As social networking websites continue to rise in popularity, their role as a communications tool for academic institutions raises intriguing questions. This is especially true of Facebook, which was originally begun as an exclusively college-based social network. Facebook potentially represents an opportunity to cost-effectively communicate with students, faculty and other members of the college community. The goals of this study were to provide descriptive statistics that might aid in better understanding if students currently do or do not visit academic Facebook pages and why they visit those pages, what is most likely to cause them to visit academic Facebook pages, and how universities might best utilize this tool as a means of communication. The implications of that data could be extremely useful, especially in regards to resource allocation and future university communications.

Scholars generally agree that having social relationships provides an individual with a sense of psychological well-being. A solid social network can be critical in times of hardship, such as loss or chronic illness. When referring to social networking, the site, Facebook, will be used. In addition, students with disabilities are often stigmatized for their difference from other students and need the support from their perceived networks to maintain psychological well-being. Although much has been written about the relationship between electronic social networking and an individual's well-being, few studies investigated the relationship between disability, social networking and self-esteem. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the relationship between disability, Facebook usage and the self-esteem/well-being of University of Iowa (UI) REACH students. Participants included students with a documented disability (n=56) currently or formerly enrolled in the UI REACH program (a 2-year post-secondary program for students with intellectual and cognitive disabilities). The results of the descriptive correlational analysis, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and the linear regression found one major and one supplemental finding. First, the results indicated that there was not a significant relationship in the amount of Facebook friends UI REACH students had and their reported level of self-esteem. Second, the results of the study indicated that UI REACH students who spent more time on Facebook reported lower self-esteem. Hence, this result was found to be significant. Third, the results indicated that there was not a significant correlation between the overall Facebook Intensity Scale score and self-esteem. In addition, gender was examined by testing the interaction between Facebook Intensity to see if it had a unique effect on self-esteem/well-being. Age was examined alongside gender and Facebook Intensity Scale score to test their independent effects on self-esteem/well-being. The implications of this study are also discussed, since they can benefit post-secondary educators and rehabilitation counseling professionals develop interventions to increase the well-being of students with intellectual and/or cognitive disabilities in transitional programs. Keywords: disability, Facebook, social networking, well-being, self-esteem, UI REACH students

Now-a-days the chatbot development has been moving from the field of Artificial-Intelligence labs to the desktops and mobile domain experts. In the fastest growing technology world, most smartphone users spend major time in the messaging apps such as Facebook messenger. A chatbot is a computer program that uses messaging channels to interact with users using natural Languages. Chatbot uses appropriate mapping techniques to transform user inputs into a relational database and fetch the data by calling an existing API and then sends an appropriate response to the user to drive its chats. Drawbacks include the need to learn and use chatbot specific languages such as AIML (Artificial Intelligence Markup Language), high botmaster interference, and the use of non-matured technology. In this project, Facebook messenger based chatbot is proposed to provide domain independent, an easy to use, smart, scalable, dynamic and conversational agent in order to get information about CSUSB. It has the unique functionalities which identify user interactions made by their natural language, and the flawless support of various application domains. This provides an ample of unique scalabilities and abilities that will be evaluated in the future phases of this project.

The diploma thesis "Using social networks for teaching German as a foreign language" deals with the development of society in the theoretical part and how this development was influenced by technologies. There are also described the individual roles of the Internet and social networks in society and in education. The practical part deals with the use of modern technologies and social networks in education. There are individual examples and advices on how to integrate modern technologies and social networks into education throughout the year and also during one lesson. In conclusion, the work is supplemented with the results of a questionnaire survey, which was conducted in order to obtain information and on opinion of students about what they think of the involvement of social networks and modern technologies in teaching.

Social media has changed the way businesses relate to their customers. Since the beginning of social media, traditional methods of communicating with customers have begun to decline. The purpose of this multicase study was to determine the strategies of 5 owners of small restaurant businesses in Western North Carolina who successfully used social media marketing for 1 year or more. Rogers's diffusion of innovation theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Data collection included semistructured interviews, documents pertaining to social media marketing strategies, and social media pages and websites from the participating restaurants. These data were analyzed following Yin's 5-step analysis plan. The themes that emerged were social media platforms, word-of-mouth, and challenges implementing social media. Facebook, Yelp, and Instagram were the most used social media platforms. The participants implied that word-of-mouth has the potential to increase sales and to grow business. Challenges implementing social media included the ability to be consistent and actively engaged on the social media sites to allow business owners to respond quickly to negative posts made by customers. Small restaurant businesses can be successful if they develop and implement a social media presence, encourage customer feedback, and formulate a plan to overcome obstacles and challenges that may arise with implementing social media marketing strategies. These findings contribute to positive social change by increasing the sustainability of small businesses in the community, which may drive economic development and improve community relations.

