With privacy settings on social networking sites (SNS) perceived as complex and difficult to use and maintain, young adults can be left vulnerable to others accessing and using their personal information. Consequences of not regulating the boundaries their information on SNS include the ability for current and future employers to make career-impacting decisions based upon their online reputation that may include disqualifying them as job candidates. On SNS, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, young adults must decide on how to manage their online reputation by regulating boundaries to their own personal and professional information and identities. One known practice for the regulation of boundaries is the use of multiple profile management (MPM), where users of SNS create and use multiple accounts on a SNS and separate the social and professional identities that they disclose publicly and privately. The purpose of the study was to understand the lived experiences of young adults in how they regulate boundaries on SNS, through the use of MPM, as they manage their online reputation to different audiences. The practice was studied by applying interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) through interviewing young adults of 18-23 years of age, who use MPM on a SNS. Semi-structured interviews permitted participants to provide in-depth descriptions of their lived experiences. Eight themes were identified and described based on the analysis of the interviews that include: SNS use with online audiences, motivations for using MPM, the processes for the presentation of self, online search results, privacy settings, untagging SNS posts, self-editing and censorship, and new features. The themes describe the complexity and challenges that young adults face with regulating boundaries with their professional and social identities online through the use of MPM. Findings from this study have implications for a variety of audiences. Through the findings of this study, SNS developers can introduce new features, improve usability related to privacy management, and further encourage use of their networks. Users of SNS can use this study to understand risks of using SNS and for learning of practices for how to manage their online reputation on SNS.

This essay examines corporate reputation and reputation management online, where destinations were selected as an example of a reputation-dependent industry with special terms. The aim of this study is to examine how Swedish destinations strategically manage their reputation online. Furthermore, the thesis sees into six destinations in Sweden using a theoretical approach on how companies work with their reputation to prevent and nurture their reputation online from a public relations perspective. The result showed that the destinations work actively online to maintain their reputation. Their primary critical stakeholders are politicians and their visit nutrition, their secondary stakeholders are in the long term their own residents. The result also showed that the digitalization has led to both challenges and opportunities. There is thus, an internal challenge in finding resources and an external challenge to compete globally. The destinations determinedly work to measure and monitor their reputation online, but see management as complex today. This study concludes that some areas of online reputation management are found to be applicable for companies in general, but mainly Swedish destinations. In conclusion the study presents a model on how companies proactively can manage their reputation from a public relations point of view.

[pt] Com crescente número de sites de consumo colaborativo, cresce também a necessidade de se criar ambientes online que permitam a geração de confiança entre indivíduos desconhecidos a partir de sistemas de reputação. Os sistemas de reputação online têm a função de coletar informações de comportamentos passados dos usuários para tentar prever seus comportamentos futuros. Diversos estudos sobre o assunto surgiram nos últimos anos, porém esses estudos apresentam definições de reputação online e descrições de sistemas de reputação que desconsideram o indivíduo, alvo da reputação, como agente formador de sua própria reputação, ou seja, para esses estudos, a reputação de um indivíduo pode ser influenciada apenas por terceiros. Este estudo esteve focado na geração de reputação em sites de hospedagem entre indivíduos, ou seja, sites que possibilitam que anfitriões (prestadores de serviço) aluguem seus imóveis ou parte deles, como um quarto, para hóspedes (consumidores), que na maioria das vezes são desconhecidas. O objetivo desse estudo foi investigar se o alvo da reputação (anfitrião) poderia ser um agente influenciador de sua própria reputação online e se essa influência poderia gerar informações formadoras de reputação com mais qualidade. Além disso, buscou-se saber se esse envolvimento ativo do anfitrião gerou reputações mais precisas e consequentemente afetou a confiança e a desconfirmação de terceiros. Para realizar esse estudo, foi proposto um novo modelo gerador de reputações online e foram realizados 4 experimentos que buscaram investigar a influência do alvo da reputação: (1) na qualidade das suas informações de reputação; (2) na percepção de sua reputação por terceiros; (3) no impacto na confiança online de terceiros sobre ele; (4) e na confirmação (ou desconfirmação) da expectativa de seus parceiros de transação. Este trabalho contribui para literatura oferecendo uma nova definição para o construto reputação online. Ele também provê um novo método capaz de capturar informações de reputação mais acuradas e confiáveis, que se adotado por empresas de hospedagem online podem proporcionar a seus usuários informações mais relevantes para a escolha de anfitriões. / [en] With the growing number of collaborative consumption websites, there is also a growing need to create online environments, and online reputation systems that enable the creation of trust among unacquainted individuals. The function of online reputation systems is to collect and store information about the past behaviors of users and use it as a predictor of future behavior. In recent years, several studies on this subject have emerged, however, they present definitions of online reputation and descriptions of reputation systems that disregard the reputed individual as an agent in the creation of his/her own reputation. That implies that an individual s online reputation is solely determined by third parties, and that he/she plays no role in that process. This study focused on the generation of reputation parameters in peer-to-peer hospitality websites. These websites allow hosts (service providers) to rent their home, or part of it, such as in the case a single room, to guests (consumers) who are often unknown to them. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the reputation target (the host) could be an influencing agent in the formation of his/her own online reputation. Moreover, it sought to whether this active involvement of the host was likely to generate more accurate information about the his/her reputation, thus affecting the levels of trust and disconfirmations of guests. To develop this study, a new model for the generation of online reputation was proposed, and four experiments were carried out to investigate the influence of the reputation target (host): (1) on the quality of its reputation information; (2) on the perception of the host s reputation by third parties; (3) on the levels online trust that third parties (guests) display in relation to the host; and (4) on the confirmation (or disconfirmation) of these third-party expectations. This paper contributes to literature by offering a new approach to the online reputation construct. It also provides a novel method for the construction of more accurate and reliable online reputation parameters, which, if adopted by online hospitality companies could provide their users with subsidies to make better informed choices regarding hosts.

