A STUDY ON SOCIAL NETWORK SITES MARKETING THE CASE OF GOONLINE.VN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI SCHOOL OF BUSINESS HO ANH DUNG A STUDY ON SOCIAL NETWORK SITES MARKETING THE CASE OF GOONLINE.VN MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS Hanoi –

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

HO ANH DUNG

A STUDY ON SOCIAL NETWORK SITES MARKETING

THE CASE OF GOONLINE.VN

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS

Hanoi – 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

HO ANH DUNG

A STUDY ON SOCIAL NETWORK SITES MARKETING

THE CASE OF GOONLINE.VN

Major: Business Administration Code: 60 34 05

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS

Supervisor: Dr Vu Anh Dung

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I ABSTRACT II TÓM TẮT IV TABLE OF CONTENTS VI LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS X LIST OF FIGURES XI LIST OF TABLES XII

INTRODUCTION 1

1.RESEARCH BACKGROUND 1

2.RESEARCH OBJECTIVES 1

3.RESEARCH QUESTIONS 2

4.SCOPE OF WORK 2

5.DATA SOURCE 3

6.METHODOLOGY 3

7.SIGNIFICANCE 3

8.RESULTS 3

9.THESIS STRUCTURE 3

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 5

1.1BASIC OF SOCIAL NETWORK SITE MARKETING 5

1.2 HISTORY OF SOCIAL NETWORK SITES 6

1.3TYPE OF SNS 9

1.4 FUNCTION OF SNS 11

1.4.1 Share 11

1.4.2 Show 12

1.4.3 Socialize 12

1.4.4 Advertising & Sale 12

1.5OVERVIEW OF SNSMARKETING FROM THE SITE MASTER PERSPECTIVE 13

1.51 Steps in SNS marketing 15

1.5.2 The way to interact with users 20

1.6HOW TO GET BENEFIT THROUGH SNS 27

1.6.1 Create website 28

1.6.2 Virtual Shop(e-commerce) 28

1.6.3 Speculate the domain name 28

1.6.4 Send spam 29

1.6.5 Read advertising news 29

1.6.6 Hack account 29

1.6.7 Play game 30

1.6.8 Selling virtual property 30

1.7 CORE FACTORS FOR SUCCESSFUL SNS 30

1.7.1 Social Object 31

1.7.2 Relationship & Privacy 32

1.7.3 User Interface 34

1.7.4 Community Management 34

1.7.5 Collective Intelligence 35

1.7.6 Application Programming Interface (API) 36

1.7.7 Evolution 37

CHAPTER 2: THE CASE OF GOONLINE.VN PORTAL 39

2.1 OVERVIEW OF SNS IN VIETNAM 39

2.2 INTRODUCTION ABOUT GOONLINE.VN 44

2.3 STRUCTURE OF GOONLINE.VN 49

2.3.1 GoOnline.vn design 49

2.3.2 Font 49

2.3.3 Main features 49

2.3.4 Additional features 49

2.4 INTERACTING WITH USERS 49

2.5 TOOL TO MAKE MONEY 51

2.6 THE LIMITATIONS OF GOONLINE.VN 52

2.6.1 Core platform and Content 52

2.6.2 Product 55

2.6.3 Marketing 55

2.6.4 Human resource 56

2.6.5 Appearance 56

2.6.6 Design and User Experience 56

2.6.7 The way to make money 57

2.7COMPARISION GOONLINE.VN WITH CORE SUCCESSFUL FACTORS 57

2.7.1 Social Object 59

2.7.2 Relationship and privacy 59

2.7.3 User Interface 60

2.7.4 Community Management 60

2.7.5 Collective Intelligence (CI) 60

2.7.6 API 61

2.7.7 Evolution 61

CHAPTER 3: SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE GOONLINE.VN 64

3.1 SOLUTIONS 64

3.1.1 Social Object 64

3.1.2 Relationship & Privacy 64

3.1.3 User Interface 67

3.1.4 Community Management 67

3.1.5 Collective Intelligence 68

3.1.6 Application Programming Interface (API) 68

3.1.7 Evolution 71

3.1.8 Solution to get more benefits 71

3.1.9 Other solutions 72

3.2 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 80

3.3CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY 81

3.4FUTURE OF THE STUDY 81

CONCLUSION 83

REFERENCE 84

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CEO : CHIEF ENTERPRISE OFFICER

