<p><strong><p>Background</p><p>In Sweden almost 90% of businesses are micro in nature which plays a pivotal role in the economy by generating employment opportunities as well as serving a source of instilling entrepreneurial spirit and innovation. Due to their invaluable contributions to the economy, their survival through revenue generating marketing practices has become an area of much more interest than ever realized before. A common misconception prevalent is that marketing in micro businesses is just a miniature of larger enterprises. This is why earlier researchers have paid scarce treatment to marketing practices in micro businesses as evident from the scant published material on the topic, making it an intriguing area to study. Currently much hype has been created about social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc and their marketing value for small businesses. It is therefore, in this thesis we study social media and prevalent marketing practices in the context of micro business.</p><strong><p>Purpose</p><p>Micro firms are often cash-strapped which limits their revenue generating ability through prevalent marketing practices which are resource intensive. In the back drop of all the hype about social media as a marketing tool we got the clue to find the right marketing approaches for these businesses regarding the choice of prevalent practices and social media as a new marketing tool. To achieve this purpose, we have formulated the following research questions.RQ1.Which of the two types of marketing is more effective in terms of targeted segment coverage and expenditures? RQ2.Which marketing approach enables micro firms to maintain better relationships with customers? RQ3.Whether or not it is the right time for micro firms in Sweden to adopt social media marketing practices?</p><strong><p>Method</p><p>A qualitative approach has been used to achieve the exploratory purpose of the thesis. Overall; eight micro firms were chosen from a convenience sample, representing different regions and industries of Sweden. In the first phase, two pilot semi-structured interviews were conducted to attain a better understanding of the phenomenon under study. Later, six more semi-structured interviews were carried out from micro businesses representing different sectors in Skövde, Mariestad and Jönköping Counties.</p><strong><p>Conclusion</p><p>This thesis suggests that micro businesses are mostly marketing weak organizations (MWO) as they are sales oriented and see marketing as more of a luxury. Micro businesses in the sample reveal a tendency to carry out marketing activities in a haphazard manner which limits their likelihood of achieving their targets. It has also been indicated that conventional approach to reach target segments, still has a strong effect on micro firms in Sweden and is therefore more</p><p>appropriate for them as majority of their customers are geographically concentrated as well as a major strata of these are yet to start active participation on the social media landscape. In terms of costs social media</p><p>Given, the small population of Sweden, it has also been showed that micro businesses are keeping good customer relationship with customers via word-of-mouth marketing which is considered as instrumental for success of majority of micro business. At the same time, this finding does not indicate any clear picture as to which form of marketing is doing better for these businesses.</p><p>In terms of social media adoption the findings indicate that micro businesses see social media as a great marketing opportunity in which micro businesses can compete on a level playing field with their larger counterparts. This study also concludes that social media is in infancy stages of its development in Sweden as people though they are present on the social media landscape, but have not yet, thought of it as a mainstream marketing channel. Therefore, it is suggested that micro firms in Sweden need to adpot a</p>(high volume, low expense) is more effective only when used in tandem with conventional marketing (low volume, high expense) approaches. It is therefore suggested that micro businesses can use a blend of social and conventional marketing practices till the time that the social media network externalizes to a greater extent. wait and see approach for the time being and start preparing to capitalize on social media soon when it becomes ripe and ready for marketing. </strong></strong></strong></strong></p>

