Wan+Y.+focus+group+report

Wan Y. TO: Social Networking Team FROM: Yichi Wan SUBJECT: Social Networking Focus Group Report DATE: March 27 2010/3/27

Here is my report on a focus group I ran with five college age females who attend Towson University. Our discussion focused on how they the Facebook, and what are their feelings about the Facebook. I was able to cover three of the questions developed by our team. Most participants do not currently friend any businesses by becoming a fan, and they use Facebook to stay in touch with their friends. Some of the participants also use it for entertainment purposes such as the many free game applications.

**Focus Group Rationale**

Facebook is currently the largest and most popular social networking site and therefore the most attractive place for businesses to connect with Gen-Y users. The social networking landscape, however, is volatile because users can easily switch from one site to another. Our focus groups seek to determine if Gen-Y still favors Facebook, how they primarily use the site, and what developments would cause this demographic to switch to another site. This information will allow advising Proximity clients about how to create an effective presence on Facebook.


 * Setting and Participants**

The 45 minutes session was held in my dorm in Residence Tower on Friday, March 19, 2010. The female participants were:
 * Melissa, 19, a Towson University sophomore Theatre & Family Studies major;
 * Nancy, 18, a Towson University freshman Health Science major;
 * Kelcey, 18, a Towson University freshman International Business major;
 * Dana, 18, a Towson University freshman Biology major;
 * Amanda, 19, a Towson University sophomore Nursing major.

**Session Topics** We covered the following three topics during the session:

__The reason of u sing Facebook__ All of them said they use Facebook to keep in touch with friends from the past and present, Melissa also uses it for entertainment purpose like game applications. Dana said sometimes she use Facebook to learn about new events, and to see how her friends are doing. Nancy said it is also nice to share pictures and thoughts to her friends through Facebook, and she said that the status updates and pictures she sees in her feed can help her and her friends know more about each other in another way.

__The volatility of Facebook__ Three of them said they would switch to another social networking website if a majority of their friends left. Nancy, Amanda and Kelcey said they will switch, because the main purpose of using Facebook is to stay in touch with their friends. Dana said she would still use Facebook, but she would also use the new social networking site. However, Melissa said she was not sure about that, because she thinks that is the same thing when people switched from MySpace to Facebook a few years ago.  __The utilized mobile device to access Facebook__ Four out of five access Facebook through a mobile device. Melissa said she has an Iphone application and internet on her phone that she sometimes uses. Nancy said she has accessed Facebook through her mobile device, but she usually accesses it when she is bored or expecting a message. Kelcey sometimes uses Facebook on her Blackberry. However, Amanda does not use Facebook by phone, because she does want to spend extra money on a monthly internet phone plan.


 * Findings**

The session revealed those participants:
 * primarily use Facebook to keep in touch with their past and present friends, and to help know more about their friends lives through Facebook.
 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">remaining loyal to Facebook only because their friends stay there, so Facebook has the same volatility similar to MySpace; once Facebook got popular everyone switched over from MySpace.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">sometimes access Facebook through a mobile device.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">These findings should be compared with the results from our other sessions with all participants.

These findings show that females are more interested in using a mobile device to access Facebook than males. Companies can use this sex characteristic to target on their consumers. When people are using their mobiles device to access Facebook, the company can use the technologic way to find out the person's location, based on that, they can send their stores' sales or discount information to attract more people to come to their stores, in order to make more money.