Volunteer organizations face two challenges not found in non-volunteer organizations: recruiting and retaining volunteers. While social media use is increasing amongst individuals, its use and effectiveness for volunteer recruitment and retention by volunteer organizations is unknown. The dissertation reports the results of three studies to investigate this important question. Using a mixed-methods approach, it addressed the dual nature of social media and its effectiveness by including volunteer organizations and social media users. This dissertation found that although volunteer organizations are not using social media effectively, they could virtualize requirements of the recruitment process by focusing on relatable events instead of sterile marketing. This dissertation contributes to information systems literature by extending the post-acceptance model of IS continuance to show that social media mediates volunteer continuance. It further contributes by revealing a potential new area of research, i.e., the use and effectiveness of online social media for volunteer organizations.

Starting college is an exciting and pivotal time for students. During this time, the student will be faced with challenges of his or her social identity and will need to develop or modify identities based on new social situations. Previous research shows that social media play a role in identity development, but there is little information regarding the extent. Are new college students using Facebook during their transition to communicate their new identity/social group to new peers? Are they using Facebook to maintain nostalgia for previous identities/social groups? This information will be valuable to higher education professionals working with these populations - particularly in determining the most effective methods to communicate support during their transition. Using a phenomenological, qualitative approach with individual interviews of new college students in their first semester of college, this study seeks to clarify the college transition and identify what ways new college students are using Facebook during their transition. Participants identified three key themes of their college transition: a fear of not fitting in, wanting a sense of belonging, and wanting to stay connected with high school friends. Overall, the students interviewed had a successful transition and utilized Facebook to assist in each of the three themes they identified. Specifically, though, new college students are using the Group feature of Facebook to create a community of peers. The use of Facebook and Groups leads to a more successful student with a quicker and stronger adjustment to college. Higher education administrators can take advantage of this data to enhance existing strategies to increase student success.

2009年到2010年，最紅的網站就是FACEBOOK，截至10年6月，全球使用FACEBOOK的人數已經超過了4.5億。根據互動行銷機構Rosetta 2010年1月的研究，全球百大零售商有五成九在FACEBOOK擁有官方粉絲專頁。而根據FACEBOOK官方統計，目前共有一百六十萬個粉絲專頁，由七十多萬個公司團體經營。 FACEBOOK引發風潮的原因在於FACEBOOK改寫了企業對於網路行銷的認知，之前企業是利用搜尋引擎、網路廣告、電子郵件或是部落格等，但是FACEBOOK不一樣的地方在於讓企業變成了消費者的朋友。FACEBOOK成功的複製使用者真實人際關係到網路平台上，因此成了獨特的發展利基。每個網路使用者最初關心的事物，是以本身為圓心，再慢慢擴展到朋友，最後才是整個網路世界。因此，企業利用FACEBOOK平台用朋友的角色，持續對消費者說明其經營理念，行銷其商品的優勢，與消費者建立長久的關係。本研究就是在討論企業如何經營FACEBOOK粉絲專頁的方法以及追求的目標。 本研究的研究問題有三：1.企業成立FACEBOOK粉絲專頁的原因為何？2.企業如何經營粉絲專頁？如何增加粉絲專頁的會員數，與粉絲建立起信任感？如何管理粉絲專頁產生的資產？3.企業成立FACEBOOK粉絲專頁獲得效益為何？ 透過深度訪談三家經營粉絲專頁的企業，並配合相關的次級資料蒐集與整理，本研究獲得以下主要結論：1. 粉絲專頁經營者舉辦的活動與訊息內容會影響粉絲團成員的加入與退出。2. 粉絲專頁經營者訊息的寫法與內容同等重要，會影響粉絲分享的動力。3. 粉絲專頁裡與粉絲相關的訊息容易引起互動，吸引粉絲來回應。4. 粉絲專頁經營者利用FACEBOOK為企業帶入了新的消費者，建立品牌。5. 粉絲專頁讓企業更了解顧客想法，和顧客建立起長期、良好的關係。 / From 2009 to 2010, the most popular website is FACEBOOK. The total FACEBOOK users are more than four hundred and fifty million. Base on official statistics, there are one million and six hundred thousand fans pages in FACEBOOK. They are operated by seventy hundred thousand companies. FACEBOOK is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for FACEBOOK and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment. FACEBOOK fans page is a development platform that enables companies and engineers to deeply integrate with the FACEBOOK website and gain access to millions of users through the social graph. FACEBOOK is a part of millions of people’s lives all around the world providing unparalleled distribution potential for applications and the opportunity to build a business that is highly relevant to people’s lives. This study tries to find how to operate FACEBOOK fans pages and companies’ objectives. The study aims to investigate the following questions: 1. What is the reason for company want to establish fans page on FACEBOOK. 2. How does the company operate fans page? How do they increase their members? How do they manage fans page’s assets? 3. What is the result of company’s fans page? Through interviewed three fans page operator in Taiwan and applied secondary data analysis, the preliminary research finding include: 1. The fans page operator’s message and activity will affect fans page’s amount. 2. The tone and content of message will affect fans’ motive to share. 3. The related messages arouse fans’ attention. They tend to interact this messages. 4. The fans page can attract new consumers. And the company can establish their brand. 5. The fans page let the company understand the customer’s thought. And the company can maintain long-term relationship with customer.

