Choi+J.+Focus+Group+Report

​Choi J. TO: Social Networking Team FROM: Jungwook Choi SUBJECT: Social Networking Focus Group Report DATE: March 30, 2010

Here is my report on a focus group I ran with five Gen-Y age students. They shared interesting opinions with each other about designs of a layout, communication with businesses, and privacy on social networks. I was able to cover five questions developed by our team. All participants regarded social networking primarily as a way to connect with their friends. Most of them  reported that they were very concerned about a layout of networking websites, communication with businesses and privacy on social networks.


 * Focus Group Rationale**

For our spring focus group, we would like to gauge what direction social networking is heading. Knowing that the social networking environment is volatile, we wish to discover what aspects will encourage or discourage Gen Y users from using certain social networking sites. We would also like to find out how, if at all, Gen Y users interact and communicate with businesses through social networks.


 * Setting and Participants**

The 45 minute session was held in the post office in the Union Building at Towson University on Friday, March 12, 2010. The participants were: **Session Topics** We covered the following five topics during the session:
 * Chris, 19, male, a Towson Univ. Sophomore Mass Communication major;
 * Tianyi, 21, male, a Towson Univ. Sophomore Health Care Management major (an International student);
 * Serena, 23, female, a Towson Univ. Grad Sch. Math Education major;
 * Alex, 24, male, a Towson Univ. Senior Political Science major;
 * Erin, 25, female, a Towson Univ. Post Office Faculty.

__ Use of social networking sites as a friendship portal __

All participants use at least one social networking website in order to keep in touch with their friends. No surprisingly, all of them have their own account on Facebook. Erin and Tianyi noted that Facebook is the most proper portal to keep in touch with friendssince since most of their friends are on the website. The rest of participants agreed their opinion. While four members emphasized popularity of social networking as a criterion to choose, Alex had rather a different opinion: “I have an account with MySpace, but I do not use it because pages take too long to load.” __ Time to spend __ No participant but only Chris, the youngest participant, usually spend a lot of time using social networking websites. They thought it was just enough to post on update and see what everyone was doing. I remain somewhat skeptical about the many trustworthy reports that Gen-Ys usually spend amount of time on social networking sites, e.g. Facebook. __ Simplicity or Customizability of a layout __ All participants preferred simplicity to customizability of a layout. Both Tianyi and Chris, who described themselves as “laid-back guys,” inclined layouts to be simple and easy to use. Erin thought customization would be desirable for blogs because there was only one page specific to users. However, she asserted simplicity was better for most social websites. __ Communication with Business __ All participants favored communication with their favorite stores on social networking sites. Serena was willing to communicate with her favorite stores on social websites because the stores would allow her to receive notices about good deals. Likewise, Erin did usually follow some of her favorite independent sellers on Facebook, therefore, she knew when they had sales or new products. __ Concerns about privacy __ The four of the participants highlighted the necessity and importance of privacy on social networking websites. Chris indicated two reasons that privacy was important on social networking websites. First, he did not want anyone to steal his identity or stalk him. Second, he was afraid that “potential employers would view my personal life.” On the other hand, one of the participants, Alex, was not concerned about privacy. Rather, he asked a question in return: “why do you join a social networking site if you do not like the lack of privacy?”


 * Findings**

The session revealed that the participants
 * think of social networking primarily as a friendship portal;
 * prefer simplicity of a layout;
 * are willing to communicate with businesses;
 * are generally concerned about privacy.

The findings would not be general ideas that all Gen Ys have about social networking because actual tendencies and opinions substantially vary in reality. Therefore, these finding should be compared with the results from our other sessions with other participants. Since this session covered relatively general topics, we should consider extending the scope of a sample survey in order to gather more trustworthy and specific information.  In particular, younger people between 16 and 19 might have different opinions on social networking than my participants, most of whom are people between 20 and 25. Consequently, we should conduct more comprehensive sessions designed to take special measures to address concerns and opinions that most Gen Ys may have about social networking.