Background: Social media is connecting billions of people from across the globe by fulfilling basic human needs of socializing and getting entertained. While companies are now actively turning to social media to know their customers better, build strong relationships, and spread marketing messages, many are still struggling to figure out what corporate social media content actually works on social media. Purpose: This research aims to understand what type of corporate social media content generates the most consumer response. Methodology: This study employs content analysis of recent social media posts by a selection of top brands in Sweden on two main social media platforms: Facebook and Twitter. A total of ten brands with origin from Sweden were selected, based on 2015 Swedish Brand Award ranking, and their posts were examined to find out influence of corporate social media content on consumer response. A total of 400 posts were examined on verified Twitter profiles and Facebook Pages of these brands. Findings: Type of content which refers to whether the post has image, video, or text-only content, and content orientation which can be task-oriented, self-oriented, or interaction-oriented have a statistically significant relationship with consumer response. In terms of type of content, posts with video and image content can lead to higher consumer response and in terms of content orientation task-oriented content can lead to higher consumer response. Other variables in the study, namely, communication cues, traceability cues, and time-frame have not emerged as significant in this study. Implications: When developing corporate social media content, it’s important to focus on type of content and content orientation. In terms of type of content, managers need to focus on having video and image content as this could lead to higher consumer response and in terms of content orientation, content related to brand / product / promotion (task-oriented) can lead to higher consumer response. Limitations: The study relies only on two main social media platforms and on the last 20 posts of each brand on each of these platforms and doesn’t take into account any seasonality as a full year period has not been studied. The study also relies on a general brand ranking list based in Sweden and not a ranking of brands on social media space. Further Research Suggestions: Future studies could focus on bringing more social media platforms into inquiry, improving sampling robustness by having a larger sample size and broader coverage of time period to account for any seasonality in data, comparing results between different countries, having a broader mix of brands in terms of type of business area or sector or stage of brand development, and blending together the corporate and consumer perspectives. Finally, to account for platform size differences, researchers need to come up with a measure that controls for this variation across platforms. Keywords: Social Media Content, Social Media Platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Communication

Social media platforms have the potential to influence destination choice among potential travellers.Before potential travellers embark on a trip, they are faced with decision-making processes on whereto go, what to do, the best time to go, how to get there among other things. These pre-travel planning decisions can be influenced by their expectation of the experiences they will encounter at the destination and based on their perception of the destination. Their perception of destinations isusually informed by information found on social media platforms or passed on by family and friendswho have encountered similar travel experiences. Using Crompton’s model of destination choice set,this study explores the roles of social media platforms on destination choice among international students in the Umea university.

Title: Luxury Brands’ Storytelling on Social Media Date of Submission: 29th of May 2019 Authors: Klara Ekebring, Catarina Mellqvist Supervisor: Leon Caesarius Course: 2FE840, Master Thesis, 30 ECTS Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore how luxury brands are communicating through brand storytelling on social media. Hence, this study is conducted from the perspective of luxury brands with the aim to provide academic and managerial indications of how luxury brands perceive storytelling of luxury value on social media platforms. Methodology: This thesis performs qualitative research and utilises an abductive research strategy in order to conduct exploratory research. Data is collected through the use of both primary and secondary data sources. The primary data collection is made by the implementation of semistructured interviews that are formed and analysed through a thematic method of analysis and the satisfying principle. The secondary data is collected through observation of social media accounts of the brands taking part in this study. Empirical findings: The data collected present features on social media that the brands are recognising when communicating through storytelling on the platforms. By informing followers about the brand by telling stories, emotions, mental connections and meaning are established. Further, the interaction that is supported on social media platforms is considered by the luxury brands and influences the role followers to have in the communication process. Conclusions: The present study has found indications that the luxury values’ brands communicate through storytelling remains unchanged and how luxury values are told through stories are adjusted to the context of social media platforms. This suggests that luxury brands communicate their luxury value through storytelling on social media platforms by recognising the features of the context and the interaction, which is argued to be fundamentally supported on the platforms. Hence, elevating the role followers have in the communication process.

