Enrolment no: 00861201711

Minor Project Report

Personality Development & Communication Skills III (BBA-209)
BBA III Semester

Project Title:- Effectiveness of social media

Internal Guide:

Submitted by

Name of the Guide :- Sanjeev Chowdhary Name of the Student :- Lakshay

dev
Designation :Batch:- 2011-14

Submitted to :
Banarasidas Chandiwala Insititue of Professional studies, Dwarka, New delhi
(Affiliated to Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University)

DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this minor project report title (Effectiveness of social media )
submitted by me to Banarasidas Chandiwala Insititue of Professional studies, Dwarka is a
bonafide work undertaken during the period from 10 th, June 2012 to 10th, August 2012
by me and has not be submitted to any other university or institution for the award of any
degree certificate or publish any time before.

(Signature of the Student)

Name :- Lakshay Dev

Enrollment no :- 00861201711
Date :-

/2012

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This is certify that as per best of my belief the project entitled (Effectiveness of social
media) is the bonafide research work carried out by (Lakshay dev) student of BBA,
BCIPS, Dwarka, New Delhi, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Minor
Project Report of the Degree of Bachelor of Business Administration .

He has worked under my guidance.

Project Guide (Internal) : Sanjeev Chowdhary

Date :
Counter signed by

Director : Mr. Satish Taneja

Date

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
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I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Mrs. Sanjeev Chowdhary
who helped and inspired me to complete this project. I felt motivated and encouraged
every time we discussed this important topic in our classroom.
Finally, I am thankful to God, our parents and friends who have supported us in my
project for their support, encouragement and guidance. Without help of anyone
mentioned above, I would face many difficulties while doing this project.

CONTENT
Description

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Chapter 1 Purpose of the study

1.1 Objective
In this age of globalization, the world has become too small. Communication has become
effective as never before by invention of internet. The social networking sites have also
played a crucial role in bridging boundaries, crossing the seas and bringing all people at a
common platform where they can meet likeminded people or find old friends and
communicate with them. It has become a potential mean in building new relations and
staying in touch with all known. Hence the objective that we wanted to achieve through
our research is to: Find out the influence of social networking sites on the personal and
professional life of the people how it affects their relations, what are its uses for each
individual and how they have been influenced by these sites.

1.2 Scope
Social media has recently emerged as a powerful marketing tool to spread your message
among target market effectively and efficiently. The increasing importance of social
media is an indication that internet has been chosen as an effective medium to
disseminate a piece of information among the target market. The scope of using social
networking websites like Facebook, Twitter, Orkut etc., has given a new ray of hope to
target the market successfully.

Creating awareness about your products/services.

Identifying the specific needs of the target group.
Special emphasis on specific target groups.
Higher lead generation for your business.
Higher popularity of the brand and business.
Linking Facebook fan page with other social networking sites like

Twitter, Orkut, hi5 etc.

Recent updates about business activities on Facebook.
Promoting your upcoming business events.
Regular blog postings on your personalized communities.
Uploading relevant videos on YouTube and the links are posted on FB,

Twitter etc.
Encouraging fans to comment and share their wall postings to make it

more popular
Create a Facebook (FB) fan page.
Create a vanity URL (by specifying companys name).
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Create a customized landing page for FB.

Create online communities, forums, groups etc.

Chapter 2 Introduction
2.1 Introduction about the Social Media marketing
Beginning in the early part of the 21st century, Web applications began to change the
way we communicate. Social media marketing is the process of promoting a business
or product through social media channels and it is a powerful strategy that will get
attention to the product and massive amounts of traffic to the site. Social media
marketing is a recent component of organizations integrated marketing
communications plans. Integrated marketing communications is a principle
organizations follow to connect with their targeted markets. Integrated marketing
communications coordinates the elements of the promotional mix advertising,
personal selling, public relations, publicity direct marketing and sales promotion to
produce a customer focused message.
In the traditional marketing communications model, the content, frequency, timing
and the medium of communications by the organization is in collaboration with an
external agent, i.e. advertising agencies, marketing research films and public relations
firm.
However, the growth of social media has impacted the way organizations
communicate with their customers. In the emergence of Web 2.0, the internet
provides a set of tools that allow people to build social and business connections,
share information and collaborate on projects online. Social media marketing
programs usually center on efforts to create content that attracts attention, generates
online conversations, and encourages readers to share it with their social networks.

The message spreads from user to user and presumably resonates because it is coming
from a trusted source, as opposed to the brand or company itself.
Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with internet
access, opening doors for organizations to increase their brand awareness and
facilitate conversations with the customer. Additionally, social media serves as a
relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement marketing campaigns.
Organizations can get direct feedback from their customers and targeted markets.
Social media marketing also benefits organizations and individuals by providing an
additional channel for customer support, a means to gain customer and competitive
insight, and a method of managing their reputations online. Key factors that ensure its
success are its relevance to the customers, the value it provides them with and the
strength of the foundation on which it is built. A strong foundation serves as a stand
or a platform in which the organization can centralize its information and direct
customers on its recent developments via other social media channels, such as article
and press release publications.
The most popular platforms include:
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin
You tube
Google+
MySpace etc,
The goal of a strong foundation is to create a platform that engages and empowers its
customers with the opportunity to communicate with the organizations. This platform
is important because it allows the organization to measure and monitor the effects of
their customers. All platforms are tailored to each organizations endeavors, taking
into account factors such as the biggest opportunities and challenges brought on by
the platforms, the primary demographic being targeted, and metrics used to access
the information gained from its customers. Tools offered by certain platforms are
more applicable than others in achieving goals set by their customers. Examples of
such tools and customers are as follows:

Likes, wall posts, and fan size on the facebook page of an organization.
Tweets & blog posts to announce new releases.
Rating and ranking videos, as performed by YouTube.
Music posts as performed on MySpace.