The last years technological developments have lead to significant improvements in Internet usage, availability and the way people interact online. Recent statistics show how Internet and foremost social media usage increases rapidly, which have been noticed by companies, increasing their presence on social media platforms as well. Previous research has extensively been conducted within the area of social media marketing. However, the focus has mainly been put on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and social media platforms in general. The purpose of this qualitative thesis is to get a deeper understanding of how companies currently make use of the social media platform Instagram for marketing purposes and activities. Moreover, the thesis aims to investigate companies’ awareness and concern regarding their potential reach of 12-15 year olds on Instagram. The thesis aims to provide new insights that can be added to contemporary research within the field of social media marketing. The research question of concern is: How do companies make use of Instagram as a marketing tool? Semi-structured interviews were conducted on seven marketers working for Swedish companies present on Instagram. The empirical findings were analysed and presented through the different building blocks in Kietzmann et al., (2011) Honeycomb of social media, which worked as a foundational skeleton to the study. Other relevant theories were additionally compared with the empirical findings and four themes or approaches were determined. Two main, and one minor theme or approaches of how companies make use of Instagram as a marketing tool were determined. The first approach of Instagram marketing includes companies that we have chosen to call the “rookies”. They are relatively new to Instagram and/or have not been distinctively active in the way they interact on the platform. The rookies share characteristic of being in an experimental stage, trying to find their optimal usage of Instagram. The second approach of Instagram marketing includes companies that we have chosen to call the “Oldies”. A characteristic identified among these companies is a rather extensive Instagram experience, gained either through long-term presence or through distinct active presence during a shorter period of time. However, Company 4 could not be included in any of the above-identified approaches, as their marketing tendencies on Instagram follow a slightly different character. Their specific approach of Instagram marketing belongs to what we have chosen to call “The exception”. It was moreover brought to surface that the interviewed marketers seemed to have no ethical concern regarding the increasingly present 12-15 year olds on Instagram, as they do not believe they reach this group of young users. The final conclusion is how all of these approaches generate from the fact that Instagram is new platform where companies are learning by doing how to best make use of the unique characteristics of Instagram. We would like to encourage firms planning to create an Instagram account to embrace some of these characteristics. 1. The real-time aspect; Instagram users feed constantly updates with the latest content, creates an excellent opportunity for marketers to promote goods and products at a relevant and specific point in time. 2. Hashtags; as Instagram allow for little statistical information we argue that hashtags are great tools for reaching out to specific customer groups. By using hashtags connected to certain topics of interest among ones targeted users, companies can arguably attain enhanced customer interest.

Företag lägger allt större vikt vid skapandet av upplevelser för konsumenter, vilket utgör det fjärde ekonomiska erbjudandet. Upplevelseindustrin växer samtidigt som varor och tjänster i allt högre grad blir digitaliserade. Användandet av sociala medier ökar även och det har skett en förskjutning mot visuella sociala medier där bilder står i centrum. Upplevelser existerar även i digitala miljöer och det finns information om hur företag bäst bör utforma dessa. Med anledning av att det saknas en tydlig definition av begreppet upplevelser i litteraturen samt att det saknas ett konsumentperspektiv gällande upplevelser i digitala miljöer, är studiens syfte att undersöka och skapa förståelse för upplevelser på Instagram med en forskningsfråga som ämnar undersöka vilka faktorer på Instagram som påverkar upplevelsen på Instagram. Studien är kvalitativ med ett deduktivt angreppssätt av undersökande karaktär med en interpretivistisk och konstruktionistisk ståndpunkt. För att erhålla betydelsefulla insikter i ämnet samlades data in genom två fokusgrupper. Studien visar att upplevelser på Instagram består av konsumtion av bilder i form av observation och interaktion. Förväntningar, användarvänlighet och tidigare upplevelser påverkar upplevelsen på Instagram som skapas genom sinnena, delaktighet och känslor. Upplevelsepotentialen är högre på Instagram än på andra sociala medier som inte är bildbaserade men lägre än i det verkliga livet på grund av att färre sinnen kan stimuleras. / Companies are putting a large emphasis on the creation of experiences, which makes the fourth economic offering. The Experience Economy is growing, while products and services are being digitalized to a larger extent. The usage of social media is growing, with especially large focus on visual social media that are centered around pictures. Experiences also exist in digital environments and there is plenty of information available on how companies best should design these. Since there is no clear definition of the concept experience in the literature and a consumer perspective is missing regarding experiences in digital environment, the purpose of the study is to explore and create an understanding for user experiences on Instagram with a research question that investigates how different factors on Instagram affect the user experience. The study is exploratory, qualitative and deductive with an interpretative and constructionist position. To gain meaningful insights within the subject, two focus groups were conducted. The study shows that experiences on Instagram consist of consumption of pictures in the form of observation and interaction. Expectations, user accessibility and past experiences affect the user experience on Instagram that is created through the senses, participation and feelings. The experience potential is higher on Instagram than on other types of social media that are not focused on pictures but lower than in real life, as less senses can be stimulated.

Title: Who are you? A study on companies reviewing of Facebook profiles.  Social media has opened up new possibilities in recruitment situations in forms of background checks on social networks such as facebook. Even though there are many advantages, there are few recruitment workers who choose to embrace the possibilities with social networking.