CPM : COST PER MILE

CPC : COST PER CLICK

CPA : COST PER ACTION

FPT : FPT CORPORATION

MIC : MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS SEO : SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

SEM : SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING

SNS : SOCIAL NETWORK SITES

UX : USER EXPERIENCE

VC CORP : VIETNAM COMMUNICATION CORPORATION VNG : VINAGAME CORPORATION

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 Timeline of the launch dates of many major SNS and dates

when community sites re-launched with SNS features 8

Figure 2.1 Bounce rate of Facebook 40

Figure 2.2 Daily Traffic Rank Trend of Zing.vn 42

Figure 2.3 Daily traffic rank trend of GoOnline.vn 51

Figure 2.4 Time which users spend on GoOnline.vn 54

Figure 2.5 Time which users spend on Facebook.com 54

Figure 2.6 Bounce rate of GoOnline.vn 58

Figure 2.7 The trend of GoOnline.vn 62

Figure 3.1 The daily pageviews per user of Facebook 70

Figure 3.2 The daily pageviews per user of GoOnline.vn 70

Figure 3.3 The percentage of site visits of GoOnline.vn 79

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.1 Percent of Search Traffic amd Querry of Zing music 43 Table 3-1 The upstream traffic of GoOnline.vn 75 Table 3-2 Percentage of GoOnline’s traffic 77

In Vietnam, this trend has just been raised for 5 years3 However, the effectiveness of using SNS as a social marketing tool for users/subscribers is still an issue VTC Online is one of the leading companies who first develop SNS– GoOnline.vn – and to do business with the site Though making some achievements, VTC is still finding ways to effectively promote their SNS GoOnline.vn and from that to gain more benefits from the site That are reasons I choose to study SNS marketing with the case of GoOnline.vn

2 Research objectives

The main objective of this thesis is to study SNS marketing – focusing

on the case of GoOnline.vn By analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the site by comparing with other SNS, the author proposes some solutions to improve the SNS GoOnline.vn.vn and from that to explore effective ways to

create more value for both subscribers/users and VTC Corporation (the owner

of the SNS GoOnline.vn)

3 Research questions

Based upon the research objective, the main question for this study is

―How can VTC Corporation improve the SNS GoOnline.vn to add more value for both subscribers/users and itself?‖ In order to answer this question, the research needs to answer the following subquestions:

What is the SNS and how to benefit from the SNS?

What are strengths and weaknesses of the SNS GoOnline.vn in terms of creating value to both subscribers/users and the site owner VTC Corporation?

How can VTC corporation can improve the SNS GoOnline.vn to add more value for both subscribers/users and itself?

4 Scope of work

The thesis studies the theoretical foundation for SNS arisen by Internet companies since 2005 when SNS became a worldwide phenomenon For the case GoOnline.vn, the author focuses the study on the period from April

2010, the time when the GoOnline.vn was launched, to present (October 2010)

The term ―value‖ in this study applies for both subscribers/users of the SNS and the owner of the SNS For subscribers/users, value means the contents, fuctions and tools that the SNS offers for subscribers/users to benefit from For the SNS owner, it is the ways that the SNS charges its stakeholders

for an amount of money for using the SNS

5 Data Source

For the theoretical part, data sources are textbooks, articles from Internet

As for the case study, data is obtained from discussing with GoOnline.vn’s staffs and managers team and internal data, which are being tracked by Google Analytics

6 Methodology

The thesis use the empirical method, compare with other sites in the study process and discuss with social network experts

7 Significance

The thesis may contribute a part to the development of Internet industry

in Vietnam, which has been emerging recently As Internet is forecasted to booming in Vietnam in next few years, companies or individuals can benefit the result of this study for business

8 Results

First, the thesis delivers a systematic review of SNS marketing Secondly, the thesis studies the case of GoOnline.vn Portal and proposes solutions to improve it

9 Thesis structure

Apart from introduction, conclusion and reference parts, this thesis includes three chapters Chapter 1 reviews SNS and the use SNS as a

Chapter 2 explores the case of GoOnline.vn, the way they interact with users and utilize the SNS GoOnline.vn to make money Chapter 3 proposes some solutions to improve the SNS GoOnline.vn

