Title: Social Media ? And customer interaction in smaller firmsSeminar date: 2011-06-10Course: Information Logistics, D-level.Authors: Marie Stenhammar and Ulrika CarlssonAdvisor: Jaime CamposKey words: Social Media, Web 2.0, Co-creation, Viral marketing, Word of Mouth, smaller firmsPurpose: This paper aims to describe the relevance of Social Media to smaller firms, the challenges and opportunities they face and what strategies they use, in the interaction with their customers.Methodology: The study is qualitative in nature and has an abductive approach. The empirical material consists of in-depth interviews with chosen companies and Internet observations.Theoretical perspectives: Social Media, Web 2.0, Co-creation, Viral marketing, Word of MouthEmpirical foundation: The study takes its empirical base from in-depth interviews with representatives from the small companies and internet observations connected to these.Conclusions: Smaller companies have great interest in Social Media. They preferably use Facebook, blogs, YouTube and Twitter. Their strategy is mainly to be very active and update their Social Media regularly.

Social Media constitutes an increasing part of organizations and businesses today, regardlessif its segment is B2B (Business to business) or B2C (Business to consumer). The use ofSocial Media has been self-evident for many companies, especially throughout the B2C area.The study examined attitudes towards Web 2.0 and Social Media in the B2B-segment, andwhat advantages and disadvantages that might exist with the use of the implementation. Inorder to answer the research question a qualitative case study on the company IFS (Industrialand Financial Systems) was made..

Purpose: The aim of this thesis has been to study and obtain greater understanding of the consequences of active Social Media use. Specifically, in terms of social identity, social life and the sense of belonging. Secondly, the thesis studies the consequences of disconnecting and for a limited amount of time opt out of the Social Media context.Method/material:  The study is based on an explorative, cultural ethnographically-inspired method, in which four respondents were studied: two men and two women, all frequent users of Social Media. This was done in three steps: initial interviews, followed by Social Media diaries and finally a focus group. By allowing these methods to complement each other, the goal was to create an overall picture of the importance of Social Media in their everyday lives.The study's focus lies on the week in which the respondents kept Social Media diaries.

This study aims to investigate how and why teachers use Social Media to reach their students, and how they handle different levels of computer literacy among students.The purpose of this study is to investigate the experience of teachers using Social Media in their teaching. I have done interviews with two teachers, who use Social Media in different ways. One of the teachers makes her students publish their work on the Internet on wiki-spaces, and the other one use Facebook for discussions and teamwork. This report uses the pedagogy theories laid forth by Vygotskij as a vantage point to analyze the answers from the teachers. I have also looked at some of the published student texts on the Internet.This study concludes there are students who don?t have access to computers and Internet at home.

This study is based on an inductive approach where the collected empirical data has been categorized in themes on which we have based the discussion in this paper. Using a qualitative method, nine appropriately selected respondents were questioned with an unstructured interview guide. The transition to a society characterized by interaction has caused a greater part for bilateral communication between consumer and consumer but also between consumer and company. The increased usage and integration on Internet has resulted in so called Social Media channels. User generated material is published on these media channels which leads to discussions about companies, products and services.

Title: When municipalities are keeping upAuthors: Hansson Käll, Ida; Jonasson, MikaelaTutor: Waks, CarolineCourse: Bachelor thesis, 15hp, Department of Business Studies, HT 2010Background: During the recent years Social Media has evolved into a powerful communicative medium. From an organizational standpoint Social Media has become a way for organizations to get closer to, and create a dialogue with, their environment. Swedish municipalities have began to use Social Media in their daily communication with the environment, but a problem has been raised about how public organizations should organize their Social Media when formal guidelines from the government are missing.Objective: The objective of this thesis is to examine how eight Swedish municipalities have organized their use of Social Media due to the lack of official guidance from the government, and also what difficulties that have occurred during this process.Method: The method used is qualitative with data collected through interviews with one respondent from each municipality.Results: The result show that the organizational solutions varies through each municipality but also the choice of Social Media. It has been important for municipalities to have someone in charge of the new communication tool since Social Media is a fast and communicative channel. Seven out of eight municipalities have already developed or are in process of developing their own formal guidelines on how to use Social Media.

Is Social Media becoming a new form of interview? This is a quantitative study about the use of quotations from Social Media in Swedish newspapers. We chose the online editions of two of Sweden?s biggest newspapers for this, namely aftonbladet.se and dn.se.Although we noticed a big difference between the more serious dn.se and the more scandal-oriented aftonbladet.se both newspaper still frequently used quotations from Social Media.The thing that we found most troublesome about this phenomenon was the fact that we found that journalists very rarely contacted the person whose quotations they used. That meant that the interviewee had a very slim chance of correcting any misunderstandings.It also opened up the opportunity for certain people to use the media to spread their own agendas without getting questioned.We used the social institutionalizing theory and the social responsibility theory to verify our findings.

