Abstract   Background: In present time, social media usage has come to be an essential part of peoples’ everyday life, resulting in a movement from traditional marketing towards a more digitised marketing strategy. Since the effectiveness of traditional marketing is decreasing, marketers are using influencer marketing to create awareness of their brand. However, brands increased presence on social media platforms can easily lead to consumers being overloaded by marketing messages. In response to this overexposure, the effectiveness of using influencers is decreasing due to consumers ignoring the sponsored posts. Meaning, brands put more effort into their social media marketing than ever, yet their marketing attempts is getting less and less attention.    Purpose: The purpose of this study is to clarify whether overexposure of sponsored posts by Swedish influencers affect consumers’ attitudes, and if the general impression of the brand and the influencer will be perceived as negative.     Method: This research applied an abductive philosophy, with an interpretive, qualitative methodological approach. The empirical data was retrieved through semi-structured interviews with males and females from Generation Y as the target group. The participants were chosen through judgemental sampling within the region of Jönköping.   Conclusion: The empirical study showed that influencer marketing in general represents an efficient strategy for marketers to use since it easily opens up possibilities for companies to reach a broader audience. Three equally important relationships were identified in order for influencer marketing to work successfully. These relationships were; between a brand and a consumer, between a brand and an influencer, and between an influencer and a consumer. It was found that despite how strong these relationships are, if a consumer is exposed to too many marketing messages the strategy will be inefficient. It is therefore vital for marketers to find a balance when using influencer marketing to avoid overusing this strategy.

Sociala medier är ett ungt och oprövat område där rättsläget ännu inte är helt klart. Det föreligger viss problematik huruvida marknadsföring på sociala medier ska betraktas å ena sidan som redaktionell text och således falla under vår grundlagsskyddade yttrandefrihet. Eller å andra sidan som kommersiell text och därmed falla under marknadsföringslagen (2008:486), MFL. Föreliggande uppsats har för avsikt att försöka klargöra när främst marknadsföringslagen blir aktuell och tillämplig vid framställningar som publiceras på sociala medier. Detta kommer vi att undersöka genom att se vilka krav som ställs på reklamidentifiering enligt MFL och slutligen hur ansvaret mellan parterna vid dold marknadsföring ska fördelas. Utgångspunkten kommer att vara mål PMT 11949-16 (Kissie-målet) samt lagstiftning, praxis, förarbeten och riktlinjer för att med hjälp av en rättsdogmatisk metod försöka klargöra rättsläget för marknadsföring på sociala medier, så kallad influencer marketing. Efter analys av ovan anförda material kan vi konstatera att gränsdragningen mellan kommersiellt och redaktionellt material är fortsatt svårt att fastställa på sociala medier. För att en framställning ska anses vara kommersiell måste ett uttryckligt avtal föreligga mellan influencern och näringsidkaren. Att det föreligger höga krav på framställningar på sociala medier vilket innebär att en tydlig och särskiljande reklammarkering ska dra till sig uppmärksamhet. Denna reklammarkering ska även placeras först. Slutligen har vi i uppsatsen kommit fram till att annonsören alltid har ett huvudansvar och att influencern har ett medverkansansvar. Angående eventuella mellanhänder kan frågan om ansvar bli aktuell om mellanhanden aktivt medverkat i marknadsföringen. Till sist kan plattformen inte anses ha ett ansvar enligt gällande rätt.

The purpose with this essay is to find out if neo-fascist connection will change the next generations citizens (in this specific case ninth graders) opinions about a specific political party. In modern day Sweden, only one political party stands for political ideas that can be seen as neo-fascist (Sverigedemokraterna). What would happen if the next generation citizens saw this connection and how would they respond? That’s what this essay is all about, are the students “positive”, “negative” or “on changed” to a neo-fascist political party? The studies research type is mainly of a qualitative nature but quantitative elements occur. The data is coming from two classes of ninth graders that answered eight questions each. The questions remained the same for all students but with one crucial difference. One of the classes answered the questions before they had been informed of the neo-fascist connections that Sverigedemokraterna can be linked too. And the other class answered the questions after they had been informed. The difference in data seems to point out that the next generations citizens seem to think that it´s worse to be a fascist then a racist. It seems that if a political party is seen as racist party the image deters possible voters. Simultaneously the same racism that deter people also gain votes, therefore it could be said that racism has two faces. If you compare racism and fascism it seems like fascism don´t follow the same pattern.

Background: Due to the rapid growth of social media usage, marketing has significantly moved from traditional ways towards digital marketing. In today’s society, people are exposed to an overload of information through various media channels. Due to the overexposing of marketing, traditional marketing has become less effective since the majority of the information through traditional media channels pass people by. Considering this, companies are seeking new ways to market their brand and products. A new attractive marketing tool is blogs and with the help of bloggers as influencers, companies see the potential of effectively reaching out to their desired target group.   Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to examine how advertising of brands, products and services are presented in the blog of Michaela Forni as well as the readers’ interpretation of the sponsored content.   Method: This thesis adopted an abductive philosophy, with an interpretive, qualitative methodological approach. The main techniques include content analysis, narrative analysis and semi-structured interviews.   Conclusion: A major finding and conclusion obtained from this study is the importance of what product or service that is promoted in the sponsored blog posts. This factor plays a crucial role whether the readers are susceptible to the sponsored message or not. Thus, sponsored posts are more appreciated than native advertising and ad-banners appearing on the blog as the latter two forms feature content not written by the blogger herself. Michaela Forni is using several presentations styles of her sponsored posts which leads to a bigger interest of the readers due to the variety. One of the most significant conclusion from this study is that branded storytelling is the most effective presentational style of sponsored content. The loyal relationship between the blogger and reader results in less ad skepticism and the reader having a positive association towards the sponsored content on the blog. The authors also identified correlations between the presentation styles of the sponsored content and readers’ interpretations.

