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 November, 2010 vi 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 1.1 BASIC OF SOCIAL NETWORK SITE MARKETING 5 1.2 HISTORY OF SOCIAL NETWORK SITES 6 1.3 TYPE OF SNS 9 1.4 FUNCTION OF SNS 11 1.4.1 Share 11 1.4.2 Show 12 1.4.3 Socialize 12 vii 1.4.4 Advertising & Sale 12 1.5 OVERVIEW OF SNS MARKETING FROM THE SITE MASTER PERSPECTIVE. 13 1.51 Steps in SNS marketing 15 1.5.2 The way to interact with users 20 1.6 HOW 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 viii 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 2.7 COMPARISION 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 ix 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 3.3 CONTRIBUTION OF THE STUDY 81 3.4 FUTURE OF THE STUDY 81 CONCLUSION 83 REFERENCE 84 x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS API : APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE 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 VTC : VIETNAM TELECOMMUNICATIONS JOINT STOCK COMPANY xi 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 xii 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 1 INTRODUCTION 1. Research background Nowadays, Social Network Site (SNS) has become a phenomenon. In recent years, millions of SNS have appeared and the growth of SNS seems not to slow down. Many users (Microsoft Corp, Disney Corp…) have used SNS for their marketing activities and many of them have obtained successes. Microsoft, Disney 1 are typical examples. Besides, thousands of small and medium companies also succeeded in using SNS marketing 2 In Vietnam, this trend has just been raised for 5 years 3 . 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 1 Link http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15011765 http://home.disney.go.com/guestservices/international 2 Link http://www.beingpeterkim.com/2008/09/ive-been-thinki.html 3 Link http://ganxa.com/News/DetailNews.php?IDNews=3219 [...]... here Many sites have a 10 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... 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. .. 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. .. Timeline of the launch dates of many major SNS and dates when community sites re-launched with SNS features 8 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... 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... 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... 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 Chapter 2: The case of GoOnline.vn Chapter 3: Solutions to improve GoOnline.vn 4 CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL FOUNDATION 1.1 Basic of Social Network Site Marketing During the past few years, SNS have become a worldwide cultural... 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 14 Social network marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content... For the SNS owner, it is the ways that the SNS charges its stakeholders 2 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 . 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. 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 . Administration Code: 60 34 05 MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION THESIS Supervisor: Dr Vu Anh Dung November, 2010 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I ABSTRACT II TÓM TẮT IV TABLE