In recent years social media has become ubiquitous and necessary for social networking and content sharing. Social media reached a stage where its impact is being felt by larger organizations that exist today. It has become necessary for the organizations to re-examine their existing business processes and formulate new business processes to compete in the globalized markets. In our paper we are going to deal with issues like how the social media affect the business processes and why they are affecting the business processes in contemporary organizations. The success of a business depends on effective implementation of its business processes. So these business processes when being designed several factors are being taken into consideration. Social media facilitates for the conjecture of a mixture of people from different domains for sharing of content, it serves as an important and indispensable factor in defining business processes. / Program: Magisterutbildning i informatik

This study examines the perceptions of the personal risks and benefits of women who blog about weight, weight loss, and dieting issues. Many overweight women use blogs as a tool during their weight loss journeys to garner support. The experiences of 5 women who blog about weight and dieting issues were collected through 45 minute in-depth interviews. The author's own experiences with blogging is analyzed as well. A qualitative approach was taken when analyzing the data. Eight emergent themes came from the research data. The benefits of this study are significant for current and future research regarding the influence of blogs and vlogs in shaping the perceptions and experiences of women who identify as overweight.

Though researchers have discussed adolescents' uses of social media and Web 2.0 texts outside school, little research has analyzed how such texts are used in classrooms. This study examines various perspectives on a group of high school students engaged in blogging as part of two language arts courses over an eight-month period. Research questions focused on how students conceived of and interacted with their readers, how they used structural features of the blogging platform to connect their blogs to one another, and how discourses of freedom of speech online led a few students to transgress school norms. To answer these questions, I studied examples of eighty classroom blogs from my own high school students, conducted interviews with eight students, and maintained researcher field notes. I analyzed this data using a combination of discourse analysis, multimodal analysis, while applying social network analysis to understand how the blogs were connected through the key feature known as Following. My findings suggest that the connectivity offered by Web 2.0 enabled students to reach and communicate with authentic audiences who could recognize and validate their identity performances. Further, I argue that though certain features of Web 2.0 media are incongruous with many conventional classroom norms, teachers should work to bridge those gaps.

<p> </p><p>Bloggen har under senare år vuxit i popularitet, både bland privatpersoner och företag. En mängd praktiker har hyllat bloggen som det nya kommunikationsmediet inom marknadsföring, främst på grund av bloggens potential att skapa förtroende och bygga dialog med företagets kunder.</p><p>Marknadsföringen har idag blivit mer utmanande och företagen får allt svårare att vinna kundernas uppmärksamhet i dagens informationstäta samhälle. Kraven på företagens kommunikation förändras: kunderna vill bli talade med istället för till och det finns ett tilltagande behov av att kommunikationen ska bygga förtroende med externa publiker. En trend som kan uppfattas är att alltfler företag går mot ett relationsorienterat synsätt av marknadsföring för att knyta kunderna närmare sig.</p><p>Trots företagsbloggens ökande populäritet är de många företag som väljer att inte blogga. Orsakerna menas vara rädsla för exponering. Forskningsområdet är tämligen outforskat.</p><p>Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om bloggen som marknadskommunikationskanal kan användas för att skapa förtroende och dialog. Fokus ligger i att hitta indikationer på att bloggar används för att skapa förtroende och dialog, samt företagens upplevda nytta av det eventuella förtroende- och dialogskapandet genom bloggen. För att svara på syftet undersöks tre svenska kommunikationsföretag: Åkestam Holst, Henrik Skotth Konsult AB och Kompago. Analysen sker med utgångspunkt från relevanta teorier. Intervjuer med de ansvariga bloggförfattarna och insamling av bloggtexter har genomförts för att svara på syftet. Undersökningen sker ur ett företagsperspektiv.</p><p>Resultaten indikerar starkt på att bloggen har stora möjligheter att skapa förtroende och bygga dialog, samt att de undersökta kommunikationsföretagen använder bloggen för de ändamålen. Den bloggrelaterade nyttan som företagen upplevt är stärkande av det egna varumärket, mervärde i befintliga relationer och initierande av nya.</p><p>Undersökningens resultat ämnar sprida ljus över bloggen som marknadskommunikationskanal. Då uppsatsen endast belyser företagens perspektiv och därigenom inte kan fastställa att förtroende och dialog verkligen skapas, är rekommendationer för framtida forskning att undersöka kundens perspektiv.</p><p> </p>

