IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-JBM) ISSN: 2278-487X. Volume 6, Issue 5 (Jan. - Feb. 2013), PP 15-28 www.iosrjournals.org www.iosrjournals.org 15 | Page Development of Social Networking Sites and Their Role in Business with Special Reference to Facebook Dr. Shree Bhagwat 1 , Ankur Goutam 2 1 (Asst. Prof. Dept. of Business Management, Dr. H.S. Gour Central University Sagar (M.P.), India) 2 (Faculty, Dept. of Business Management, Dr. H.S. Gour Central University Sagar (M.P.), India) Abstract: The earth is huge in size whose area is 510100000 km2 which is divided into 243 countries worldwide and those countries have about 3200 religion and 6912 languages which are spoken by 7 billion people in world. These 7 billion people are using millions websites out of which some sites are social networking sites , as per records of these sites about 5 billion people are using social networking sites to share and transfer information and views etc. to each other also for business purposes. If we think according to the above data. So communication is not possible physically in this huge world. Here only social networking sites are making this possible. The facebook is a leading social networking site whose user are 1 billion. Facebook has won this position of population inn very short time. These social networking sites have their historical record of development and now they are facilitating various services to people and business worldwide. This paper is trying to explain the concept of social networking sites and their role in business. Key words: Facebook, Social network, Social networking, Social Networking Sites, Social ecosystem, Social graph. Jel Classification: M-31, M-37 I. Introduction The dynamism of the market has been a major area of everyone‟s concern. The alarming shift from just “selling the products” to “being into the customers” has given marketing a different phase from „push marketing‟ to more of communicating with customers. Earlier the companies were connecting with the customers through radio, television, print media, bill boards and other traditional advertising. Now with a realization that the main conviction source are our colleagues , friends and our social network, where we lend our ears and mind with a personal touch and usually get persuaded taking it as more true and honest. At the same time, technology paved the way for new possibilities. TiVo & digital video recorders made it easy for us to bypass & ignore commercials in live T.V. MPG players helped us listen to music & podcast on demand, which similarly margin zed radio advertising, online retailer realized that they could increase dates by allowing visitors to their site to offer personal recommendation about products they were selling and of course, the social media industry was very successful. It the rise of mainstream social media has proceeds one thing. It may be for providing oneself with significant identification socially. But social media today captures a lot of unusual information about users. Sometimes that mundane information can include on experience, point view or negative, with your brand or with your Company. Today everyone can connect to their own little social circle of usually a few hundred people. People don't just hear about news, events, and so on from the local TV news broadcast and/or newspapers. People here about things from blogs, Twitter, articles, casual conservation. The term social media refers to the collection of technologies that capture communication, content, and so on across individuals, their friends, and their social naturals. Examples of social media include social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, Blogging technologies like type pad and word press, crowed sourcing products like Wikipedia, Photo & video sharing sites like Flicker & You tube, & others. These technologies help users easily create content on the Internet and share it with others. Social media is the Infrastructures that helps user to become publishers of content that is interesting to them & their friends. The study is organized into six sections. Section - I deals with the concept, features, definition, types and classification of social network. Section - II has been devoted to a discussion of evolution and growth of social networking sites & facebook. Section - III discusses the development of facebook & its statistical information (data). Section - IV discusses Role of Social Networking sites in Business, Section - V discusses the Statistical Analysis of Social Networking Sites and the last Section - VI specifies summary and concluding remarks. Section-I: Concepts 1. Social Network/Networking