Perception towards professional and personal social networking sites: an exploratory study

In recent years, the emergence of social networking sites (SNSs) like, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and MySpace are changing the lives of the human beings. Human beings at a professional and personal level are taking notice of the phenomenal growth of SNSs and are developing new tactics to take advantage of them. The purpose of this research paper is to understand the perception of individuals towards these professionals and personal social networking sites and to what extent they serve the purpose of joining them. The question which is being asked and explored in this paper is whether the ideals and conventions for the social and professional networking sites are different or the same? To what extent are these SNSs are somewhat overlapping in serving the desired needs and objectives with which they have been joined by the individuals. Extended focus of this research is also on understanding how classes of various age groups and gender are using various SNSs across the globe. Finally, we will discuss how research in the SNSs can benefit from this conceptualisation of online social presence and spell out the practical implications.