Influencer marketing is one of the fastest growing trends within marketing in Sweden. By using a semiotic analysis, this study aims to analyze how influencers communicate through sponsored posts on Instagram. Two posts each posted by six different influencers were selected for the study. The influencers were divided into three categories, parental influencers, fashion influencers and fitness influencers. The analysis showed that influencers describe the product as an essential part of their everyday life by telling how much they like it. The posts also reproduce certain stereotypes, as it for example displays women as engaged mothers and consumers of beauty products. The fashion and the fitness influencers Instagram posts both display stereotypes concerning thin and well-shaped bodies. The captions function for the viewers understanding of the posts meaning is anchoring more often than relay.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka hur influencers på Youtube gör sanningsanspråk om den ideala kvinnokroppen. Jag undersöker hur deras uttalanden om kroppsideal och ingreppet Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) kan tolkas. BBL är ett kosmetiskt ingrepp där fett transporteras till höft och rumpa från andra delar av kroppen, exempelvis rygg, armar och mage. Målet med operationen är att uppnå en timglas-figur. Analysen görs genom att tolka influencernas uttalanden med hjälp av Ernesto Laclau och Chantal Muffes diskursteori. Materialet är samlat från tre YouTube-kanaler av kvinnliga influencers. Sammanlagt analyseras det åtta videos om deras erfarenheter av det kosmetiska ingreppet. Teorier om disciplinering, kroppsideal, självövervakning, trovärdighet och sanningsanspråk används för att analysera materialet. Analysen behandlar tre teman, hur influencerna porträtterar BBL, hur influencerna framför det samtida kroppsidealet och hur influencerna kan uppfattas som trovärdiga källor. I analysen framkom det att de porträtterar ingreppet som riskfullt, men inte tillräckligt riskfullt för att inte genomgå en BBL. De framställer även känslor av ånger inför operationen som normala och normaliserar därmed att inte lita på sina känslor. Det framkom även att influencerna menar att det är värt att genomgå ingreppet, trots följder av ömhet, obehag och smärta. Det kroppsideal som de framför är timglas-figuren, det vill säga en stor rumpa, breda höfter och en smal midja. De accepterar och reproducerar idéen om hur den ideala kvinnokroppen bör se ut och hur den bör disciplineras. Det framkom även att influencerna kan både ses som offer och bidragare av diskursen om den ideala kvinnokroppen. Till sist framkom det att influencerna kan uppfattas som trovärdiga källor (Ohanian 1990; McCroskey och Teven 1999) och därmed kan deras sanningsanspråk sägas delta i en fixering av ett specifikt kroppsideal för kvinnor.

The following study aims to examine how influencer marketing contribute to an increased consumption in today’s society through their communication on social media, as well as how this communication can be seen as an expression of greenwashing. A multimodal critical discourse analysis has been conducted to look into and analyze the relation between how influencers encourage people to buy the products they are advertising and how they use their power to spread awareness about a sustainable lifestyle. The relevance of the study lies in the background of the climate changes and the study will therefore examine how encouragement for consumption becomes contradictory in the context of the study object, Therése Lindgren's, environmentally conscious everyday life and how this becomes an expression of greenwashing.    The result of the study shows that Therése Lindgren’s way of portraying the products she is advertising has a persuasive approach. In the posts that are environmental focused, Lindgren uses statistics and facts to strengthen her opinion to increase credibility and persuade her followers to live a more sustainable life. Furthermore, it can be assumed that Therése Lindgren's communication can give expression to greenwashing and that her posts can be a contributing factor to the increased consumption in today's society.

This diploma thesis focuses on the impact of influencer marketing on the behavi-our of women in the 18-34 age group in the market of decorative cosmetics. Pri-mary research was conducted by using eye-tracking technology, in-depth inter-view and survey method. All of these methods examine the attitude towards in-fluencers with the aim of identifying consumer behaviour in the industry of de-corative cosmetics in relation to social media and influencers. The results of all research methods form the recommendation on the effective campaign making with influencers in the industry of decorative cosmetics.

This thesis deals with the issue of social networks and their use in the promotion of a tourist destination. Using eye tracking method, in-depth interviews and survey research, factors affecting consumers on social networks and consumer preferences in this area were identified. Focus lies on the importance of influencers used in the promotion of a destination and their impact on consumers‘ decision-making process. Therefore, factors influencing the visual perception of posts promoting a tourist destination on the social network Instagram were elaborated. By using research methods and analyzing factors, the goal of the work was achieved, namely to propose appropriate recommendations for promoters of tourist destinations.

Background: Many new investors have been introduced to the stock marketlately. Lots of them only possess some knowledge about stocks and havetherefore started to gather information from influencers on various socialmedia. The information contains, among other things, future forecasts, whichmeans that new investors can easily base their investment decisions on whatis published by these influencers. Purpose: The purpose of the study has been to study and explain what makesnew investors rely on influencers' opinions. This is done with the help oftheory and our empirical data. Method: New investors with up to five years' experience have beeninterviewed according to a semi-structure and then studied together withselected behavioral economic and communicative theories. During the courseof the study, we have used an abductive approach, which means that we haveswitched between theory and empirical data. Conclusion: The study has led to the conclusion that new investors have agreat tendency to be influenced by influencers on social media when makingtheir financial decisions. We have come to the conclusion that it is possiblethat the position of influencers has a decisive factor if the new investors areto buy a share or not. When new investors express that they have a lack ofknowledge in the financial market, they turn to influencers when makingdecisions.