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION

1.1 Basic of Social Network Site Marketing

During the past few years, SNS have become a worldwide cultural phenomenon The number of SNS has been increasing exponentially Technorati, a blog & SNS search site, say that they are now tracking 96.9 million blog & SNS all over the world4 In addition, Technorati gives some conclusion about the number of SNS:

Social network has the basic characteristics There is a direct participation of many individuals (or businesses - but act as individual) Beside, it is an open system the contents of the website was built by the participants SNS supports a variety of ways for members to interact The minimum features of social networks like profile of members (members must have a place to share information about yourself, including your avatar, name, age, gender, place of work) SNS also provides the amount of information, and the names of the fields depending on the characteristics of each different Social Networks When users join in SNS, they have ability to connect people: the members of the system must be able to make friends with each other, the system must also support the ability to find new friends in many different criteria to increase community capacity expansion One of basic characteristic of SNS is the interaction between the members: the members of the system must interact with each other, whether through chat tools, or offline message, or through the mail And SNS has a place for someone who can bring something to a content can be articles, emotions, status, or images,

to the other members in the system can view, comment on content

1.2 History of Social Network Sites

According to the definition above, the first recognizable social network site launched in 1997 SixDegrees.com is typical example It 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 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

The next, ―From 1997 to 2001, a number of community tools began supporting various combinations of profiles and publicly articulated Friends AsianAvenue, BlackPlanet, and MiGente allowed users to create personal, professional, and dating profiles—users could identify Friends on their

personal profiles without seeking approval for those connections‖ (O Wasow,

personal communication, August 16, 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 friends—primarily members of the San Francisco business and technology community, including the entrepreneurs and investors behind many future SNSs

Figure 1.1 Timeline of the launch dates of many major SNS and dates

when community sites re-launched with SNS features

1.3 Type of SNS

Social Networking Sites are the sites that host social media

Forums: Probably one of the first sites to allow for social interaction, forums have been around for a while Forums are typically comprised of people with a similar interest Users have conversations around a particular given topic and build up relationships with each other They provide a great deal of information about a topic and is a great way to share user’s knowledge

SNS: People like to journal, and with the Internet they wanted to share their lives more openly Originally called web-logs, these personal journals have advanced Some personal journals still exist, while other SNS discuss a particular niche or interest

Micro-SNS: Similar to SNS, this is a micro journal of what is happening right now These sites can share what is going on in an individual life or can be information the individual wants to share Major news events are now breaking online via microSNS The best known microSNS is Twitter

PhotoSharing:Social Networking Sites are known for sharing of information, in this case photos Users upload their pictures to Photo Sharing Sites Rather than having to send individual pictures to family, user send a single link You can tag user’s photos with keywords related to the image and allow people to comment Some popular photosharing sites are Flickr and Picasa

Video Sharing: Youtube is the video sharing site that almost everyone

for those terms or for the video title People can comment if the video owner allows Like other forms of social media it allows for a more personal look of the actual user

Professional: Networking has long been touted as an asset in professional circles Networking allows the person to connect with people and

by those connections meet other professionals that person knows Professional social media allows for that type of opportunity online Thus if user move away from user’s home town user can still remain connected to user’s ex-coworkers and others in user’s profession Linked In is one of the top professional social networking sites

Social: After user have worked with people a while, they may become user’s friends Then user have friends from church, from user’s school, and friends user have met in a wide variety of ways Social networking sites are about being social, so there are sites purely for allowing users to stay in touch with people whom they know While MySpace was the leader, the current leader is Facebook It is growing around the world

Bookmarking: The major purpose of these social networking sites is the sharing of information If user read a web page that is interesting, informative,

or inspirational user may choose to bookmark it By doing this user are saying that user like it Your friends will learn what user liked and can choose to read

it Pages that many people bookmark become popular and drive others to that page as well Digg, Delicious, and StumpleUpon are very popular bookmarking websites

Other formats: There are other types of social networking sites out there, some are very similar to the ones mentioned here Many sites have a

major form of socializing and then use the other types as a other ways for users to interact People love to socialize and interact, so this is a growing field with ever more sites

There are other types of social networking sites out there, some are very similar to the ones mentioned here Many sites have a major form of socializing and then use the other types as a other ways for users to interact People love to socialize and interact, so this is a growing field with ever more sites