Studiens syfte var att beskriva och analysera hur ungdomar anser att sociala medier påverkar identitet och socialt samspel ungdomar emellan. Genom en fokusgruppsintervju har ungdomar kommit till tals och sinsemellan fått chansen att diskutera frågor kring sociala mediers påverkan på såväl, beteenden och delaktighet, som självbilden. Resultatet ger en bild av att sociala medier riskerar att få konsekvenser på ungdomarnas självbild och interaktion. Främst då fokus hamnat på att via sociala medier förmedla och upprätthålla bilden av sig själv som den perfekta, med dyr livsstil och sunda levnadsvanor. Vilket ungdomarna anser problematiskt, stressfullt och ångestladdat, den negativa påverkan är dock bara en sida och de sociala medierna framstår som viktiga arenor i ungdomars liv. / The purpose of this essay was to describe and analyze the impact social media has on youths identity and social interaction from a youths perspective. We used a method of qualitative interview, by letting youths discuss the issue in a group, with consideration to our questions about behavior, participation, and self-image. The results showed that the respondents saw an impact on youths identity and social interaction. In social media youths wants to show themselves as perfect, with an expensive lifestyle and healthy habits. The participants saw this as a problem, causing stress and anxiety, the negative affection is on the other hand only one side of it all, and social media is of great importance in the life of youths.

Bakgrund: Social media tillhörde den vardagliga rutinen för många. Gravida använde internet som den största informationskällan. Kvinnans självkänsla lyftes vid en positiv bekräftelse. Genom att de gravida fick ett socialt stöd och fick höra andras berättelser om deras erfarenheter och upplevelser fick de tröst och bekräftelse, ett sätt att finna välbefinnande.   Syfte: Att beskriva gravidas erfarenheter och användning av social media, samt se om det finns ett samband mellan självkänsla och välbefinnande.  Metod: Studien gjordes med en kvantitativ ansats genom en enkätundersökning. Enkätinsamlingen gjordes med hjälp av Mödrahälsovården (MHV) i Kalmar Län. Totalt ingick 161 gravida kvinnor. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av SPSS. För att se skillnader gjordes Pearson Chi-square test. En linjär regressionsanalys gjordes för att analysera samband.   Resultat: Social media var en daglig rutin för de gravida, totalt av de som använde social media loggade 92.2% av dem in minst en gång per dag. Den yngre åldersgruppen använde social media i större utsträckning än den äldre åldersgruppen. Hälften av de yngre loggade in på social media varje gång de tittade på sin smartphone eller dator och 29.6% av de äldre. Inga av grupperna lyfter fram något specifikt som deras syfte med statusuppdateringar vad det gällde att få bekräftelse, stöd, uttrycka sina tankar eller känslor kring graviditeten. Resultatet visade att gravida som hade lägre känsla av välbefinnande spenderade mer tid på social media.  Slutsats: Det visade sig att logga in på social media hade blivit en daglig rutin för de gravida. Däremot framkom det inte något tydligt syfte med statusuppdatering eller användningsområde av social media. Vi såg att det fanns ett samband mellan hur många minuter de gravida använde social media och välbefinnande. / Background: For many women, social media is a part of the daily routine. They use the Internet as their primary source of information. The self-esteem is strengthened by a positive afformation. Pregnant women find consolation and affirmation in listening to experiences from others, as a way to well-being.  Purpose: To discribe the experience and usage of social media among pregnant women, and to see if there is a correlation between self-esteem and well-being.  Method: The study is a quantitative attempt based on a survey. The survey was conducted with assistance from the maternity welfare (MHV) in Kalmar county. A total of 161 pregnant women responded. To illustrate discrepancies, a Pearson Chi-square test was used. A linear regression analysis was preformed to analyze correlations.  Results: Social media is a daily routine for pregnant women. Of the women using social media, 92.2% logged on at least once a day. In the youngest age group social media was used to a larger extent than in the older age group. Half of the younger women logged on to social media platforms every time they checked their smartphone or computer, 29.6% of the older women. None of the age groups stated a specific motive for status updates, such as receiving affirmation and support or to express concerns and fellings about the pregnancy. The result indicates that pregnant women with a low sence of well-being spend more time on social media.  Conclusions: The results indicate that logging on to social platforms has become a daily routine for pregnant women. On the other hand no clear motive for status updates or the use of social media could be proven. We found that the amount of time, measured in minutes, spent on social media correlates to the well-beeing of pregnant women.

