Facebook top of social networking tree, but you wonít find new friends or a job

Facebook is still the most popular social networking site among students and graduates, and clearly ahead of Bebo and MySpace when put head-to-head according to Milkround.comís student and graduate database.

But users claim none of the major three offer enough help finding new friends or a job.

Graduate recruitment site Milkround.com asked its student and graduate users about their usage of online networking websites such as Bebo, Facebook and MySpace. Of more than 500 responses, a huge 97 percent use Facebook ñ way ahead of MySpace with 44 percent and Bebo on 23 percent. Just a handful use other sites such as Hi5 and Friendster. When asked which they prefer, 93 percent said Facebook, establishing it as the clear favourite.

Facebook is top-rated social networking site
The survey also asked respondents to rate leading networking sites Bebo, Facebook and MySpace out of five for staying in contact with friends, sharing photographs and videos, meeting new people, arranging social activities, networking for jobs and general entertainment.

Bebo ended bottom of the rankings, averaging 1.7 across the categories, with 70 percent of respondents giving it the lowest score of one for finding work and 51 percent awarding it a one for arranging social activities. MySpace was given a better average rating of 2.3, scoring 3.0 for staying in contact with friends, meeting new people and general entertainment, but also getting a 1.0 for job hunting.

Facebook was the top performer with an average score of 3.5 out of 5 and top marks for staying in contact with friends and sharing photographs and videos. Like MySpace and Bebo, it was rated 2.0 for meeting new people, suggesting as popular as social networking sites are, few users get the chance to make friends beyond those they have in real life. Facebook also received a two for networking for jobs, another aspect that could be improved across the board for these sites.

Milkround.com spokesman Mike Barnard said: ìDespite suffering its first drop in traffic following 17 months of successive increases since July 2006 in January, Facebook is still immensely popular among students and graduates. Itís clearly ahead of its competitors in terms of staying in contact with friends and sharing files online, Bebo and MySpace will need to improve their usability to come close to toppling the Facebook dominance. However, all of the major three sites would benefit if they could encourage users to meet new people or even think of ways to help users find a job.î

ìOne way student and graduate Facebook users can get round this problem is using applications such as Milkround.comís ìMy Dream Jobî which can be set up to display the latest internships, graduate jobs and schemes on user profiles matched to unique job hunting preferences. Since we launched the application in October last year, the number of users has increased tenfold.î

Users heed security fears of social networking
The recent security concerns of social networking sites and news of employers using them to screen potential candidates seems to have had an impact on the privacy settings students and graduates use. Some 82 percent place controls on who can view their profile: more than two in five (43 percent) keep their profile as private as possible while another 39 percent mask aspects of their choosing such as contact details.

This is unsurprising given the content most users have on their profile. According to the survey very few students or graduates even consider using their online persona to look for work, preferring to share what they do in their leisure time including potential embarrassing photographs of nights out. A total of 91 percent have a profile for social networking only, with just six percent using social networking sites to hunt for work as well as communicate with their friends.

The survey also asked online networking Internet users about how they might change their preference of site. Three in five would follow whichever site their friends were signed up to and 19 percent would choose whichever site had the best features. Popular reasons why users would not switch include half saying they have already spent a long time building up a profile and 19 percent claiming it would take time for a new site to get popular. Some 18 percent simply wouldn't want to have to encourage their friends to join a new site.

Mike Barnard added: ìAlthough there has been a downturn in traffic to Bebo, Facebook and MySpace, the good news is half of users will remain loyal to them once they have set up a profile. Clearly the majority of users are aware of all the hype surrounding recruiters accessing their online profiles and are taking steps to secure their online image.î