This study explores how college students present themselves on Facebook, a social networking website, and the impressions they want their fellow students to form of them when looking at their profiles. Goffman's dramaturgical and impression management framework served as a theoretical lens through which Facebook profiles were explored. Employing an ethnographic research design, data for this study were collected during eight-months of participant observation, 30 photo-elicitation interviews, and a photographic content analysis.Facebook has been rapidly adopted by undergraduate students who use it to maintain existing relationships and also as a medium in which to present themselves, especially through photographs. This study provides college administrators and student affairs professional some information about how undergraduates use Facebook and how Facebook can assist them in better understanding their institution's own student culture.Because photographs are instrumental to Facebook use, this study focused on the many images students place on their profiles. The use of photographs in social research is limited and it is hoped that this study will lay the ground work for further use of visual methods. This study found that college students believe that other college students are the primary audience for their profiles. Also, college students use six general "fronts" that lead audience members to see them as: (1) partier, (2) social, (3) adventurous/risk-taker, (4) humorous/funny/silly, (5) part of larger community, and (6) unique. Taken together, these fronts represent an "idealized" undergraduate. Students use props, settings, and gesture to provide their audience members visual cues to help them form the desired impressions. Much of the material that students place on Facebook is meant to be humorous or only understood by a small group of friends. Also, students only show a "narrow strip of activity" in their profiles.

Title: When municipalities are keeping up Authors: Hansson Käll, Ida; Jonasson, Mikaela Tutor: Waks, Caroline Course: Bachelor thesis, 15hp, Department of Business Studies, HT 2010 Background: 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. Difficulties have been to create a dialogue and interpret the social media from a legal perspective. Keywords: blogs, communication, Facebook, municipalities, organizing, social media, Twitter

Problem: Facebook is the most frequent and most used Social Media of our time. Facebook shapes new opportunities in communication and collaboration between companies and consumers that have not been possible before. Facebook is a marketing channel that gives companies an easy and free way of sharing fast information and communication online. However, Facebook’s main purpose is to maintain and create relationships online. Researchers say that in order to have a long-term relationship with loyal consumers, trust is needed. Therefore, it is interesting for companies to know the important variables that can create trust on Facebook. Trust generates loyalty and long-lasting relationship that in turn guarantee an income over time. The strengthening the relationship over Facebook is a free and fast way of creating these benefits to a company. Purpose: This study investigates important variables in the trust building process between companies and consumers on Facebook. We also explore how trust can be created in the relationship trough the companies Facebook activities. The thesis contains a case study of three different companies that use Facebook as a marketing channel. The reason behind the case study was to explore how these companies work to create trust. Methodology: The study is qualitative research and is based on three existent cases. In-depth interviews and observations of Swedish companies were the two methodologies used. Conclusions: The Facebook-Trust model was developed and represent how trust can be created through over Facebook. Companies can use the Facebook-Trust model in order to create trust in the relationship with the consumer. The case study revealed that the companies did not work according to the model. Companies are not aware of that they can create trust on Facebook. Therefore, the Facebook-Trust model is useful for the companies in this study.

Marketing in social media has been studied extensively in recent years, but not specifically for extreme-sport oriented companies. Even though most of the extreme-oriented companies are using social media for marketing, only a few pay special attention to its risks and possibilities. The purpose of this study is to identify extreme-sport oriented companies' practices to use social media as a marketing tool. I interviewed eight extreme- oriented companies and athletes. In addition to interviews, I also performed a four weeks observation in social media, mostly in Facebook and Twitter, and made notions about companies' practices in using social media for marketing. Almost all interviewed companies (88 %) were using social media. They usually posted updates about once a week and did not have a marketing strategy. However, it is possible that larger companies, which were not directly interviewed in this study, have a clear strategy for marketing in social media. Interviewed companies used social media in an improvised and unplanned manner. However, through trial and error, extreme-sport oriented companies have found their way to use social media effectively. Writing posts in social media about new products, upcoming events, offers, extreme-sport pictures or films and up-to-date information about the company seemed to be a good way to use social media for marketing. Most of the extreme-sport oriented companies can find social media a very useful marketing tool, but only if they have resources and time to invest to be active on social media.

Public participation in the design and planning process aims to engage citizens in the local decision-making process. Although participation provides a multitude of benefits, significant physical, temporal and attitudinal barriers have limited its potential. Social media technologies have the potential to address these traditional barriers to participation. Little research has addressed the opportunities, challenges, and effectiveness of these technologies in traditional planning and design frameworks. The goal of this research was to explore and evaluate the role of social media as a participatory tool in the planning and design process using a multiple case study method. Interviews were conducted with representatives from municipalities and consulting firms to develop case histories for evaluation. Results suggest ways in which social media can be an effective participatory tool, and that the incorporation of social media into municipal and institutional settings, while creating uncertainty, can create opportunity for more authentic participation within governance.