Purpose: Considering previous research on consumers’ social media engagement, content types and social media platforms, the purpose of this research was to explain the relationship between social media content types employed by brands and levels of consumers’ engagement. This since brands nowadays turn more towards branded content rather than advertising and several scholars expressing an urge for explaining an assumed relationship. Method: A deductive, quantitative and cross-sectional study was conducted. Further on, a standardized self-completion questionnaire was distributed to 227 respondents, by employing a convenience sampling. 165 responses were valid and the analysis was done employing ANOVA and regression analysis. Findings: Four hypotheses were accepted; all three concerning self-oriented content as it triggers all three levels of engagement and one hypothesis for entertaining content as it triggers emotional engagement. The hypothesis regarding the moderating effect of platform was partially accepted. Hence, five out of total ten hypothesis were rejected. Research limitations: The study’s generalizability is limited by the sampling technique and by the three example posts used in the questionnaire. Plus, the condition for respondents being exposed to social media post examples is another limitation in this research. Practical implications: All the findings were composed in a framework among of which is that brands’ content on social media should be of self-oriented nature to trigger engagement on all three levels or feature entertaining content as it triggers emotional engagement. YouTube is the preferred platform, followed by Instagram and then Facebook. However, all platforms trigger emotional engagement. The content benefits from being rich media and being appreciated by the consumers. Younger consumers are more likely to be engaged. Theoretical implications and originality: The findings of this research fill in the gap and present new findings within the topic of social media content, engagement and social media platforms. Hence, considering all the theoretical findings of this research, it offers a framework that delivers a rich explanation of relationships between social media content types, the three levels of engagement and social media platform types, which can be used as a base for further investigation in this area.

This bachelor thesis gives insight to the reader on the 4P theory’s role in a company’s social media marketing. This is a multiple case study where the authors investigated how these two companies apply 4P theory in their social media marketing. Furthermore. social media has appeared through the era of digitalization which has become a tremendous phenomenon in a company’s marketing strategies. Therefore, there is a high competition among companies in order to attract customers through their social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. In this thesis it is investigated of how companies applies the 4P theory in their social media. The research question of this thesis is as follows: How does a company apply 4P in its social media platforms? In order to answer the research question of this thesis, the authors have used existing theories on digitalization, the new 4P’s and the traditional 4P’s as well as empirical data in the form of semi structured interviews. The results showed that the 4P theory has an enormous role in these companies’ marketing in social media.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(情報学) / 甲第23398号 / 情博第767号 / 新制||情||131(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院情報学研究科知能情報学専攻 / (主査)教授 熊田 孝恒, 教授 西田 眞也, 教授 齋木 潤, 准教授 延原 章平 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Informatics / Kyoto University / DFAM

Social media platforms (SMP) are a continually growing field with several implications for the social structures of society. SMPs are web-based platforms on which users connect with other individuals and organizations which enables social connections and social bonding. SMPs and other social networking sites can have both positive and negative effects on individuals' lives. On the one hand, social media micro-interactions such as liking and interacting with other individuals’ content are crucial in interpersonal communication. On the other hand, research shows micro-interactions eg. like-buttons, notifications, and stories, have a negative impact on task performance, affect individuals' views of their own self-worth, and cause undesirable behavior such as procrastination. Procrastination of tasks has negative implications for our society and is often caused by social media’s tendencies to trigger psychological factors such as fear of missing out or a desire for instant rewards. Using a design-oriented approach, this research investigates how micro-interactions can be designed with the help of mindful design to counteract procrastination among young adults in the context of SMPs. The results show that designing micro-interactions in a way that detaches,guides, and empowers users align with mindful design core goals, which helps counteract procrastination among young adults on SMPs.

