Online Self-portrayal has been attracting attention since the rise of social networks and their integration into everyday life. Social media have been said to support the idea of an “endlessly constructed self,” transporting culture and shaping people’s online experiences. Research often focused on the if and why when mostly college students portrayed themselves on social networks and in online communities. The aim of this study is to deepen the understanding of how a certain demographic of women uses Facebook and Instagram for self-portrayal and what it means to them. The focus is on interesting but seldom studied personalities: well-educated, urban women in their late 20’s up to their late 30’s that are well integrated into the labor market. A combination of netnographic study and semi-standardized interviews of Facebook and Instagram activities are conducted within the framework of Erwin Goffman’s "representation of the self in everyday life." Results show a high appreciation of Instagram in order to present a curated portrayal of one’s life and a communication through 'likes'. Interestingly, the women, although highly skilled, often successful and living in one of the most appreciated urban centers of the world, occasionally feel pressure and insecurity to live up to the expectations of their networks.

This study focuses on the motives that recruiters can or may have within companies, organizations and authorities of using Facebook as a complement in the investigation of potential work-candidates. The study also explores the consequences that could occur regarding the boundaries of private and public spheres when recruiters are researching Facebook-pages of potential work-candidates. The results were collected by qualitative interviews with eight different recruiters from a wide range of businesses in Kalmar. By applying a framework of already identified uses and gratifications, we discovered six different motives of why recuriters would use Facebook as a complement while recruiting work-candidates. The motives are; security, guidance and advice, convenience utility, surveillance, curiosity and economic motives. We also discovered that the following consequences of researching Facebook-pages of potential workcandidates are that candidates are restricted in the possibilities of acting private on their Facebook-pages and that candidates have zero control of their published materials since recruiters sets the limits of what can be thought of as private and as public.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Facebook activities on relationship drivers and relational benefits and the effect of relationship drivers of relational benefits perceived by customers to Pite Havsbad. To do this we have explored the relationship between a number of Facebook activities, relationship drivers and relational benefits. We developed two conceptual models, which included these relationships. We have written this degree project on commission for Pite Havsbad, which is a company that operates in the hotel industry in the county of Norrbotten in the north of Sweden. The research question that we formulated was as following:   What kind of impact does Facebook activities have on relationship drivers and relational benefits in the hospitality industry?   With this research question we aimed to make a practical contribution and to help Pite Havsbad develop their social media strategies in order to be able to build customer relationships. We also aimed to make a theoretical contribution to fill the research gap that exists in the research area on social media and customer relationship building. We used a quantitative data collection method in the form of a survey administered on Pite Havsbad’s Facebook page. Our population consist of the approximately 6 300 fans that Pite Havsbad has on Facebook. The data continuing of was 256 responses were processed in SPSS by conducting Cronbach’s alpha test, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis in order to test the hypothesized effects between our key variables.   The findings from this degree project show that Facebook activities affect both the relationship drivers and relational benefits, although they have less effect on relational benefits. The relational benefits are though highly affected by the relationship drivers. Over all, the Facebook activities of Pite Havsbad were highly valued by the respondents, which means that all of them are important to work with. Many of the activities also had positive effects on the relationship drivers, which means they can be used to build relationships with customers. By conducting this research we also helped Pite Havsbad with the starting point of creating a Social CRM strategy, which can be used for future relationship building with their fans on Facebook.

The purpose of this study was to determine how organizations communicate on Facebook during a crisis, from a relationship management perspective, and how their interactivity, responsiveness, and transparency affect their Fan page's relevance, importance, and appeal. In this study, the researcher conducted a controlled experiment to examine if a strategized Facebook Fan page that contained a high level of interaction, responsiveness, and transparency contributed to long-lasting relationships with fans or helped organizations recover/prevent a crisis. The researcher created eight different conditions (Facebook Fan Pages) presenting a crisis message, and recruited 200 students (25 participants per condition) from the University of South Florida (USF) to participate in the experiment. The findings did not demonstrate exactly what the research study was designed to find. The individual hypotheses were not supported during the ANOVA tests, except Hypothesis 1a. The ANOVA tests showed that the high vs. low interactivity, high vs. low responsiveness or high vs. low transparency did not have a significant effect on a Fan page's relevance, importance, and appeal. The variables did not have an independent influence, and they did not show any significance standing alone. However, the ANOVA tests surprisingly revealed a dramatic three-way interaction effect of all three independent variables on relevance and importance.