Organizations need to define their goals for social, media in order to be successful.
Goals may vary among platforms. For examples, facebook may be used for
promotions. YouTube could give the behind the scenes look at the organizations. The
success factor may depend upon the goals; a certain number of new customers as a
result of promotion may be one goal; another may be responding to all customer
service situations.
Because social media is emerging at rapid place, organizations often establish a
presence organically rather than strategically. In most cases, this evolution is
appropriate to appoint at which the organization needs to develop a strategy for its
social media use and integration into the overall marketing strategy.
Social media has been adopted by a critical mass of the population, which means it is
important for organizations to have a social media presence. Generally, some official
presence is better than none, even if a specific strategy has not been defined. With or
without strategy and policy just like with other marketing initiatives social media
efforts can succeed or fail.
Most organizations have personnel for their marketing efforts. Public relations,
advertising, web & print communications are areas to which personnel and resources
are devoted. Though social media is a young area in marketing strategies, the most
successful organizations have devoted personnel to coordinate and aid the use of
social media. These individuals should use the tools that are currently popular but
have the flexibility to experiment with new and emerging tools as they appear and
evolve.
Some organizations actively use social media in their marketing plan to keep the
brand fresh in customers and non customers minds. Linking with an organization on
a social media site allows the organization to stay connected with individuals who
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may or may not be customers instead of relying on them to initiate a contact only
when they are looking for additional information.
Social media is an enormous advertising platform. Organizations are able to target
individuals based on specific interests shared on social media. For example, if an
individual watches a YouTube video about jogging, a shoe company can serve an ad,
or a coffee company can target ads to individuals who post on social media sites that
they are tired. Social media has allowed advertisers to refine ad nets extremely
narrowly.

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I. History of social media marketing:Social media marketing was started in 1971, with the publication of social
marketing. It is an approach to social planned change in the marketing by the marketing
experts.
The first recognizable social network site launched in 1997. SixDegrees.com allowed
users to create profiles, list their Friends and, beginning in 1998, surf the Friends lists.
Each of these features existed in some form before SixDegrees, of course. Profiles
existed on most major dating sites and many community sites. AIM and ICQ buddy lists
supported lists of Friends, although those Friends were not visible to others.
Classmates.com allowed people to affiliate with their high school or college and surf the
network for others who were also affiliated, but users could not create profiles or list
Friends until years later. SixDegrees was the first to combine these features.
SixDegrees promoted itself as a tool to help people connect with and send messages to
others. While SixDegrees attracted millions of users, it failed to become a sustainable
business and, in 2000, the service closed. Looking back, its founder believes that
SixDegrees was simply ahead of its time (A. Weinreich, personal communication, July
11, 2007). While people were already flocking to the Internet, most did not have extended
networks of friends who were online. Early adopters complained that there was little to
do after accepting Friend requests, and most users were not interested in meeting
strangers.
From 1997 to 2001, a number of community tools began supporting various
combinations of profiles and publicly articulated Friends. AsianAvenue, Black Planet,
and MiGente allowed users to create personal, professional, and dating profilesusers
could identify Friends on their personal profiles without seeking approval for those
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connections (O. Wasow, personal communication, August 16, 2007). Likewise, shortly
after its launch in 1999, LiveJournal listed one-directional connections on user pages.
LiveJournal's creator suspects that he fashioned these Friends after instant messaging
buddy lists (B. Fitzpatrick, personal communication, June 15, 2007)on LiveJournal,
people mark others as Friends to follow their journals and manage privacy settings. The
Korean virtual worlds site Cyworld was started in 1999 and added SNS features in 2001,
independent of these other sites (see Kim & Yun, this issue). Likewise, when the Swedish
web community LunarStorm refashioned itself as an SNS in 2000, it contained Friends
lists, guestbooks, and diary pages (D. Skog, personal communication, September 24,
2007).
The next wave of SNSs began when Ryze.com was launched in 2001 to help people
leverage their business networks. Ryze's founder reports that he first introduced the site to
his friendsprimarily members of the San Francisco business and technology
community, including the entrepreneurs and investors behind many future SNSs (A.
Scott, personal communication, June 14, 2007). In particular, the people behind Ryze,
Tribe.net, LinkedIn, and Friendster were tightly entwined personally and professionally.
They believed that they could support each other without competing (Festa, 2003). In the
end, Ryze never acquired mass popularity, Tribe.net grew to attract a passionate niche
user base, LinkedIn became a powerful business service, and Friendster became the most
significant, if only as "one of the biggest disappointments in Internet history" (Chafkin,
2007, p. 1).

12

Timeline of the launch dates of many major SNSs and dates when community sites relaunched with SNS features
Fig. 1.1
13

Like any brief history of a major phenomenon, ours is necessarily incomplete. In the
following section we discuss Friendster, MySpace, and Facebook, three key SNSs that
shaped the business, cultural, and research landscape.