Bloggen har under senare år vuxit i popularitet, både bland privatpersoner och företag. En mängd praktiker har hyllat bloggen som det nya kommunikationsmediet inom marknadsföring, främst på grund av bloggens potential att skapa förtroende och bygga dialog med företagets kunder. Marknadsföringen har idag blivit mer utmanande och företagen får allt svårare att vinna kundernas uppmärksamhet i dagens informationstäta samhälle. Kraven på företagens kommunikation förändras: kunderna vill bli talade med istället för till och det finns ett tilltagande behov av att kommunikationen ska bygga förtroende med externa publiker. En trend som kan uppfattas är att alltfler företag går mot ett relationsorienterat synsätt av marknadsföring för att knyta kunderna närmare sig. Trots företagsbloggens ökande populäritet är de många företag som väljer att inte blogga. Orsakerna menas vara rädsla för exponering. Forskningsområdet är tämligen outforskat. Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka om bloggen som marknadskommunikationskanal kan användas för att skapa förtroende och dialog. Fokus ligger i att hitta indikationer på att bloggar används för att skapa förtroende och dialog, samt företagens upplevda nytta av det eventuella förtroende- och dialogskapandet genom bloggen. För att svara på syftet undersöks tre svenska kommunikationsföretag: Åkestam Holst, Henrik Skotth Konsult AB och Kompago. Analysen sker med utgångspunkt från relevanta teorier. Intervjuer med de ansvariga bloggförfattarna och insamling av bloggtexter har genomförts för att svara på syftet. Undersökningen sker ur ett företagsperspektiv. Resultaten indikerar starkt på att bloggen har stora möjligheter att skapa förtroende och bygga dialog, samt att de undersökta kommunikationsföretagen använder bloggen för de ändamålen. Den bloggrelaterade nyttan som företagen upplevt är stärkande av det egna varumärket, mervärde i befintliga relationer och initierande av nya. Undersökningens resultat ämnar sprida ljus över bloggen som marknadskommunikationskanal. Då uppsatsen endast belyser företagens perspektiv och därigenom inte kan fastställa att förtroende och dialog verkligen skapas, är rekommendationer för framtida forskning att undersöka kundens perspektiv.

This study explored why individuals write personal blogs and the influences of blogging on their lives. Four structural equation models that specified the social and psychological process of blogging were tested in this study. The models included four major components: personal characteristics, blogging motives, blogging behaviors and blogging social outcomes. A total of 412 bloggers recruited online completed the survey questionnaire. A factor analysis revealed nine salient motives for writing personal blogs: self-documentation, information sharing, entertainment, emotion regulation, communication with existing friends, formation of new friendships, identity exploration, pass time and self-presentation. Significant associations between these motives and demographics, including gender, age and education, were also identified. The results of the structural equation modeling suggested that public self-consciousness was positively related to the self-presentation motive, which was in turn positively related to self-presentation in blogs. In the same vein, social anxiety was positively related to the motive to form new friendships, which in turn was positively related to the number of new friends made via blogs and the quality of new friendships. Social anxiety was found to be negatively associated with the number of new friends made, the number of existing friends communicated with, and the quality of existing friendships maintained through blogs, but positively related to the quality of new friendships established via blogs. Self-disclosure was positively related to the number of new friends made, the quality of new friendships and the quality of existing friendships. The mediation effects of blogging motivations and self-disclosure on the relationships between social anxiety and blogging social interaction outcomes were also tested. The content analysis of the responses to an open-ended question indicated that the majority of the respondents believed that blogging had positively influenced their lives. The major benefits of blogging reported by the respondents included keeping in touch with family and friends, making new friends, improved social interaction, writing and thinking ability, expanded vision, emotional relief and social support, identity exploration, and documentation of daily life. Interpretations of the findings, and implications for understanding the social use of the Internet, were discussed.

Destination image is a concept created by different demand and supply agents. The balance between what is expected and what is being delivered is essential in promoting the destination. The main goal of this study is to describe the different destination images related to Dracula tourism in Transylvania. This is accomplished by looking at the Western tourists’ expectations and demands as expressed in their travel blogs, and by analyzing the supply side through the elicitation of information from locals and Bran Castle tour guides through qualitative interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the content, visual and audio information on sampled blogs and interviews. This method identified 11 different themes which captured the overall destination image. The themes focused primarily on historical and fictional images of the destination, on the type of tourists visiting Bran Castle, but also on the locals’ image and response to Dracula tourism. The findings of this study reveal that the majority of Western bloggers visit Bran in search for Count Dracula; however, the Bran Castle tour guides focus on presenting the historical truth. Local residents, although seeing Dracula as a national hero, sometimes adopt the mythical image as a marketing or product development tactic in selling to visitors. Nevertheless, the stakeholders involved in the creation of the image each fit into different destination image frameworks, allowing for the creation of an overall destination image based on historical and fictional elements.