Background: The dramatic increase of the popularity of social media has affected in a large extent how SMEs reach and engage with their target customers to promote their products or services and to brand their firms. How SMEs incorporate social media for better business growth has gained huge attention from both academic and industrial sectors. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the aspects that are incorporated by SMEs when implementing social media in order to gain knowledge how SMEs could incorporate those factors when implementing social media. Research questions: What are those aspects that SMEs are incorporating to implement social media? Methodology: This study adopts six semi-structured interviews with six case organizations to identify and evaluate the aspects that are incorporated by SMEs to implement social media in the context of Sweden. Three small size and three medium-size firms in Växjö, Sweden who use social media for business purposes have been selected. Conclusion: The findings of this research identified and evaluated several aspects that are incorporated by all SMEs to implement social media in the context of Sweden: decision making about platform(s) and their deploying; governance responsibility; value metrics; accessibility; risk management; online community followers growing; content creation and updating; incentive strategy; monitoring social media sites; comments utilizing for future development; message processing rules; customer feedback timelines and report creating and sharing. The result shows the new approach of social media implementation which brought by Culnan, McHugh, and Zubillaga (2010) can help the researchers to identify and evaluate the aspects that SMEs are incorporating to implement social media, and chose to acquire knowledge that they can take advantage of from those aspects to incorporate and reinforce their social media implementation. Equally by putting into practice these aspects SMEs foster their growth in a number of ways such as customer relations, external and internal communication and several other ways.

The growth of the Internet and social media has led to companies considering the use of influencers in sponsorships and collaborations on Instagram. The subject has been problematized and the gap found is a need for a framework combining different factors when identifying influencers, which resulted in the following research question; From both a company- and consumer perspective, which factors are important to take into account when identifying an influencer for sponsorships and collaborations on Instagram? The purpose is first to identify and incorporate important factors discussed in previous research into a proposed framework, which aims to be used when identifying influencers to sponsor on Instagram. Second, after conducting the empirical research, the framework is extended depending on the new collected information. Background theories and concepts that lay the foundation to influencer marketing are presented. Also, previous frameworks regarding identification of influencers are introduced. The theoretical framework chapter is concluded with a proposed framework alongside introducing the factors. Abductive research strategy is used as well as a method triangulation, using both a qualitative and a quantitative approach. The study is an explorative research due to conducting both a documentary analysis and a questionnaire. The factors studied have shown to be of different importance for companies and consumers. The findings indicate that there are multiple types of influencers. The Updated influencer identification model consists of seven important factors; ideal, trust, popularity, productivity, managing sponsorships and collaborations, information content and visual aspect.

Building a corporate brand is as a crucial resource for the survival of companies. Social media as a tool for branding practices has been emphasized in research about startups. In such research, less focus is on certain groups of startups, such as Knowledge-intensive startups (KI Startups). This is peculiar as such startups differ in societal contributions and how they are constituted. Thus, as social media branding practices might enhance the survival rate, it is important to extend this research about KI startups.    The purpose of this thesis is to understand how and why KI startups in Sweden use social media to build their corporate brands in regards of four different branding elements.   The thesis has an exploratory and interpretivist philosophy with an abductive approach. A qualitative method was chosen to collect the empirical data. Firstly, a pilot study which contained a questionnaire was sent to a sample of KI startups to attain an initial understanding of the field. Secondly, semi-structured interviews with six KI startups were conducted for a main study.   The findings indicate that the interviewed KI startups use social media to build brand awareness, influence and engage customers, attract new employees, and to build reputation. The findings also indicate that some KI startups use social media to attain a credible and knowledgeable brand perception.    Our findings may help other KI startups when choosing a social media channel, and what content to post in the brand building process. Suggestions for further research are a similar, but more extensive study in Sweden, or a study in a country that is different to Sweden.

Thesis (MTech (Internal Auditing))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / The research study focuses on the risk management practices and procedures small, medium and large enterprises in the Cape Metropole have in place to mitigate social media risks. Enterprises and employees of these enterprises use social media platforms for business and personal purposes. There usage could have an impact on the enterprise should social media risks materialise due to a lack of formalised risk management practices and procedures. The purpose of the research study is to determine whether enterprises have risk management practices and procedures in place to mitigate social media risks. The research study also expands on the controls enterprises have in place and seeks to gain an understanding of the type of social media platforms used by the enterprise. The research study consisted of a literature review and an empirical study to investigate social media risk management practices and procedures in enterprises. A quantitative research method were used to carry out the required research, by making use of a structured questionnaire to obtain responses from respondents from small, medium and large enterprises in the Cape Metropole. The research results obtained revealed that most enterprises have implemented risk management practices and procedures. However, not all enterprises have risk management functions in place which involves all relevant departments to support in mitigating social media risks, more specifically to monitor and manage adherence to social media policies and procedures. The researcher recommends that enterprises have to enhance their control environment and improve existing risk management functions, practices and procedures on a continuous basis before such risks materialise and potentially damage their enterprise.