II. Nature of social media marketing:Some people uses social media marketing for their private or personal uses and some
of the peoples uses it for their professional uses and for their own profits. Whatever
the reason, the fact is that either businesses or individual persons cannot separate
themselves from joining the celebration and expressing their happiness through social
network.
Well I am not sure if this question has ever struck your mind, but if you are sure to get
involved in the social networking like the others in the world, you should have to
understand your own profit or reason to get involved in social media marketing.
I think that social media is all about on exchanging or sharing information throughout
the world. It also includes the ideas of people sharing to everyone. But you should
take advantage of this and start networking for your own profit.
It is often said by many people that if you dont try something by yourself, you never
know anything. Always keep in your mind; social media marketing is always up to
your explanation.
I would define the social media marketing as an effort to get closer or connect with a
vast number of populations involves different types of peoples with different ideas
which all are using this social network for communication.
In this modern age of science and technology it is become necessary to find out and
reach to these peoples for greater ideas especially by this social media marketing.
This type of social media marketing, now giving great chances and ability to the
businesses to reach on the top and to accomplish all the missions and also to achieve

14

all the goals. By creating more understanding, openness companies can achieve
ultimate customers which they were previously unachievable.

Social media marketing contains certain unique nature such as:

Participation
Social media encourages contributions and feedback from everyone who is
interested. It blurs the line between media and audience. Users can contribute
to the articles and also they can write their own content based on their interest.

Openness
Most social media services are open to feedback and participation. They
encourage voting, comments and the sharing of information. There are rarely
any barriers to accessing and making use of content password protected
content is frowned on.

Conversation
Whereas traditional media is about broadcast (content transmitted or
distributed to an audience). Social media is better seen as two-way
conservation.

Community
Social media allows communities to form quickly and communicate
effectively. Communities share common interests, such as taste for

photography.
Connectedness
Most kinds of social media thrive on their connectedness, making use of links
to other sites, resources and people. With the rapid penetrations of smart
phones, social media can be accessed from anywhere at anywhere at any time.

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2.2 Services offered by Social media

I. Dedicated to Inform, Engage, and Inspire:Once upon a time Multimedia meant boys with thick glasses and pocket protectors who
brought loud, clunky 16mm projectors into a classroom. Now theres not a person in the
country who doesnt connect with multimedia in one way or another. From movie screens
to PowerPoint presentations, from interactive kiosks in shopping malls to splashy pages
of color and motion on the web, Multimedia is now part of our everyday lives.
As a fullservice advertising agency, WRL offers you a complete range of visual effects,
animation and interactive media. Our specialty is the kind of media that will inform your
audience, engage your clients, and inspire your staff.
Browse the samples to get an idea of what we can do and if you dont see what youre
looking for, let us know. If youve got a vision, chances are we can bring it to life.
Visual FX: From repairing a mistake in a video to making the unreal real, Computer
Generated Imagery (CGI) opens doors into unexplored new worlds, illustrating your story
in whole new ways. We wield a varied palate of tools to produce 3d animation and 3d
illustration, CGI, product visualization, special effects, and more.
Interactive: Draw your audience into your story by making them a part of it. From
presentations to the Internet, WRL has ways to bring power and impact to your message
for kiosks, presentations, training and elearning scenarios, and Flash media.
Special Projects: Part of WRLs power is our ability to branch out into areas previously
not thought of as territory for an advertising agency. Find out how were making new
technology such as mobile applications into nontraditional advertising venues to get
your message into places you never thought possible.

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II. Broad caste:Whenever you ask someone to name an advertising medium, odds are the first words out
of their mouth will be "television" or "radio." Its high visibility and high profile. The
glamour part of the profession. Thats exactly why its so difficult to do effectively. In
broadcast media, the tendency is to imitate rather than innovate. To copycat instead of
communicate. To echo, not elaborate. WRL doesnt believe in any of that. We believe that
in order to get your message across, you have to cut to the heart of the matter. Service the
message, not the medium.

On-Site Video Shooting & Lighting

Product & Information Commercials

Documentaries

Corporate Video

Training Video

Medical Video

Internet Streaming Video

Media Planning

Radio Production

Custom Music Production

Media Post-Buy Analysis

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Broadcast is more than putting a spot on the air. From script to production to using the
latest technology to get your spot in front of the right people, WRL knows how to put it
all together and make it mean something.

III. Printing:In the newspapers on your doorstep. On the billboard walls of New York City. In the
pages of People magazine. If you didnt see it, it was because of noise a combination of
clutter and filtering (our tendency to ignore messages we dont deem relevant to self).
WRL can get your print message where it needs to be. We cut through the clutter and slip
through filters to make sure its noticed. WRL can craft the delicate blend of images,
words, and white space so its not only seen and noticed, but motivates the reader to
action. Because thats what is most important to your bottom line.

Corporate Identity

Magazine

Newsletters

Fleet Graphics

Newspaper

Direct Mail

Brochures

Posters

Billboards

Package Design

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Print remains the land of lost opportunity. WRL understands how print works and we
know how to make it compelling, informative and motivational. It can be a powerful tool
in your advertising arsenal. Let WRL show you how to wield it.