This study examines what role, impact and relationship social media platforms have on second and third generation Chilean diaspora that are living in Sweden when traveling back to Chile. The study uses thematic analysis and 25 qualitative semi-structured interviews with second and third generation Chilean diaspora members, whose age is between 25 and 50 and who has traveled to Chile or are planning to travel there. Through the 25 interviews and the thematic analysis, three themes were identified which were push and pull factors, feelings when traveling back, and travel influenced by social media.  The findings from the study, showed that both second and third generation Chilean diaspora have been motivated by and through social media platforms to visit Chile. It has been found that the priorities of second- and third- generation Chilean diaspora while traveling back to the homeland are different. As social media allows individuals to stay in touch with relatives and friends, it can affect their decision to travel to Chile again. By watching their relatives via video calls, their willingness to go to the country can be greater, which means that the term Visiting friends and relatives (VFR) has a strong connection with diaspora tourism, and this has had a huge impact on the second-generation diaspora. For the third-generation diaspora, their priority to travel to Chile has been a mix of both VFR and exploring the country more. The findings from the study even indicate that UGCs (User Generated Contents) such as pictures or videos that are shared on Instagram, Facebook or YouTube introduces new destinations in Chile, which persuaded both generations of the Chilean diaspora to visit Chile. But this will persuade most of those third-generation participants that have for example did not visit their homeland but want to do it to get more knowledge about their roots, or those who always traveled to the same city but want to explore more.

The aim of this study is to explore how three Swedish media outlets adhere to mass media logic and social media logic in articles on their websites and the corresponding Facebook posts on their Facebook pages. The media outlets are SVT (Sveriges Television), Dagens Nyheter and Expressen. They represent a public service broadcaster, a daily newspaper and a tabloid in a Swedish context. The samples of the study consists of the headlines and leads of the articles and the text in the corresponding Facebook posts. The articles and the corresponding Facebook posts cover the news event of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022. The samples are analysed with the method of critical discourse analysis and the theoretical frameworks of mass media logic and social media logic. The main findings of this study are that the samples adhered to the mass media logic elements of coverage of events, staging experts and media personalities; and the social media logic elements relating to connectivity. The further implications of this study may be that media as an institution is impacted by social media platforms, such as Facebook, and that news distributed on Facebook is adapted to the platform. The findings of this study are an example of how media outlets in Sweden adhere to mass media logic and social media logic, when covering a news event in articles on their websites which they share on their Facebook pages.

The last thirty years there has been a dramatic change in relationship marketing. The use of computers connected to the Internet at work places has increased over time and social media is widely used in marketing strategies. Social media is a new phenomenon to communicate with each other, it enables market information based on individual consumer’s experiences. Therefore managers are seeking a way to incorporate social media into their strategies, but this is more common within B2C than B2B. The purpose is to investigate the potential for industrial corporations, within the warehousing industry, to use social media for maintaining established relationships within B2B, as a part of their marketing strategy. The primary data is collected by qualitative interviews with relevant corporations. The study includes four corporations within the industrial industry, an illustrative corporation that have issues regarding using social media or not, and one expert interview.  The secondary data is collected from previous research, articles and journals. From the theoretical framework and empirical research, it seems to be more useful for corporations acting in the market of B2C rather than in B2B to use social media. Major of the interviewed corporations were thinking of using social media as a part of their marketing strategy, but almost no one were using it as a tool today. The younger generation, raised in a technological society, seem to generally have a broader knowledge of social media and what advantages and disadvantages the use can lead to. From this thesis it does not seem that one social media is better than another since different social media platforms are used in different ways. Therefore, it is not possible to say that one specific social media suits all corporations. However, if a corporation decides to use social media as a marketing tool, they need to be aware of the time required for it and be prepared for negative effects since they are open platforms, free for everyone to express their feelings. Within B2B, the trend of having a personal relation with customer and supplier is very strong and social media can never replace this personal relationship. The conclusions and recommendations is instead to use social media as an integrated marketing tool within their strategy.