The aim of this thesis was to increase understanding of King company success in the social mobile game industry by asking the question: How does a company manage to organize the innovation work in successful casual games within social mobile gaming industry? In order to answer it, we conducted a case study research with secondary data in which we examined the company to discover the elements that contribute to this success, despite a lack of research in how these kind of companies build their business model and strategies, highlighting the players' behaviour. Our findings conclude it is possible to success in social mobile game industry using incremental innovation in different aspects: games design, implementation of the games, and in the business model.  By applying this innovation, with a good viral strategy and giving the player the decision to play by free or purchasing virtual goods, King has been able to become the largest developer game company on Facebook.

In this day and age, with the very strong impact of globalization, digitalization and social media, advertising is changing. Many companies and advertising role players are forced to implement new consumer and business models and apply innovative business strategies. Social media marketing has become a norm for most companies. The process of marketing is used through social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. By utilising the social aspect of the web, social media marketing is able to connect and interact on a much more personalised and dynamic level than through traditional marketing. The target audience is a unique generation and has developed a personal filtering system against the onslaught of traditional media. The current idea is to try and build customised relationships with future clients from a young age, by developing a relationship that complies with their requirements which social media has made a possibility. This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of advertising through social media, focusing on the social media medium of Facebook to determine the key correlations and factors that affect the effectiveness of advertisements on Facebook. The target audience utilised is based in the geographical region of Gauteng. A survey was circulated via email to everyday consumers (n=189).Their attitude towards the brand used in the survey, as well as their loyalty to brand, were explored. Descriptive statistics and correlations revealed that many factors actually influence one?s attitude to a brand and the actual effectiveness of the advertisement. Some trends of interest that were found were the fact that brands that have achieved a strong market presence, automatically attain the attention of consumers in the advertisements. The use of models correlated to the thought processes of consumers also played a role in determining how advertisements are actually perceived. There are four particular constituents that contribute to advertising effectiveness on Facebook, namely brand engagement, brand attitude, brand image and consumer engagement. In conclusion, for advertisements to be effective on Facebook, a brand must be established and have a strong brand reputation as the advertisements on Facebook serve to supplement the brand rather than to put the brand up the ranks in terms of reputation. It is suggested that the survey is reviewed and the study expanded to a less stratified and more multi–cultural environment. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Studien syftar till att undersöka den ökade pressen på den personliga imagen på de sociala medieplattformarna Facebook och Instagram och studera hur stockholmare i åldrarna 20-30 uppfattar eventuella effekter av detta. Undersökningen har sin utgångspunkt i två vetenskapliga discipliner; medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap och psykologi och är baserad på fyra kvalitativa informantintervjuer och två fokusgruppintervjuer om fyra respektive fem gruppdeltagare. Datamaterialet har därefter transkriberats för att senare sammanställas med hjälp av ett kvalitativt analysschema. Tillämpad analysmetod är hermeneutisk meningstolkning som går ut på att analysera de separata delarna som skapar förutsättning för att förstå helheten. Analysschemat är därför uppdelat på fyra huvudteman: användarfrekvens, user gratifications, den personliga imagen på sociala medier samt psykologiska effekter av deltagandet på sociala medier. Resultatet har sedan analyserats med stöd av teorin som i sin tur är uppdelad på fyra delområden: Personlig image, identitet och självbild, gruppidentitet, koncentrationssvårigheter och stress. Resultat och analys tyder på att deltagandet på sociala medier tenderar att medföra viss stress hos användaren till följd av ökad press på att administrera den personliga imagen i den virtuella världen. Samtidigt anser sig informanterna i studien sig vara socialt rikare sen de gick med i de sociala medierna.