IV. Branding:Brand equals trust. Brand is the visible, analytic, and subtle image associated with a
company or product. A brand is a set of differentiating promises linking positive images
of a product to an individual. Having positive brand association makes product selection
easier and enhances the value and satisfaction consumers get from a product. WRL can
help find out what kind of personality your brand has in the minds of users. We can create
an image that fits who you are and what you do to minimize the clutter and confusion that
all brands face.

Image Creation (including logo design)

Enhancing the power of your brand

Selecting the right media for your message

Devising a plan of attack to reach potential customers

Creating consumer awareness about your company

Give your company, product or service top of mind awareness

Influence customers to choose your brand and become brand loyal

WRL can create a brand image that is consistent with your organization or product. Take
control of your brand and take control of the message youre sending.

V. Public relations:-

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Have you recently introduced a new product? Maybe youve hired a new employee, or
want to plan a corporate event. Whatever the newsworthy occasion, WRLs public
relations experts are here to help you generate publicity that will have everyone talking.
Public Relations is a high-impact, strategic process meant to produce maximum exposure
at a minimal cost. Research shows positive editorial coverage generated through effective
public relations is more credible and generates up to nine times more visibility than some
forms of paid advertising.

Establishment of Editorial Relationships

Event Marketing and Coordination

Media Buying/ Media Lists/ Media Research

Press Clipping and Analysis

Press Releases/ Press Kits/ Speech Writing

Press Conferences

Digital Photography

WRL Public Relations involves precise targeting, energetic copy writing, event planning,
editor correspondence and extensive research efforts. Public Relations isnt a one-time
activity, but a continuous, systematic process. Its about creating relationships with media
contacts and community members.

2.3 Geographic area:Fig. 2.1

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As the marketing trend begins to shift dramatically from mass marketing to personal
marketing, we've begun to see a rise in more social media platforms offering geographic
targeting applications to users. We've even seen entire social networks that are dedicated
to interactive geographic targeting such as Google Places and Foursquare.
For businesses that offer localized services or products, targeting a local customer base
using geographic targeting tools could mean a drastic influx in revenue and brand
awareness.

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Fig. 2.2
77% of the population has a social media account.
18% of pensioners have their own account on a social media network.
This is only a small selection, and there are many colorful info graphics charting the
success (or otherwise) of the bigger social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest,
YouTube and LinkedIn.
Facebook penetration mentioned above are correct (around 48.6%), and with a population
of around 1.7 million, we might expect approximately 826,200 Facebook users in
Hampshire.

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Fig. 2.3

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Chapter 3 Industry Overview

3.1 Innovations and Developments

Fig 3.2

Facebook held a keynote at their f8 conference, demonstrating a bunch of new stuff, most
importantly Timeline, the new face for profiles. Timeline is changing Facebooks
approach to user-centric pages drastically. Its concentrating on showing a view of a
persons life, as shared through Facebook and a bunch of associated apps. Ive been
playing with the developer release of Timeline since it was announced, and have got to
say, I love it!
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The design changes Facebook is currently undergoing are fantastic, and look great on the
site, but we shouldnt forget the humble, dorm-based beginnings of the worlds largest
social network. As the company has grown with more and more members, the design has
seen many refinements. Were going to have a look at its design timeline today, to get a
glimpse of where it started and where its headed, at least for now.

2005 and Facebook:-

The original Facebook design, back when it was called the facebook.
What you see above is the first profile design for Facebook, back when it still had the
three-letter word in front of it. This was back in the day that Facebook required you to be
in a specific network, such as a school. The design was described during Jesse
Eisenbergs portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg as clean and simple and without any
likeliness to the frivolities of Disneyland.

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This is Facebooks in its simplest form and fairly straightforward. Information wasnt
powered by apps, nor split into tabs, it was just there.

2006 and the Mini Feed:-

In 2006, Mark Zuckerberg and Co published a drastic change to Facebooks design. This
design is probably the earliest form of the design we have today, with the now ubiquitous
white-on-blue top bar, the different sections on the page and the introduction of a
personal feed.
The 2006 redesign actually had a lot of the same uproar we get filling our feeds when
theres a current-day redesign of Facebook, with users reacting to the new design badly
until they finally adapted to the change. However, this was the first break from

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the prosaic design of 2005 which has effectively remained in the same form up until The
day.
On 29th Nov, 2006, Facebook launches its new Facebook Firefox Toolbar.

2007 and facebook: Facebook hits 30 million users.

Mobile texts upload on facebook sites (Fits on Mobile Screens).
Photo sorting available.
Navigation and profile modification launched.
Facebook marketplaces launched.
Video unloadable on facebook, with mobile integration.
Friends list launched.
Facebook platform launched for developers.
Ability to update status from mobile via sms.

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2008 and the New Facebook:-

Facebook's redesign around tabs in 2008.

The New Facebook in 2008, the one you had to visit new.facebook.com to access it
until it was rolled out as default. Although there were some minor design tweaks since
2006, the same basic design still existed with the addition of tabs to access widgets
created by Facebook apps.
The New Facebook was dominated by the feed, showing that Facebook was edging away
from having a profile and instead having a stream. The feed, showing a users recent
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updates and interaction, took up most the page whereas the little profile elements became
smaller and put in the sidebar.
Facebook hits 100 million users in this year.
In 2008, Facebook added the ability to use cropped/tagged photo as profile photo and
720p video support is also added to Facebook.

