Universal Journal of Management and Social Sciences Vol. 2, No.3; March 2012 1 Investigating the Patterns of Social Network Sites (SNS) Usage among Business Students Wan Malini Wan Isa 1 , Azilawati Rozaimee 1 , Hasni Hassan 1 , *Izah Mohd Tahir 2 1 Faculty of Informatics University Sultan Zainal Abidin Gong Badak Campus, 21300 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, MALAYSIA, 2 Faculty of Business Management and Accountancy University Sultan Zainal Abidin, Gong Badak Campus, 21300 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, MALAYSIA *izah@unisza.edu.my Abstract The objective of this paper is to examine the patterns of Social Network Sites (SNS) usage among business students in one of the public university in Malaysia. A total of 327 business students from the Faculty of Business Management and Accountancy participated in the survey. The results indicate that majority of the respondents owns a notebook and use their own notebook to access the internet. In addition, majority of the respondents rated Facebook as their favourite SNSs account and have more than one SNSs account with majority of them are members of Facebook. Regardless of gender, business students used SNSs mainly for chatting. Keywords: Social Network Sites (SNS), university, business students, Malaysia 1. Introduction The early inception of Social Network Sites or SNSs, originated from the development of Web 2.0 by O‘eillLJ iŶ 2004. BoLJd aŶd EllisoŶ geŶeƌallLJ desĐƌiďed “N“s as teĐhŶologies that eŶaďle puďliĐ articulation of social network (Boyd and Ellison 2007). Among the most popular SNSs these days are Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Friendster; to name a few. The SNSs phenomenon is believed to encompass great potential to socialize online learning to a greater extent than before (Bryant, 2007) ǁheƌe it is ĐoŶsideƌed as aƌĐhiteĐtuƌe of paƌtiĐipatioŶ that haƌŶesses the ǁisdoŵ of Đƌoǁds (Surowiecki, 2005). Boyd and Ellison, (2007) defined SNSs as web-based services that allow individuals to a) Construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system; b) Articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection; c) View and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. Haythornwaite (2005) argued that SNSs is unique since it enables users to articulate and make visible their social networks that in turn promotes connections between individuals that would not other be ŵade; usuallLJ ďetǁeeŶ lateŶt ties shaƌiŶg soŵe offliŶe ĐoŶŶeĐtioŶs. The ďasiĐ featuƌe of a “N“ consists of visible profiles that display an articulated list of friends who are also users of the system. In general, each SNSs will require new users to fill in a form where details from the form becomes the useƌs pƌofiles. IŶ heƌ ďook eŶtitled Material Virtualities : Approaching Online textual Embodiment, Jenny Sunden defined pƌofiles as uŶiƋue pages ǁheƌe useƌs ĐaŶ tLJpe oŶeself iŶto ďeiŶg(Sunden, 2003). Most sites encourage users to upload a profile photo and in some SNSs, users ĐaŶ eŶhaŶĐe theiƌ pƌofiles ďLJ addiŶg ŵultiŵedia ĐoŶteŶt oƌ ŵodifLJiŶg theiƌ pƌofiles look aŶd feel. In additioŶ, iŶ soŵe “N“s suĐh as FaĐeďook, useƌs aƌe alloǁed to add ŵodules oƌ appliĐatioŶs iŶ order to enhance their profiles (Boyd and Ellison, 2007) . There are two main factors by which the visibility of a user profile can vary. These are: the type of “N“s aĐĐouŶt that theLJ haǀe; aŶd useƌs oǁŶ disĐƌetioŶ. As aŶ edžaŵple, LiŶkedIŶ ĐoŶtƌols useƌs ǀieǁ depending on whether they have a paid account or not; while Facebook users may choose to allow