The aim of the diploma thesis is to analyze the use of social media and use of online reputation management tools by accommodation facilities. Information was obtained from survey among four and five star hotels situated in Prague. Moreover there is an analysis of online reputation management tools which are currently available on the market. After detailed analysis certain conclusions and recommendations are proposed to hotels to help them with effective communication on social media as well as with effective management of online reputation which is nowadays very important for potential guests who search for their accommodation online.

The diploma thesis deals with social networks from the perspective of their impact on search engine optimization (SEO). It focuses on description how the search engine marketing works. Main emphasis is given on the description of key social networks that have an assumption (because of their functionality) to affect of shifting the search results. Some social services also have an impact on indexing new content in search engines. They are also an important part of the strategy for online reputation management. Part of the diploma thesis is devoted to the modern concept of SEO which is defined as findability marketing. This concept consider the social networks as internet websites where users looking for information. That is the reason why this thesis contains a chapter about search capabilities on social networks.

Cette recherche-action menée au sein de la DSIC de La Poste s’intéresse à la réputation des organisations et à son pendant numérique (l’e-réputation) par le prisme des sciences de l’information-communication. Elle propose le développement d’un processus et d’un dispositif de veille stratégique par infomédiation sociale permettant à une organisation d’évaluer, de gérer et in fine de construire son e-réputation.Dans un premier temps, nous présentons un cadre théorique de la réputation des organisations comme objet info-communicationnel. Puis nous abordons l’e-réputation (ou réputation en ligne) des organisations comme une information stratégique constituée de l’ensemble des indicateurs issus de la commensuration des interactions intentionnelles endogènes ou automatisées des communautés virtuelles avec l’organisation : productions d’opinions, notations ou encore agir des publics.Dans un deuxième temps, nous nous questionnons sur les moyens à disposition du groupe La Poste pour construire cette e-réputation. Par « construction », nous entendons la manière de structurer l’environnement informationnel dans lequel les publics de l’organisation évoluent chaque jour sur le web dit social, et plus spécifiquement sur la plate-forme Twitter. Dans ce cadre, nos observations empiriques nous permettent de mettre en exergue, de questionner et d’analyser des utilisateurs du web dont les pratiques informationnelles nous amènent à les qualifier « d’agents-facilitateurs », et dont la caractéristique principale est de participer à la prescription informationnelle et à la médiation documentaire sur le web.Suite à l’observation de certains de ces agents et à la production d’une typologie, nous proposons un modèle et un processus de veille les intégrant. Processus dont les résultats opérationnels au sein de La Poste mettent en avant la nécessaire prise en compte et analyse des pratiques de recommandation des internautes au sein des réseaux socionumériques afin que l’organisation construise son e-réputation de manière proactive. / This research within La Poste's DSIC is focused on corporate reputation and on e-reputation through the prism of information and communication sciences. It proposes the development of a web monitoring and a social search process enabling to assess, manage and build online reputation.At first, we present a theoretical framework for corporate reputation as an info-communicational object. Then we discuss corporate e-reputation such as a strategic information made up of all commensuration indicators constituted by intentional (endogenous or not) interactions with the virtual communities and the firm : productions of opinions, assessment or public behavior.In a second step, we investigate how La Poste group can build its e-reputation. By "build" we mean the way to structure the informational environment where customers evolve each day on social web, and more specifically on the Twitter platform. In this context, our empirical observations allow us to highlight, question and analyze, web users whose informational practices permit us to qualify of "facilitators-agents", and whose main characteristic is to participate in informational prescription and the documentary mediation on the web.After the observation of some of these agents and the production of a typology, we propose a model and a monitoring process to integrate them. Our process's results in La Poste show the need to take into account and analyse recommendation practices on social networks to build corporate e-reputation proactively.