2009 and Facebook:

Facebook hits 300 million users this year.

The like button is added to facebook, allowing millions of users to like a

friends post, pictures, status or shares etc.

Netflix integrations with Facebook connect, allowing users to share their

movie reviews.

Friends list available within the chat interface.

Facebook usernames enabled, allowing a simple facebook url.

Photo album limit goes 60 to 200.

Ability to choose who you share your status updates with available via the
publisher.

Upload photos and videos via emails.

65 million people started using facebook on mobiles devices.

Facebook is integrated into the XBOX live experience.

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Integration of the @ symbol in the status, updates allowing you to target

your status updates to another facebook users similar to twitter.

Counters added to share button.

Live Feed and News Feed separated as a way to organize the homepage
view.

2010 and the Cleanup:-

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Facebook's big "cleanup" in 2010.

In 2010 as a cleanup. The main style of the 2008 design (although it received some
welcome refinements since then) remained intact, but it was cleaned up quite a bit with
some new elements that made the whole site look that little bit more elegant.
Perhaps the biggest addition was the photo bar, showing Facebooks commitment
towards photo sharing. Just like the growing dominance of a users feed, photos were
starting to make their way from being hidden away in a tab to being right at the top of a
profile, prominent on the page.

Facebook hits 500 million users.

New photo up loader is available for users.

Ability to add comment via email.

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Community pages and connections launched, allowing users to more dynamically

represent their interests.

Over 200 million people started using facebook on mobile devices.

The Like button added to comments.

Privacy controls available on mobile devices with a browser.

Facebook places and check in launched.

Chat updated, no longer supporting internet explorer 6.

2011 and Timeline:-

Timeline

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Perhaps the biggest ever change to Facebook is yet to come: Timeline. Timeline is what
all profiles will eventually be migrated to and its the design Ive been playing about for
only a few hours prior to writing this article.
Timeline is meant to be a timeline of your life. Your profile updates, photos, polls and
everything else are plotted on a long timeline that now also hosts life events such as
breaking a bone or moving home.

Facebook life events being added in Timeline.

Question type post updated with an easier interface for answering and a quick
visual answer interface.

Deals on facebook launched.

Video chat built into facebook.

New chat sidebar, to see the friends you message most.

Subscribe button introduced allowing users to see feed content without being
friends.

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Facebook for ipad launched.

New messenger app launched that includes support for iphone, blackberry and
android.

3.2 Government Regulations.

Fig 3.3
One of the reasons why Facebook was catapulted into the most popular social networking
site that it is now is due its consistency with maintaining the overall user experience and
making sure that every part of Facebook and everything that gets connected with it,
including the ads, should contribute to the steadiness and uniformity of the whole website
setup and the makers of this wondrous social site have been without fail committed to
34

protecting the user experience by keeping the site clean, steady, consistent, and free from
misleading advertising and they are able to do this by passing the strict regulations on
Facebook advertising. So the whole Facebook advertising setup is generally hinged on
transforming existing ads into more personalized messages that are cut to the form and
liking of the individual users based on how their friends interact with music artists,
brands, and all the businesses that are relevant to them.
So ,
Facebook has put in place a set of guidelines that applies to all ads that will appear on the
website and even those ads within canvas pages of Facebook Platform applications and in
addition to this, all ads are required to meet the terms of the Privacy Policy and Statement
of Rights and Responsibilities meaning all advertisements are subject to the rules of
Facebook and the website reserves the right to reject or remove advertising that they may
consider as going against the company's ad policy. At the same time, the same guidelines
may change at any point in time and Facebook can waive any of the guidelines written
whenever it wants based on its discretion.
One of the strict regulations on Facebook advertising that an advertiser has to always
keep in mind is that nobody can create and/or manage different Facebook accounts for
the sole purpose of advertising unless otherwise given the expressed permission by
Facebook and in this regard, ads that contain a URL or a domain name in the body must
link to the same URL or domain, not to any external website. At the same time, landing
pages are not allowed to generate pop-ups, and this includes pop-under and pop-overs,
when a user enters or leaves the web page, or mouse trapping where the advertisers do
not allow the users to use their browser back button and traps them on the site leaving
them nothing to do but "x" out from the whole site altogether.
Before an ad can compel a viewer to click on an ad and submit pertinent personal
information such as date of birth, name, phone numbers, social security numbers,
Etcetera, the advertiser has to make sure that it is being done to enable an online

35

purchasing transaction where the landing ad page clearly and succinctly indicates that a
product is being sold. In short, hanky panky is not allowed.
Facebook, Google, Yahoo India and Microsoft have been accused of hosting antireligious or anti-social contents on their websites.
A Delhi court had recently directed several social media players including Facebook
India, Google India Pvt Ltd and Youtube to remove objectionable contents from their
websites.

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Internet Privacy and Government Regulatio

Fig 3.4
A RESEARCH SAYS:-

Most Americans (59%) see the business practice of targeting ads based on data collected
from users of email, search or social networking sites as an unjustified use of private

37

information. Only one-in-three (33%) see this as a fair exchange for the free services
these companies provide.
Despite this concern, Americans are not eager for the government to take a larger role on
this issue. A majority (56%) say that the government should not get more involved in
regulating how internet companies handle privacy issues, while just 38% say the
government should do more.
People under age 30 are evenly split on the legitimacy of internet companies using
personal information to target ads: 47% call it an invasion of privacy while 46% see it as
a fair exchange for free services. By contrast, people over age 30 see this as an unjustified
use of private information, by a 62% to 30% margin. In keeping with this, younger
Americans are more likely than those ages 30 and older to say the government should not
get more involved in this issue (62% vs. 54%).

