Assessing the importance of social media and social networks to rural college students seeking employment

Student Researchers: Janelle Cahee, Chris Shattuck, Jacob Stafford and Cassandra Fyles Faculty Mentor: Bill W. Godair, Ed Dansereau and Michael DeyoeRural College Students seeking employment indicated that social media, social network, and organizations’ employment /job portals are very important to them.

Social Media Social Networks0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

59%

70%

41%

30%

They view their "presence" on social media and socialnetwork sites as Very/Fairly Important in their search for employment.

Very/Fairly Important Not to/Not at all Important

Social media Social networks0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

40%43%

60%57%

Yet, the management of their social presence is not a “priority”.

Moderate/High Priority Not at all / Somewhat of a priority

Social Media Social Networks0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%75% 76%

25% 24%

Even though they believe that there is a high likelihood that a potential employer will review their "social presence."

Very /Highly likely Not to/Not at all likely

Very accurate28%

Moderately accurate39%

Slightly accurate19%

Not at all accurate14%

They also disclosed that their social presence is ____________________ in portray-ing their character and work ethic.

Organizations' employment/job portals

Social networks Social media0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%96%

78%

55%

4%22%

45%

Rural College Students' believes that Social Media, Social Network & Organizations Job Portals are very useful in their search for employment.

Very/Somewhat helpful Not too/at all helpful

Social media Social networks Organizations' employment/job portals0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

12%

16%

42%

7%

15%

25%

The use of social media, social networks, or organizations' employment/job portals result in _________________________. a job offer being extended and accepted

a job offer being extended

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%54%

12%

7%

15% 13% 14%

26%

Social media

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%44%

16% 15%

23%

9%11%

29%

Social networks

0%10%20%30%40%

28%

42%

25%18% 16% 13%

25%

Organizations' employment/job portals

Less than 15 minutes 16 to 30 minutes 30+ minutes to 1 hour 1+ hour to 2 hours 2+ hours to 3 hours More than 3 hours0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

26%

14%

26%

15%

7%

13%

15%16%

22% 22%

11%

14%

Past and Projected Future Use of time spent by rural college students using Social Media, Social Network or Organizations' job portal in their search for employment

Past employment searches Future employment searches

Assessing the importance of social media and social network to rural college students seeking employment

H3: Is there a statistical significant difference between past and future use of social media and social network

Q2 x Q11

Past employment searches * Future employment searches Crosstabulation

Chi-Square TestsAsymp. Sig.

Value df (2-sided)Pearson Chi-Square 273.110a 49 .000Likelihood Ratio 186.849 49 .000Linear-by-Linear Association 67.900 1 .000N of Valid Cases 203a 50 cells (78.1%) have expected count less than 5. The minimum expected count is .25.

Symmetric MeasuresValue Approx. Sig.

Nominal by Nominal Phi 1.160 .000Cramer's V .438 .000

N of Valid Cases 203

Testing the null hypothesis of no significant difference between observed and expected frequencies at the .01 level of significance, the critical value would be 74.92. Therefore, if the chi-square statistic for this goodness-of-fit test were equal to or greater than the critical value of 74.92, the null hypothesis of no difference would be rejected at the .01 level of significance, and the alternative hypothesis that a difference exist would be supported.

CV = 74.92 OV = 273.110

We fail to accept the null hypothesis of no difference since the Observed Value is Greater Than the Critical Value.