According to According to eBizMBA5 , there are the 15 Most Popular

Social Networking Websitess as derived from our eBizMBA Rank which is

an average of each website's Alexa Global Traffic Rank, and U.S Traffic Rank from both Compete and Quantcast Denotes an estimated Quantcast

rank for websites yet to be Quantified (see Appendix)

1.4 Function of SNS

Most social networking websites are supported by paid advertisements that appear on member pages Because of this, most social networking websites do not carry membership charges and offer free services to all users

Benefit: users can share their story, success, services and products with the community on their social networking website

Feature: Communicate with text-based comments Many social networks allow user to communicate with friends either by private e-mail-like correspondence, public message board-like posts, or both

Benefit: Stay in touch with contacts, reach out to new people, and show the community which users care about company-to-client communication!

1.4.4 Advertising & Sale

Social networking Web sites, including providing tools that allow people to share such information with each film and website website interact online with each other in many ways such as comments, connections, an

internal Retweet content, blog or Web page Currently, the tools on the social media advertising are known as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

Advertising on Social Media concepts to refer to forms of social media systems for marketing, online sales, PR or inquiries by customers

One thing in particular that of social media content titles, customer group or a group website that is created by people who actually use the Internet, not the member's direct suppliers For example, large photos on Flickr are user uploaded and shared with other users through the website Flickr, Flickr is not done by staff

Other companies use forms of advertising on social media is to make use of social media tools promote their brand,increase visibility of their website on social media-systems

For example, companies can create a quality profile on Facebook, fan page

up page, or on Twitter to increase the number of followers, the number Retweet

1.5 Overview of SNS Marketing from the site master perspective

First of all, the author would like to introduce about traditional marketing and poduct positioning process

In marketing, positioning has come to mean the process by which marketers try to create an image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization

Generally, the product positioning process involves:

1 Defining the market in which the product or brand will compete (who the relevant buyers are)

2 Identifying the attributes (also called dimensions) that define the

product 'space'

3 Collecting information from a sample of customers about their

perceptions of each product on the relevant attributes

4 Determine each product's share of mind

5 Determine each product's current location in the product space

6 Determine the target market's preferred combination of attributes

Examine the fit between:

o The position of product

o The position of the ideal vector

7 Interest and started a conversation

There are many definitions about SNS marketing, according to www.SNSMarketing.com, SNS 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 medium of communications by the organization is in collaboration with an external agent, i.e advertising agencies, marketing research firms, and public relations firms 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 network 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 network 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 receive direct feedback from their customers and targeted markets

1.51 Steps in SNS marketing

1.5.1.1 From User

They are using these sites because they are popular and fun, but they do not have a clear written plan to help them use social networking effectively There are ten steps user can take to change that for user and to make sure that user do have an effective social networking plan in place

Decide what user’s social networking

goals are

Determine which SNS’s user will use

Determine where most of user’s target

audience hangs out

Write down user’s social networking

Step 1: Decide what user’s social networking goals are Write down these goals and make them specific Avoid being too specific since numbers are difficult at best to achieve with social networking Examples of good goals include the number of new people that user will connect with per day, the number of new friends user will add etc Step 2: Determine which social networking sites user will use Most people cannot effectively use more than two or three Make one site user’s main focus and then use the other one or two on a regular basis without letting them consume user’s life

Step 3: Determine where most of user’s target audience hangs out In some cases it may be Facebook, or it may be twitter, or myspace, or squidoo, or Facebook groups or a combination thereof Then develop a plan to spend the majority of user’s time where the people in user’s target market are

Step 4: Write down user’s social networking plan Divide user’s action steps up according to daily, weekly, and monthly actions

Step 5: Use a timer when working on user’s social networking in order

to avoid wasting time Determine how much time user have available and then stick to it

Step 6: Use a printed out checklist when marketing on social networking sites Check off each action step as user complete it

Step 7: Make revisions when necessary but commit to working user’s plan without giving up or making too many changes

1.5.1.2 From owner of SNS

Choosing SNS or not

How often to maintain them

Selecting software system

Step 1: Choosing SNS or not

This is the first factor which relate with launching one SNS Owners decide whether they use SNS as a tool to sell online advertising or something like that

Step 2: How often to maintain SNS service

In fact, almost SNS are tool to help owner to make money And the more owners get money, the more time they maintain SNS service Base

on SNS service, the customers will have plan to advertise their products/services And owners always pay attention to maintain all activities of SNS