3.3 Opportunities and Threats

Social media, and in our case social networks, have created a drastic change in the
communications field. Understanding these networking trends - and being able to take
advantage of them - is a question of crucial importance for those who simply don't want
to be left behind in the digital world.
How do those changes in communication impact us from the advertising standpoint?
There is no doubt that social networks provide great opportunity of having direct contact
with the potential consumer. It should be kept in mind that social networks can help
promote goods and services, as well as harm the reputation of a company.
They provide great opportunities, but, at the same time can hide major threats. So, it is
important to understand what tactics to apply in order to get the most wanted outcome,
and avoid damaging a company's image.

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3.4
1. Opportunities:1. Better brand engagement By simply making sure you have a basic presence in
appropriate social environments, you are inviting people to actively engage with your
brand. Last month the Harvard Business Review did a quick experiment to discover
whether simply having a presence on Facebook increases emotional connection with a
brand by setting up a page for a local coffee shop. It turned out that Facebook did indeed
change customer behavior for the better. Facebook fans generated more positive word of
mouth, they visited the outlet 20% more often, and they gave the store the highest share
of their dining out dollars and were most likely to recommend the shop to friends.
The lesson here is to make sure you have a presence, tell your loyal customers about it
and make sure you have the resource to keep your content up to date and relevant.
2. Engaging one-to-one with customers Social media is little more than a series of big
conversations. By joining these conversations you are inviting others to share their views
with you. Just being there is a brave thing for a business (which may be why brands who
are present are positively perceived by their customers) as its as likely to illicit criticism
as it is praise.

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Any business person knows, however, that both of these can be positive. Criticism, if
dealt with effectively, can generate more positive opinion that a simple recommendation.
This medium is ideal for handling criticism head-on its cheap, easy and immediate.
You just need to make sure youre ready to respond positively. Not engaging in a
conversation is as rude online as it is in real life.
3. Highly targeted media For a quick hit, the profile based approach to most of the
social media sites makes an ideal environment for highly targeted media opportunities.
As the Social Media universe grows we are starting to see more and more niche, interestrelated environments. In places like these, the sites theme also creates a clear context for
your advertising to allow you to relate better e.g. the business focus of Linked In.
We recommend creating dedicated sub-campaigns to get the most out of the quite
intimate experience users of social networks have. So, understand the context and the
customer, create a campaign that talks directly to them, wherever possible, in a way that
relates to why they are there in the first place.
4. Built-in seeding mechanisms All successful social networking sites have built-in
seeding mechanisms ways to push updates to a wider network and keep them coming
back. Clever businesses capitalize on these features to help seed their campaigns. Good
examples include an IKEA campaign in Sweden that used Facebooks image tagging
feature as the hub of a competition and Burger Kings campaign that asked people to unfriend someone for a burger. Both were immensely successful due to Facebooks in-built
features that automatically keep friends up to date with what youre doing.
5. Interconnectivity As well as built-in viral goodies, social sites survive in a very
competitive space; all vying for a share of your browsing hours. Part of the recipe for
their success is to create connections to automatically share content amongst several sites.
Businesses can use this to seed content (news, events, updates etc) quickly, across several
networks, thereby increasing their impact and reach.

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6. Share-ability Another characteristic of social networks is how easy they make it for
people to share ideas. You can create campaigns and gadgets that encourage users to
share them and talk about them. These can be provocative PR campaign creatives, or
gadgets that are fun and useful.
Because the effect of this type of activity is organic, it can take a while to gain
momentum. For this reason it works better as a long-term brand awareness campaign
rather than a short product launch activity.
7. Ambassadors Engaging with fans of your brand on a social network is easily the
quickest and cheapest way to recruit brand ambassadors. Where companies might
previously have spent fortunes to find brand fans and give them the means and reasons to
share their love, social networks allow this to happen seamlessly.
It doesnt mean that businesses can sit back and let it happen though; they may now have
to work harder to garner customer love in the first place. For example, giving more away
to loyal customers, even giving them unique benefits that they can boast about to others
remember the success of the Threshers Friends and Family email voucher?
8. Its still early days You may feel that in a network like Facebook, your brand is
swamped; your company name may have been taken by someone else leaving you to be
JoesPizza1234 or something.
Take heart and remember that this technology is still in its formative stages. There are
new networks and similar online resources appearing every day. Some will be the next
big thing, others wont. The trick is to keep your finger on the pulse and get involved
early. Youll learn quickly whether its going to be a big deal, either way, at least youre
there. The message here is, dont wait to find out from someone else; get involved and
find out for yourself.
9. Listening to your customers We recommend that any social media marketing
activity is preceded and accompanied by time spent listening to what people are talking

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about. This can help you identify who its right to talk to as well as what they want you to
talk about.
Obviously this activity can be immensely valuable. Beyond helping to shape your
marketing campaign it allows you, like never before, to hear what people think of your
brand, or what they expect from someone in your sector.
10. Transforming how you do business The effect of listening to your customers, let
alone engaging them in a conversation, can be profound. Having customer feedback so
readily available means you can develop better products faster and identify issues in a
heartbeat.
Its also profound because, increasingly, the ability for businesses to work like this is
creating an expectation from consumers that this is how things should be. If you arent
asking for your customers opinions you may ultimately lose them altogether.
So there you go a partial and incomplete guide to the world of social media; its benefits
and some of the potential pitfalls. The aim, really of all this is to show you that social
media marketing is not one homogenous mass, its a myriad of sites, services and
opportunities thats so big, you have to pinpoint your activity carefully to capitalize on.
When you get it right though, the wins can be really big.