Purpose: The purpose of the essay is; to explain and clarify how the company is acting to lead members in Social Media to achieve valuable external communication. The authors believe that it is important to act with credibility and quality in Social Media, to accomplish long lasting relationships. When employees communicate with consumers their conduct is relevant to the company's credibility.Methodology: An inductive approach has been used for the empirical data collection since the authors have been studying the reality without existing theories. A qualitative research method has been used for collecting the empirical material. Primary data was collected from telephone interviews with seven companies, active in Social Media.Conclusions: The study shows that the power of employees? can be used when designing strategies for Social Media.

The effects of Social Media usage in a professional context, specifically the effects on Social Media usage in relation to leadership have been studied in order to determine weather or not usage can be productive for leadership in general. The study concludes that there are several benefits as well as drawbacks to leadership in using Social Media, but has yet to conclude weather productive or not. This study gives an overview of a relatively unexplored subject.Leadership in terms of leader, communication and group dynamics have been defined and explained in accordance with existing literature. A  brief review of computer and Internet history attempts to explain the formation and evolution of Social Media. Risks in terms of risks related to leadership and risks related to IT-security are taken into consideration and have been briefly explained.

The effects of Social Media usage in a professional context, specifically the effects on Social Media usage in relation to leadership have been studied in order to determine weather or not usage can be productive for leadership in general. The study concludes that there are several benefits as well as drawbacks to leadership in using Social Media, but has yet to conclude weather productive or not. This study gives an overview of a relatively unexplored subject.Leadership in terms of leader, communication and group dynamics have been defined and explained in accordance with existing literature. A  brief review of computer and Internet history attempts to explain the formation and evolution of Social Media. Risks in terms of risks related to leadership and risks related to IT-security are taken into consideration and have been briefly explained.

We aim to develop knowledge of how new technology, in this case Social Media, can contribute to how sports fans interact with their idols. Therefore our framing of a question is to present how fans experience their contact with mixed martial arts (MMA) & ultimate fighting championship (UFC) through Social Media platforms. To specify our study, we also have a supplement question with in which way sports fans uses Social Media.We have chosen to conduct a qualitative study consisting of interviews and data observations of websites, related to the organization UFC, to approach our main question. We have interviewed nine randomly selected people with one common interest - MMA/UFC. With an implant of theories, consisting of Social Media, fandom and lurking, on the result of the interview and website data, we try to come closer to a conclusion for our intention with this thesis.Our conclusion is that the interviewed fans express that through the usage of Social Media, they feel like they have come closer to UFC.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how the crisis communication was perceived between SAS, massmedia and citizens during the volcano crisis in 2010. The questions posed are: - How did the communication between SAS, media and citizens function during the crisis? - How did senders, intermediaries and beneficiaries experience the information and communication during the crisis? - How important was the internet communication for SAS, media and citizens during the crisis?The collected material consists of interviews and desktop research of material from Internet.The study shows that the communication between SAS, the media and citizens worked well on the Social Medias but was weaker in all other mediachannels. SAS was also weak in following up information received by media and travelers, and they therefore they had a different picture of the situation during the crisis. SAS thought that the communication worked fine between the parties involved.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate how the crisis communication was perceived between SAS, massmedia and citizens during the volcano crisis in 2010. The questions posed are: - How did the communication between SAS, media and citizens function during the crisis? - How did senders, intermediaries and beneficiaries experience the information and communication during the crisis? - How important was the internet communication for SAS, media and citizens during the crisis?The collected material consists of interviews and desktop research of material from Internet.The study shows that the communication between SAS, the media and citizens worked well on the Social Medias but was weaker in all other mediachannels. SAS was also weak in following up information received by media and travelers, and they therefore they had a different picture of the situation during the crisis. SAS thought that the communication worked fine between the parties involved.

This paper intends to show how micro- and small businesses in the tourism and experience industry makes use of Social Media as a marketing tool. The study also shows the possibilities for businesses to market themselves to customers through Social Media. Small businesses usually don?t have the same conditions or the same marketing resources that larger companies have. For small businesses that lack marketing resources, Social Media is a great addition to marketing since the technology around Social Media is relatively simple.

Deliberative democracy theory holds that democracy is about active partaking on formal and informal arenas in the public sphere where fairly equal citizens can obtain knowledge, discuss, evaluate and affect the political agenda before decisions are made.In line with the deliberative vision of online deliberation Social Media such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Twingly offer such formal and informal arenas where people can obtain knowledge and interact with other people, and politicians.The Swedish EU-Presidency was the first EU-presidency to make use of Social Media and it was the first time the Swedish Government Offices used other Social Media than email and chat features.This thesis will examine the Swedish EU-Presidency?s ambitions of using Social Media as well as the actual use of Social Media on the Swedish EU-Presidency website in the light of deliberative democracy theory.The aim of this thesis is, through a case study, to analyze the Swedish EU-Presidency?s use of Social Media in the light of deliberative democracy theory..