure the relationship. Facebook were used by those who are more social oriented and high in neuroticism. The younger individuals used Facebook to socialize and interact with others. Facebook is viewed as the primary social platform and is used by huge number of people. While Facebook shows relation with Neuroticism and Sociability, Twitter show relation with Conscientiousness, Sociability and Openness. It can be said that users do not use Twitter in order to reduce their loneliness but only to socialize. Therefore, it can be said that personality is an influential factor when it comes to usage of social media networking sites (Hughes et. al., 2012).

Social Media usage at the time of disaster

Social media usage has also proved to be helpful at the time of natural disasters. During the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011, the city of Tsukuba was damaged to a great extent. Social media networking sites like Twitter was used to communicate with te citizens when there was no power in the city and no other communicating device could be operated. Social media is a platform where large amount of information can be shared. There is no control on the information and thus, some false rumors can quickly spread and create problems if not negated. The Source of information shared on social media networking sites are difficult to verify easily. Social media networking sites like Facebook and Mixi which are popular among Japanese help them to connect with their people easily. Twitter proved to play the main role at the time of disaster in 2011. But it also contributed to rise of false rumors which created panic among the people and had to be negated as soon as possible. Even after several days of earthquake, the rumors were on hike. This is a factor that influences the users to rely on the social media networking sites. On one hand, Twitter proved to spread a lot of rumors during the disaster, but on the other hand, Twitter proved to be a helpful platform to communicate needs of the citizens of Tsukuba at the time of disaster (Kaigo, 2012).

Social media usage by Businesses

Social media creates an opportunity for small businesses to communicate to their customers directly without spending much. It helps in more business exposure which is advantageous for small businesses. It also helps to bring traffic to the business. Social media plays an important role for small businesses because it enables them to perform varieties of tasks at limited costs. The promotions that are done through social media can gain more publicity than advertisements. Businesses can use social media for marketing, recruitment, employee communications and customer relationship management. Social media has proved to be very beneficial for small businesses as it has increased the sales, customer satisfaction and employee engagement. Therefore, social media is a value for small businesses (Schaupp and Bélanger, 2013).

Social Ad on Facebook enables businesses to create best ad campaigns to promote their businesses socially. The pages of the businesses can make the customers interact with each other and post their experience with the customers. Social media acts as a medium of word of mouth for the businesses. The information shared on social media networking sites is trusted more as it comes from a friend and thus, the attention level towards that information increases. An understanding of customers must be created towards businesses social media networking sites to make the sites work best (Gangadharbatla, 2008).

Social Media Usage among Youth

The strongest factor that influences the attitude of use of social media among the college students is the level of enjoyment that they derive. On the other hand, the behavior of others on social sites can negatively influence a person to continue using social media and also to recommend using social media. This conclusion was derived by the model that included five factors that influence usage of social media networking sites. The five factors were: ease of use, enjoyment, social network, usefulness and social influence. Ease of use refers to the least degree of effort that a user has to put while operating the social networking sites. Enjoyment used factors like pleasure, fun and entertainment to identify the usage behavior. Usefulness referred to how social media is helping the college students to complete their work. Social influence is the agreeing and disagreeing of the others directly or indirectly related to the customers. Drama and Attitude & Intentions were also taken as variables to understand the usage of social media networking sites (Curran and Lennon, 2011).

These days the organizations are turning towards social media networking sites like LinkedIn and Twitter to recruit. In January 2007, the first employers who used Facebook as a recruiting tool are Ernst & Young. It is said that in future, social media networking sites will be most helpful to recruit new hires. The research states that nowadays college students are using social media sites during their last job search. The nonusers are more in number than the users. The users of social media for searching job are usually older than the nonusers. In other words, most of the users are graduates who are searching for jobs. The users normally spent 17% of their total time in searching for a job through social networking sites. Although there were college students using social media sites for seeking jobs, many others commented that social media sites like Facebook are for enjoyment rather than for work. They stated that they would like to keep their work life and social life separate from each other. On the other hand, the supporters of social media sites, regularly updated their profiles, uploaded their resumes online and also joined professional communities (Herbold and Douma, 2013).

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