3.4
2. Threats:1. Social networking worms: Social networking worms include Koobface, which has
become, according to researchers, "the largest Web 2.0 botnet." While a multi-faceted
threat like Koobface challenges the definition of "worm," it is specifically designed to
propagate across social networks (e.g., Facebook, mySpace, Twitter, hi5, Friendster and
Bebo), enlist more machines into its botnet, and hijack more accounts to send more spam
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to enlist more machines. All the while making money with the usual botnet business,
including scareware and Russian dating services.
2. Phishing bait: Remember FBAction? The e-mail that lured you to sign into Facebook,
hoping you don't pick up on the fbaction.net URL in the browser? Many Facebook users
had their accounts compromised, and although it was only a "tiny fraction of a percent,"
when you realize Facebook has over 350 million users, it's still a significant number. To
its credit, Facebook acted quickly, working to blacklist that domain, but lots of copycat
efforts ensued (e.g., fbstarter.com). Facebook has since gotten rather adept at Whack-AMole.
3. Trojans: Social networks have become a great vector for trojans -- "click here" and
you get:
* Zeus -- a potent and popular banking Trojan that has been given new life by social
networks. There have been several recent high-profile thefts blamed on Zeus, notably the
Duanesburg Central School district in New York State late in 2009.
* URL Zone -- is a similar banking Trojan, but even smarter, it can calculate the value of
the victim's accounts to help decide the priority for the thief.
4. Data leaks: Social networks are all about sharing. Unfortunately, many users share a
bit too much about the organization -- projects, products, financials, organizational
changes, scandals, or other sensitive information. Even spouses sometimes over-share
how much their significant other is working late on top-secret project, and a few too
many of the details associated with said project. The resulting issues include the
embarrassing, the damaging and the legal.
5. Shortened links: People use URL shortening services (e.g., bit.ly and tinyurl) to fit
long URLs into tight spaces. They also do a nice job of obfuscating the link so it isn't
immediately apparent to victims that they're clicking on a malware install, not a CNN
video. These shortened links are easy to use and ubiquitous. Many of the Twitter clients
will automatically shorten any link. And folks are used to seeing them.
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6. Botnets: Late last year, security researchers uncovered Twitter accounts being used as
a command and control channel for a few botnets. The standard command and control
channel is IRC, but some have used other applications -- P2P file sharing in the case of
Storm -- and now, cleverly, Twitter. Twitter is shutting these accounts down, but given the
ease of access of infected machines to Twitter, this will continue. So Twitter will become
expert at Whack-A-Mole too
7. Advanced persistent threats: One of the key elements of advanced persistent threats
(APT) is the gathering of intelligence of persons of interest (e.g., executives, officers,
high-net-worth individuals), for which social networks can be a treasure trove of data.
Perpetrators of APTs use this information to further their threats -- placing more
intelligence gathering (e.g., malware, trojans), and then gaining access to sensitive
systems. So while not directly related to APTs, social networks are a data source. Less
exotic, but no less important to individuals is the fact that information on your
whereabouts and activities can give more run-of-the-mill criminals an opportunity.
8. Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF): While it isn't a specific kind of threat -- more
like a technique used to spread a sophisticated social networking worm, CSRF attacks
exploit the trust a social networking application has in a logged-in user's browser. So as
long as the social network application isn't checking the referrer header, it's easy for an
attack to "share" an image in a user's event stream that other users might click on to
catch/spread the attack.
9. Impersonation: The social network accounts of several prominent individuals with
thousands of followers have been hacked (most recently, a handful of British politicians).
Furthermore, several impersonators have gathered hundreds and thousands of followers
on Twitter -- and then embarrassed the folks they impersonate (e.g., CNN, Jonathan Ive,
Steve Wozniak, and the Dalai Lama), or worse. Twitter will now shut down
impersonators attempting to smear their victims, but at Twitter's discretion. Admittedly,
most of the impersonators aren't distributing malware, but some of the hacked accounts
certainly have (e.g. Guy Kawasaki).

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10. Trust: The common thread across almost all of these threats is the tremendous
amount of trust users have in these social applications. Like e-mail, when it hit the
mainstream, or instant messaging when it became ubiquitous, people trust links, pictures,
videos and executables when they come from "friends," until they get burned a few times.
Social applications haven't burned enough people yet. The difference with social
networks is that the entire purpose of them is to share -- a lot -- which will result in a
steeper learning curve for users. Translation -- you'll have to get burned a few more
times.

3.5 Key Statistics:1. 20 percent of searches on Google each day have NEVER been searched for before.
2. There are more than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts,
etc.) shared each week on Facebook.
3. 43 percent of all online consumers are social media fans or followers.
4. 53 percent of people on Twitter recommend companies or their products in their
tweets.
5. The average American internet user watches 30 minutes of video online per day.