This narrative research study investigated the identity development process of a group of beginning teachers participating in Teach For America (TFA). The participants (n=3) were middle or high school teachers who had taught in high needs, low income urban school settings. They had also blogged on the “Teach For Us” blog hosting site about their experiences in the classroom as beginning teachers. Through the lenses of Sfard and Prusak’s (2005) narrative theory of identity and Mead’s (1934) social theory of identity and the role of the “Generalized Other”, narrative research techniques were used to analyze the stories found in their blog postings. Their stories show that these teachers were ill prepared for the realities they would face and that teaching in a challenging, high poverty, urban school setting was at times overwhelming. The duality and struggle between their Generalized Other concepts of a TFA corps member and who they were becoming as a teacher was found throughout their stories. The stories also show that over time, each became more confident in their abilities and in who they were becoming as a teacher. With this growth came more job satisfaction, yet each decided to leave their TFA placement schools after their second year to pursue other options. Themes include the struggles the teachers faced their first year, the transformation that occurred during their second year, the conflicts between their TFA identity and their teacher identity, the impact of high stakes testing and racial issues, and the cathartic nature of blogging.

Denna studie fokuserar på vad individualiserat identitetsskapande genom bloggning består utav. Studien tar sin utgångspunkt i att globaliseringens omvärldsförändringar förändrat människors möjligheter till identitet, och att bloggning är del av en ny typ av identitetsskapande. För att undersöka identitetsskapande genom bloggning analyserar studien en bloggskola på nätet framtagen av tre kvinnliga framgångsrika "bloggentreprenörer", Clara Lidström, Anna-Karin Nyberg och Frida Ramstedt. Bloggskolan syftar enligt dem till att lära bloggare hur man bäst ska framställa sig själv för att synas och expandera på nätet, samt göra bloggen till en lyckad affärsverksamhet. Studien syftar till att utveckla förståelsen för hur samtidens framträdande sociala aktiviteter genom diskurs formar social verklighet och därmed identitet. Frågeställningarna handlar om hur man konstruerar sitt individualistiska jag när man bloggar, vilka mönster som präglar detta jag, samt vilka externa diskurser bloggidentiteten påverkas av. De teoretiska ramar som studien utgår från är Zygmunt Baumans, Ulrich Becks och Anthony Elliott &amp; Charles Lemerts respektive perspektiv på det individualiserade samhällets identiteter, i litteratur från 2000-talet. Metoder som använts är textanalys med innehållsanalys som främsta verktyg. Även diskurspsykologiska teorier såsom rollteori och humanistisk teori (Potter &amp; Wetherell, 1987, s 97, 99) har använts för att betrakta självet i bloggvärlden. Studien kom bl. a fram till att identitetsskapande genom bloggning till stor del vilar på kontextuellt och socialt skapade värden, att bloggidentiteten är nära besläktad med företagsvärlden, samt att självet framställs genom retoriska strategier byggda på egenintressen. / This study focuses on how individualized forms of identities are constructed within the sphere of blogging. The premiss of the study is that changes in society brought about by globalization has changed peoples ways of forming identities, and that blogging functions as a new kind of tool for identity-construction. The object of analysis is a webbased blogging-course made by three successful female bloggentrepreneurs, Clara Lidström, Anna-Karin Nyberg and Frida Ramstedt. The purpose of the course is according to them to teach bloggers how to portray themselves in the best way, with the aim of becoming visible in the blog-world, expand and turn blogging into business. The purpose of the study is to contribute with observations of how contemporary social activities - through certain discourse - forms social reality and by that, identity. The question formulation is about how the individualized identity is created through blogging, what patterns this identity is made up of, and also what external discourses the blogging-self is affected by. The theoretical framework include the theorization of Zygmunt Bauman, Ulrich Beck and Anthony Elliott &amp; Charles Lemert, with their various perspectives on identity in an individualized society, in literature of the 21st century. Methods used are text analysis, with content analysis as the primary tool. Role-theory and humanistic theory originated from discourse psychology have been used to understand and portray the blog-identity. The study resulted in the conclusion that the constuction of identity through blogging is to be regarded as dependant of contextual and socially constructed values, that the blog-identity is closely related to the businessworld and that the self is displayed via rethorical techniques derived from various self-interests.

Destination image is a concept created by different demand and supply agents. The balance between what is expected and what is being delivered is essential in promoting the destination. The main goal of this study is to describe the different destination images related to Dracula tourism in Transylvania. This is accomplished by looking at the Western tourists’ expectations and demands as expressed in their travel blogs, and by analyzing the supply side through the elicitation of information from locals and Bran Castle tour guides through qualitative interviews. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the content, visual and audio information on sampled blogs and interviews. This method identified 11 different themes which captured the overall destination image. The themes focused primarily on historical and fictional images of the destination, on the type of tourists visiting Bran Castle, but also on the locals’ image and response to Dracula tourism. The findings of this study reveal that the majority of Western bloggers visit Bran in search for Count Dracula; however, the Bran Castle tour guides focus on presenting the historical truth. Local residents, although seeing Dracula as a national hero, sometimes adopt the mythical image as a marketing or product development tactic in selling to visitors. Nevertheless, the stakeholders involved in the creation of the image each fit into different destination image frameworks, allowing for the creation of an overall destination image based on historical and fictional elements.