Facebook offers users a mode in which to (re)construct their identity. Recent studies examining identity and Facebook explore how impression management is a major factor when participating in the site. However, a research gap exists regarding the perspectives and experiences of older adult users and how they construct their identity on Facebook. This study extends the current knowledge base on identity in online environments. Qualitative face-to-face interviews with 16 individuals (8 male, 8 female) between the ages of 48-67 followed by a detailed thematic analysis indicate that identity is not fixed; but rather, is multiple and ever-changing. Findings reveal the performative nature of identity on Facebook through the identification of seven identities: expressive, hesitant/cautious, censored, vain, controlled, confident, and validated. Results give voice to older adults, an age group largely ignored when exploring the use of social media.

Studiens syfte är att redogöra för hur delningskulturen ser ut på Facebook bland studenter. Detta har sin utgångspunkt i spridningen av Kony 2012. Virala kampanjer är idag en etablerad marknadsföringsstrategi där mottagaren av ett budskap blir aktiv i delningen. Sociala medier har bidragit till att plattformen för att uttrycka sig idag är enklare än någonsin. Hur ser delningskulturen ut för högskolestudenter i Halmstad på Facebook? Vilka attityder ligger till grund hos dessa studenter för valet av att sprida ett budskap, en text eller en video på det sociala nätverket? Studien visar på att delningar på det sociala nätverket Facebook har ett värde för den som delar och även andra användare, men om en användare sprider mycket material kan det som denne sprider uppfattas som mindre intressant av flera utav användarens Facebook-vänner. Att Kony 2012 bryter mot vad många generellt delar på Facebook gör att delningen blir mer intresseväckande.

The purpose of our study is to see how an organization, and also a administrative authority, communicates by using social media. The organization in this case is the Swedish Police, because of their paradoxical problem with confidentiality versus openness and transparency. The Police has over a hundred Facebook-accounts, where they try to have a open dialogue with their publics without breaking the law of secrecy. Our general purpose of the study is also to see what the pros and cons are of having a own media channel, instead of the traditional media and their often anticipation twists. The result of the study showed that the three different police precincts, which we investigated in our essay, are working in three different ways. The gap may affect their overall reputation and trust gained by their publics. Both traditional media and social media often occur to the administrative authorities, and the police are working hard on maintaining the truth, before the publics create their own trueness. So far they’re not using Facebooks fully potential as a network of dialogues, and the gap between different police precincts are way to deep for them to fully functional as one authority. But on the positive side, all of them are working in the same direction, which may help them to become more alike in their communication.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att skapa en djupare förståelse för hur unga tänker och handlar kring ”likes och om de gör det till en värdering där de kan mäta sig själv och andra både när det gäller online som offline. För att ta reda på detta undersökte vi om det sociala samspelet både online och offline påverkas av denna eventuella värdering. Forskning visar på att sociala medier har en påverkan på unga, dock finns det ingen forskning om just ”likesfenomenet” och hur det tar sig uttryck bland unga användare av sociala medier. Studien är av kvalitativ art och har genomförts med hjälp av fokusgrupper vilka senare har tolkats utifrån ett hermeneutiskt perspektiv samt med stöd av teorier så som socialt kapital (Bourdieu), jaget och maskerna (Goffman) och panoptikon (Foucault). Huvudresultatet visar att unga tillskriver en värdering av sig själv och andra utifrån antalet ”likes”. Denna värdering har visat sig innehålla både positiva och negativa effekter. Positiva effekter på så vis att omtyckta och populära personer offline får ännu en konfirmation på att de är omtyckta- genom många ”likes” och negativa effekter för de personer som är mindre omtyckta offline genom att de får den tillskrivningen även online- genom få ”likes”. Vårt resultat visar även att unga använder sig av olika tillvägagångsätt och strategier för att uppnå så många ”likes” som möjligt och ett av dem är att framställa sig från sin allra bästa sida på bland annat bilder.

I den här undersökningen har vi tittat på hur sociala medier har påverkat branschen för fotografer. Idag ser vi mer och mer bilder överallt och internet har gjort det möjligt att synas för alla, oavsett budget. Därför ville vi se hur det har påverkat fotografer, eftersom “alla är fotografer” på internet idag. Vi valde att arbeta utifrån följande frågeställningar. 1. Hur upplever fotografer att sociala medier har påverkat deras marknad? 2. Skiljer det sig något mellan de fotografer som riktar sig till företag (reklam) och de som riktar sig till privatpersoner(bröllop, familjefotograferingar,porträtt)? För att få svar på våra frågor har vi intervjuat 6 stycken fotografer angående sociala medier och hur det har påverkat dem. Vi valde ut både reklam- och familjefotografer som är väl etablerade på marknaden. Alla fotograferna ansåg att sociala medier är viktigt att använda sig av för fotografer idag. Framförallt upplevde fotograferna som fotade privatpersoner och bröllop att de fick mycket nya kunder tack vare sociala medier och att de inte skulle klara sig utan det idag. Trots att alla fotografer ansåg att sociala medier var viktigt för deras överlevnad så kände de alla att de kunde bli betydligt bättre på det och det var också något som fick dem att känna sig lite stressade. Alla var överens om att Instagram var ett bra sätt att nå ut med sitt namn och underhålla redan befintliga kunder med. De kände att Instagram var enklast då det uppdaterades via mobilen.