6. 35 hours of video footage is uploaded to YouTube every minute.

7. 56 percent of LinkedIn's 100 million users are outside of the United States.

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8. Every day, 2,300 new Wikipedia articles are created, adding to its 17 million articles,
with contributions from 91,000 active contributors

9. 1.4 million new blog posts are created every day.

10. 200 million Facebook users access the service from a mobile device.
11. There are more than 5 billion photos on Flickr.
12. 45 million people view SlideShare presentations each month.
13. $3.08 billion will be spent to advertise on social networking sites in 2011, a 55
percent increase over 2010.

3.6 Contribution in Indian economy of social media:1

Internet contributes 3.2 percent to the Indian GDP

According to the 2011 IMF forecast Indian GDP stands at 1.846 Trillion USD. According
to that data India is 9th largest economy in the world Services contributes to 50% odd to
the Indian GDP while agriculture contributes to 16% odd.
Now a question might strike to your mind is that how does internet contribute to
the Indian GDP? Well this happens because of various activities like; e-commerce,
advertising, services offered online, freelancing, etc.

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Fig 3.5
By running a website you can make money in various ways like:

Displaying advertisements on your websites

Providing services online via. your websites

Selling stuff online (e-commerce/m-commerce)

Also by providing various freelancing services online

Chapter 4 Competitor Analysis

4.1 Key Players in the Industry
1: Facebook
Facebook is clearly a top choice.Ninety-two percent of marketersare using Facebook and
72% plan on increasing their activities. Less than 4% of marketers surveyed do not plan

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to utilize Facebook.Second only to YouTube/video,Facebook is an area where Marketers

feel they can achieve Substantial results.
Seventy-six percent of B2C plan on
Increasing Facebook efforts.
Seventy-seven percent of small- to

Mid-sized businesses (26-499

Employees) will also increase their
Facebook activities. Facebook is
Also the top focus for people just
Getting started with social media
Marketing (79%).
Additionally, small- to mid-sized
Companies with 26-499 employees
are more likely to increase their
Facebook use (77%) than small
(70%) or large (69%) organizations.

2: Twitter
A majority of marketers (69%) will
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increase their activities on Twitter,

slightly down from 73% in 2011.
Enterprise-level businesses and
small businesses of 25-99
employees are most likely to
increase their activities on Twitter,

with 75% reporting affirmatively.

Of marketers working 21 hours or
more per week with social media,
as many as 80% say they will
increase their use of Twitter in
2012.
Marketers aged 20-29 (78%) are far
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more likely than their peers (68%)

to increase their use of Twitter

3.Google+
Newcomer Google+ is on the radar
for many marketers. Most
businesses (67%) plan on
increasing their Google+ activities,
while more than 1 in 5 have no
plans to use Google+.

Of those putting at least 11 hours

per week into social media
marketing, at least 73% plan to
increase their use of Google+.
Ninety-two percent of marketers
working 30-35 hours a week with
social media affirmed this.
Male marketers (70%) are more
likely to increase their Google+ use
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than female marketers (64.5%).

4: LinkedIn
As expected, B2B companies are
significantly more likely to plan on
increasing their use of LinkedIn
(76% of B2B versus 55% of B2C).

Both are increases from 2011

levels (71% of B2B and 51% of B2C).
Social media newcomers (72%)
were more likely to increase their
use of LinkedIn. Enterprise-level
businesses were least likely to
increase their use (59%).

5.YouTube
For the second year in a row,
YouTube/video is the top area
where marketers plan on
increasing their social media
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efforts.
A significant 76% of marketers plan
on increasing their YouTube
and/or video marketing. This is
slightly down from 2011 (77%).

Businesses with 26-999 employees

indicated this is a key growth area,
with at least 80% responding
affirmatively. Younger marketers
(77% of those aged 20-49) are also
more likely to increase their video
production than older marketers
(68% of those aged 60+).
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4.2 Market share of Each Player

According to GlobalStats, Facebook owns 83.84% of the market share in

terms of social media in India! While it holds 65.71% market share worldwide.
Average Facebook Ads cost per click (CPC) in India is about 53 cents (Rs. 23
24) as compared to U.S average of USD 1.22 (Rs. 55 approx.). While cost per
1000 impressions (CPM) in India is 23 cents, in US it is 52 cents.

Facebook Facebooks market share of visits currently stands at 63.76%. eMarketer

estimates that Facebooks ad revenue will increase by 52% to about $5.78 billion in 2012.
YouTube YouTubes market share of visits is at 19.73%. Experts expect YouTube to be
increasingly used by small businesses in the future.
Twitter Twitters market share of visits is 1.53%.Analysts predict that Twitter will
grow as a newsource and link referrer.
LinkedIn LinkedIns market share of visits is at 0.75%. Trefis expects its share to
change in relation with the unemployment rate. If employment is up, people are less
likely to use the site for job searches and networking, and vice versa. Trefis also estimates
that the number of LinkedIns unique monthly visitors will reach around 250 million by
2018.
Google+ Google+s market share is lagging behind at 0.43%. Still, the founder of
Ancestry.com expects it to have 400 million users by the end of 2012
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4.3 Key Challenges facing the competitors

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