Step 3: Selecting software system or service

There are a lots of software or system to do marketing on SNS In fact, software or system does not show for readers or users This is platform tool to do many of marketing way on the SNS If owner SNS do not prepare suitable software/system, they can not sell advertising for corporate customers and consumers who care

Step 4: Design for readers/users

Owners of SNS not only need to design SNS for more convenient with users, but also they must customize their design according to the demands

of customers

Owner must consider whether which color is the most suitable, which

Step 5: Plublishing SNS

When owners of SNS have a good preparation, they should publish your SNS There are many ways to this: write artile, PR & marketing on Internet This is the important period, because customers and potential users, readers has the first impresstion about their SNS

Step 6: Launching SNS and getting noticed

Owners of SNS need to well prepare to have successful launching From here, users recognize their SNS and will comment about their services

This is period which owners of SNS must pay attention to collect comments from readers, idea from potential usersand willing to listen both

of positive points and negative comments The most important is what owner of SNS to do next

Step 7: Monitoring and Managing SNS

When SNS become popular with users or e-citizen, owners of SNS should listen to feedback of users, repair errors when it happens, organize events to know what attract users, what keep users with their SNS/service

At that moment, they maybe have opportunity to do good marketing and then get benefit from this activity

1.5.2 The way to interact with users

Almost all businesses dedicate significant resources to understanding

they offer For many successful organizations, SNS marketing has provided a crucial way to raise that awareness Besides, the Web is a critical channel for marketing and selling products and services For many, SNS that focus on selling products are proving effective at generating revenue Taking care of current customers is good business It is been well documented that one of the best resources a business has for driving future sales is their current customer base According to Fredrick F Reichheld, director of the strategy-consulting firm Bain & Company, a 5-percentage-point increase in customer retention in

a typical company will increase profits by more than 25 percent In addition, satisfied customers drive positive word of mouth buzz, which can strongly influence new customers SNS are proving to be a great way to support customers after they have bought (and before they buy again)

This thesis mentions these five focus areas in SNS marketing, which are expressed in more depth below

SNS that help talking with customers

SNS that raise awareness and visibility

SNS that sell products

SNS that support current (and prospective) customers

SNS that build reputation and recognition

1.5.2.1 Talking with customers

Encouraging an interactive audience

SNS enables companies to interact more directly with new, existing, and potential customers by giving them easy ways to talk with them, stay in touch and be alerted whenever they post something new This exchange allows them to increase their awareness and to sell product directly Dialog also allows companies to learn more about what their market wants because customers will tell what they want right in their SNS

As a marketing tool, SNS are used by companies to enable "virtual focus group" of customers SNS will be a place where companies listen and respond to comments and then use that feedback to improve their products and support

To get this type of focus group feedback, companies often enable comments on their SNS, post about their product, and then ask for input Usually, SNS will encourage lots of comments and reader participation Companies then have to authorize comments, eliminate inappropriate contribution and make sure the site’s authors are participating in the discussion are crucial to keeping the dialog going Moreover, companies must have the staffing and time to do it right It often takes an hour or two of attention every day and frequent checking in on what is being said in the comments can go a long way to ensure that participation is managed correctly

After sales services: SNS not only help companies sell products, but also help take care of customers after they have purchased something Business SNS is like a newsletter with interactivity Instead of generic

"contact us" form, customers can interact with companies in a more intimate

way by commenting in SNS In addition, when companies post about product, they can provide answers to commonly asked questions, or solutions to issues that have been raised previously For many companies, SNS are excellent replacement of FAQ and ―Contact Us‖ functions in companies’ websites and even are more effective

1.5.2.2 Raising awareness and visibility

Smart marketers work hard to get their company and products talked about on the Web, with the ultimate goal of having their offerings found more often by people searching or surfing the Internet They can use SNS to archive that goal by trying to drive traffics to SNS

SNS that get many visitors (traffic) have two key attributes that make them special Those attributes are visibility and find ability

Visible sites are those that are mentioned frequently and, in many cases, are linked to and from many Web pages It is clear that the more opportunities people have to click and visit, the more they will do so Similarly with SNS, the more sites that mention company SNS (or product SNS) or reference its posts, the more visible the SNS will be

