Research Blog 3 - Determinant Factors of Time Spent on Facebook

Ulusu, Yeşim. "Determinant Factors of Time Spent on Facebook: Brand Community Engagement and Usage Types." Journal of Yasar University 5.18 (2010): 2949-957. Academic Search Complete. Web. 15 Oct. 2010. <http://joy.yasar.edu.tr/makale/no18_vol5/02_yesim_ulusu.pdf

Yeşim Ulusu's research on how Turkish people spend time on Facebook provides background on Facebook and other social networking sites, including its creation, initial audience, expanded audience, and original uses.  The study was performed to determine the real reasons people use Facebook and the effects online marketing may have on those people, making it interesting and relevant to me as a professional social networker.

The article addresses the marketing possibilities Facebook provides, but is unique in that it also provides information on the user's perspective and attitude toward Facebook ads as well.  The study results state the obvious, to any current Facebook user: "As it is supported by the literature, our research also revealed that users generally ignore the advertisements on their profile page and moreover they don’t want to be [fan]/friend of any brand community if they continuously receive notifications from the community," (8) though it also acknowledges that Turkey is relatively new to the world of marketing via social networking sites, implying that the results may change in the future once they’re better established in the game.

On the topic of writing, the article could have been improved if it had been passed through another editor with better English and proofreading skills, as there were several spelling and grammatical errors throughout the article that seemed to be due to a translation issue from the researcher’s main language, Turkish.  Poor proofreading and translating in a published article don’t speak well to the validity of the journal. 

Aside from the translation, the researcher’s conclusion seemed to be valid from my experience.  The author concluded that “the main Facebook usage factors were ‘Social networking,’ ‘Writing on wall,’ ‘Entertainment,’ ’Searching for friends,’ and ‘Free time.’” (7)  Those seem to be common reasons for people to use Facebook in Turkey and the US, but they are also fairly vague and general, and they encompass most of the features Facebook has available. This almost makes it seem as though the research hasn’t established anything worth a whole study.