À partir de 45 profils Facebook de jeunes franco-ontariens du Nord qui ont quitté leur région d'origine pour s'installer à Ottawa, la thèse s’intéresse au sens qu'ils donnent à ces deux milieux. Nous cherchions à mesurer la force du sentiment d’appartenance de ces migrants à leur milieu d'origine, tout en étudiant celui qu’ils développent à leur milieu d’accueil. Le rôle joué par les réseaux sociaux virtuels dans cette appartenance primait dans l'analyse. La recherche montre en fait que les jeunes ont des appartenances aussi fortes au nord de l'Ontario qu’à Ottawa, se situant ainsi dans l’entre-deux territorial. Notre analyse révèle que ce sont des dimensions différentes du milieu qui jouent dans l’appartenance aux milieux d’origine et d’accueil. Alors que les réseaux sociaux virtuels lient le migrant, maintenant dans le Sud, à sa région d'origine, l'imaginaire et les activités pratiquées dans les deux milieux servent eux aussi à maintenir cet attachement.

Purpose This thesis aims to provide guidelines for cosmetic companies on how to use social media in times of crisis. Background In today’s society, cosmetic companies can face crises that can vary according to their level of impact and their level of controllability. These crises can go viral and reach a huge amount of stakeholders since social media can take on many different forms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. It is important to know how to manage these different com-   munication tools and it is even more crucial in times of crisis. However, social media and the cosmetic industry have not been combined in previous studies. Therefore, it is beneficial for cosmetic companies to have guidelines on how to use social media in times of crisis. Method The method is based on an inductive approach. Benchmarking case studies reflect crises that occurred in industries other than the cosmetic industry. The findings from the case studies are then complemented with a chosen company representative from the cosmetic industry. Finally, a semi-structured interview has been conducted to balance the research and add new valuable information to the investigation. Conclusion Based on the results of the analysis, the authors of the thesis have been able to provide guidelines to cosmetic companies on how to use social media in times of crisis. These guidelines are divided into two parts: the first part advises guidelines to follow while the second part recommends factors to avoid on social media.

In this day and age, with the very strong impact of globalization, digitalization and social media, advertising is changing. Many companies and advertising role players are forced to implement new consumer and business models and apply innovative business strategies. Social media marketing has become a norm for most companies. The process of marketing is used through social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. By utilising the social aspect of the web, social media marketing is able to connect and interact on a much more personalised and dynamic level than through traditional marketing. The target audience is a unique generation and has developed a personal filtering system against the onslaught of traditional media. The current idea is to try and build customised relationships with future clients from a young age, by developing a relationship that complies with their requirements which social media has made a possibility. This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of advertising through social media, focusing on the social media medium of Facebook to determine the key correlations and factors that affect the effectiveness of advertisements on Facebook. The target audience utilised is based in the geographical region of Gauteng. A survey was circulated via email to everyday consumers (n=189).Their attitude towards the brand used in the survey, as well as their loyalty to brand, were explored. Descriptive statistics and correlations revealed that many factors actually influence one?s attitude to a brand and the actual effectiveness of the advertisement. Some trends of interest that were found were the fact that brands that have achieved a strong market presence, automatically attain the attention of consumers in the advertisements. The use of models correlated to the thought processes of consumers also played a role in determining how advertisements are actually perceived. There are four particular constituents that contribute to advertising effectiveness on Facebook, namely brand engagement, brand attitude, brand image and consumer engagement. In conclusion, for advertisements to be effective on Facebook, a brand must be established and have a strong brand reputation as the advertisements on Facebook serve to supplement the brand rather than to put the brand up the ranks in terms of reputation. It is suggested that the survey is reviewed and the study expanded to a less stratified and more multi–cultural environment. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.