Findable sites are those that search engines like Google feel are relevant and place at or near the top of search results pages Most users who monitor their traffic statistics closely know that a significant number of the people coming to their site are clicking through from Google and other search results pages It is clear that the more relevant search engines think the SNS

In order to increase to achieve these two objectives, companies have to increase numbers of inbound link to their SNS There are two reasons to do

so First, it is the evident truth that, the more direct link, the more visibility their SNSs have Second, the more inbound link, the more ranking in search engine they have Thus, this will increase companies’ SNSs’ findability

Company can achieve this in two ways:

Firstly, companies can write many interesting posts that users pay attention to and then they may refer others to those posts The elaborate and often expensive linking strategies advocated by many Web marketing consultants is usually far less productive than just writing well about subjects that will grab readers attention By this way, companies can get natural inbound links

Another way they can buy link who sell inbound link from sites they have established along with compensated partners Getting other sites and SNS to link back to company SNS is vital if they want their SNS to become a high-profile destination However, such search engine as Google is on the lookout for people trying to get links that they view as "illegitimate" and could conceivably determine brokered links fit that profile If Google senses inbound links have been fabricated, they might actually move illegitimate site lower in rankings, or may even remove it from results pages completely

Spreading the word

Once companies increase their SNS awareness and visibility, they will use these to spreading the word over communities, nations and even all

over the world Maximizing awareness and visibility then become a strategy They carefully plan and then act artfully on the right time, place

to achieve the result

Driving more traffic on companies web site

Most of the businesspeople with an interest in SNSging already have a Web site and are very motivated to have more people visit it SNSs have proven to be very effective at driving traffic to traditional sites, and many companies have made them a cornerstone of their promotional strategies Many companies have it hosted under the same domain as their company site

By this way, SNS helps not only drive more traffic companies’ web site but also putting a "human face" or a ―public face‖ on the organization to customer Vice versa, a high profile website also raises SNS visibility Thus, this is a mutual benefit relationship

1.5.2.3 Closing Sale

Most of the users, who are experiencing success promoting products or services, do not embrace the hard sell approach Many of these people would chafe at the notion of actively trying to manipulate visitors, and would rather just focus on creating quality posts that get noticed While posts are great for driving traffic and credibility, sales will certainly be enhanced if company has

a strategy for dealing with people once they arrive on its blog and that does not mean breaking out the hard sell So from SNS visibility to sales, it does require a lot of efforts

which is a measurement indicating what percentages of Web site visitors become buyers Those companies have discovered scores of techniques (mostly proprietary) that can make a huge difference in sales Successful SNS will have this rate among 5 – 40%

Make it clear what user do, and the products user sell It means that blogger should write a brief paragraph about their company containing a link to their product pages This paragraph should be positioned near the top of user’s blog's home page

Post about positive customer experiences Testimonials from satisfied customers in the sidebars (again with links to products) can help visitors overcome any objections to buying that they might have Companies can boost sales dramatically by researching why people are reluctant to buy their product and featuring customer comments directly refuting those common reasons Mentioning products in posts and linking back to pages that allow purchasing also works well

1.5.2.4 Dealing with disasters

While SNS can serve as an ideal platform for writing about things that promote company or products, it can also serve as an important channel in which to respond to negativity from others Several high-profile companies have experienced the wrath of angry SNSgers because of product or service gaffes CBS news, Sony BMG, Alaska Airlines, and Dell have all faced significant PR challenges due to how they responded (or did not respond) to critical SNSgers

These companies discovered the hard way that detractors in the SNSosphere can have significant influence over the mainstream press, and all faced front-page exposure of embarrassing problems due to their lack of SNS-savvies

In all of those examples, rather than post or comment in response to criticism, the companies stonewalled This silence fed into the users escalating speculation and accusations In some cases, press releases were eventually issued, but it essentially amounted to wrong channel and bad timing

1.5.2.5 Building reputation and recognition

Many companies also use SNS to foster a positive image They have asked key employees to SNS These people are required to post and respond frequently about topics that show how smart, innovative, and caring the company is

The ultimate goal here is not toward to customers ―Leadership SNS are not intended to be read by direct customers or intended customers of a company, but are targeted instead toward influential people (often other users and/or members of the press) with the hope that these readers will write about (and reinforce) what the thought leader is trying to project‖

While encouraging employees, they also set comprehensive policies and systems, and careful monitor of what is being said is mandatory