本研究目的在於探討企業透過Facebook粉絲專頁（fan page），如何與公眾建立並發展對話溝通關係，且對話溝通策略具體展現在哪些特徵之上。根據此目的，針對現有的企業Facebook粉絲專頁進行內容分析，分析類目主要參考Kent and Taylor（1998）提出的「介面易用性」、「資訊有用性」、「留住訪客」、「提高再訪率」及「對話迴路」五大對話性溝通原則，且將Facebook媒體特性一併納入考量，並新增第六大原則「使用者對話行為」，從使用者面向衡量其對溝通策略的反應。 　　本研究以美國《財星》雜誌及台灣《天下》雜誌調查的企業排名為主要樣本，並篩選出以一般消費者為主要顧客的產業。篩選後結果美國企業235家，台灣企業390家，共計625家企業。本研究結果發現，在研究樣本中約有五成的企業設置Facebook粉絲專頁，其中對話迴路是企業最常使用的溝通策略，其次則為資訊有用性。將本研究與過去網站、部落格研究結果相比較，發現企業在不同網路工具使用的溝通策略差異頗大。在網站、部落格中，資訊有用性一直是最主要的溝通策略。此外，在企業經營粉絲專頁的內容策略上，應增加專頁中的娛樂性內容，並多加回應粉絲的評論，以促進粉絲參與粉絲專頁，並增加粉絲與企業互動。依據本研究分析結果，期望能為網路公關後續研究，提供具參考性的理論架構，並希望為公關實務工作，提供未來溝通策略思考方向。

<p>Facebook är ett centralt verktyg för mellanmänsklig kommunikation. Plattformen används dagligen världen över för diskussion och opinionsbildning. Samtidigt är Facebook ett privat företag som avyttrar vinst. Att en så betydelsefull mötesplats är privatägd innebär att användarna och deras kommunikation påverkas av företagets regler, intressen och värderingar. Studien tar sin utgångspunkt i hur företaget förhåller sig till spänningen mellan marknad och offentlighet.</p><p>Syftet är att kritiskt undersöka företagets värderingar, ideologier och intressen, samt att försöka placera dessa i en bredare samhällskontext, i syftet att avtäcka vilka idéer och värderingar som diskursivt framställer, och därmed konstruerar, organisationens användare.</p><p>Det empiriska materialet består av företagets policy och regelverk, två dokument som finns tillgängliga för allmänheten genom deras hemsida. Genom en kritisk diskursanalys avtäcks vilka idésystem som på en manifest och latent nivå framställer och därigenom konstruerar Facebooks användare. Det teoretiska ramverkets utgångspunkter dras på Jürgen Habermas normativa och formalistiska beskrivning av offentlighet och demokratisk kommunikation, Howard Rheingolds teorier om den datormedierade kommunikationens potentialer, Saskia Sassens redogörelse för den datormedierade kommunikationen i relation till globalisering och kommersialisering, Lawrence Lessigs teorier om Internet och arkitektonisk makt samt James Bohmans teorier kring Internet och en ny form av offentlighet.</p><p>Facebook framställer deras användare som konsumerande publiker genom att formulera sig diskursivt i policyn och regelverket. Manifesta samt underliggande intressen och värderingar konstruerar användarna och reglerar deras handlingsutrymme. Jag har funnit en god förekomst av marknadsorienterade diskurser som tillsammans skapar en diskursordning inom vilken Facebooks användare framställs och därigenom konstrueras som konsumenter och producenter av information som en handelsvara, framför interagerande medborgare.</p>