1.6 How to get benefit through SNS

Internet today has demonstrated its important role in all matters of life

many people already know how to take advantage of Vietnam's advantages to make money online for user’s life Internet makes life more abundant, making the world more colorful, and also appear to want to make money

1.6.1 Create website

A website is not only a place of information, but also a very good place for money through promotional activities, writing PR just read the number of sites has higher prices and higher advertising Normally present in Vietnam, the author evaluates these numbers through a system of Alexa

There are many great Web sites can benefit directly from advertisers, while smaller sites must accept as "agents" ads for foreign advertising firms,

by accepting an ad placed request that they send and receive a little money through the site location, number of clicks

1.6.2 Virtual Shop(e-commerce)

Online trading is now becoming popular, especially with userng people With the advantage of introduction to each user and not subject to store rental costs Many vendors also introduced models, buyers interested in any form to put the money they'll get it on sale, interest in the food In addition to create their own virtual shop, many people engaged in buying and selling website and create their own shops on it also gained a lot of money

1.6.3 Speculate the domain name

The registration of domain names is now quite easy and not expensive Many people consider this a huge source of revenue Just look for the big

firms do not have domain names in Vietnamese, or to buy the domain name easy to remember and impressive, they can easily sell it back for tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars Despite the current speculation domain is pretty much blocking, but for many, there are still many doors for them to earn a living based on the trade domain

1.6.4 Send spam

With many people extremely annoying spam, but some people here

is money With email job ads, each day a spammer can harvest hundreds

of dollars to spend But be careful with some countries the penalty for sending spam

1.6.5 Read advertising news

One of the short messages which everyone can see "Earn money online just 5 minutes a day." This is a sitting form of advertisement, and to properly read the information requirements will receive an amount of 5 cents per picture, if read the wrong message will be fined $ 20 per picture But not everyone can make money from this service, because those companies actually pay very little money, but the majority of companies are scams, so readers read their ads, but suddenly a penalty clause big money, or never send money to employees

1.6.6 Hack account

Hack is always a problem in parallel with the development of the Internet These hackers can "steal" everything from hacking user’s skills,

sell, hack bank account to spend money This is a temple form is illegal, but also a method of making money in no small part the tech-savvy but greed

1.6.7 Play game

Online gaming is everyone's favorite game, but is a headache for parents Play games online is not only time consuming but also more money, but the only game people can understand also the role online gaming can make a lot of money, just know how to play and know how to invest Residents for a game each coil Vo Lam Truyen Ky each account up to over 1 billion VND, the trade of virtual goods online is very exciting place, many pro games just to make money, someone would make the professional gaming, products and sales

1.6.8 Selling virtual property

Virtual property include: furniture, cars, fashion, appointments (henantrua.vn, cyworld.vn, play.zing.vn and vihuni.vn ) are sold on the Internet and seller receive direct money or virtual money

Other premium services: SMS account activation, service order as henantrua.vn, mkool.zing.vn; transaction fee as PhunuNet.com, LopViet.com, Ringring.vn

In the future, the social network of Vietnam wants to achieve high revenue will be flexible combination of these two models mentioned above

1.7 Core factors for successful SNS

In SNS world, there are many core factors to make success of SNS

In this thesis,I do not discuss the problem of hardware architecture's social network as it is an operation that wants to grow the site to pay attention

to, not just a social network site These factors include: (1) Social Object; (2) Reletionship and Privacy; (3) User Interface; (4) Community management; (5) Collective Intelligence; (6) Application Programming Interface; (7) Evolution

1.7.1 Social Object

Today, the social networking site should have a something to share, to talk to The core objects of user that mounted together on a website is the Social Object For example, for a Flickr photo, YouTube video is, Digg is a Webpage, Del.icio.us Bookmark

Thus, before implementing a social network, users need to define themselves a Social Object to focus development Find out a Social Object was difficult then, bring it on social networks more difficult to implement

After identifying the social object, the next user needs to find the

"verb" for the social object Doing this is extremely important, it is a description of actions that user can manipulate the Social Object when using user’s site The verb as accurate and rich will help the user interaction with the website is improved Example: Flickr is a photo and some verbs such as: Add, Delete, Share URL, Tagging, Search, Vote, Favourite

First user need to determine user’s website will do something to shapes the Social Object It is easy to understand that the social network has two