Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Social media offers great opportunities for businesses and the use thereof will increase competitiveness. However, social media also introduce significant risks to those who adopt it. A business can use existing IT governance control framework to address the risks introduced by social media. However a business should combine existing control frameworks for adequate and complete IT governance. This study was undertaken to help businesses to identify incremental risks resulting from the adoption of social media and to develop an integrated IT governance control framework to address these risks both at strategic and operational level. With the help of the processes in COBIT 5, this study provides safeguards or controls which can be implemented to address the IT risks that social media introduce to a business. By implementing the safeguards and controls identified from COBIT 5, a business ensures that they successfully govern the IT related risks at strategic level. This study also briefly discuss the steps that a business can follow to ensure IT related risks at operational level is addressed through the implementation of configuration controls. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sosiale media bied groot geleenthede vir besighede en die gebruik daarvan sal mededingendheid verhoog. Sosiale media hou ook egter beduidende risiko's in vir diegene wat dit aanneem. 'n Besigheid kan bestaande Informasie Tegnologie (IT) kontrole raamwerke gebruik om die risiko's wat ontstaan as gevolg van die gebruik van sosiale media aan te spreek. Vir voldoende en volledige IT korporatiewe beheer moet 'n besigheid egter bestaande kontrole raamwerke kombineer. Hierdie studie is onderneem om besighede te help om die toenemende risiko's wat ontstaan as gevolg van die gebruik van die sosiale media, te identifiseer en om 'n geïntegreerde IT kontrole raamwerk te ontwikkel om hierdie risiko's op strategiese sowel as operasionele vlak aan te spreek. Met die hulp van die prosesse in COBIT 5 voorsien hierdie studie voorsorgmaatreëls of kontroles wat geïmplementeer kan word om die IT-risiko's waaraan die besigheid, deur middel van sosiale media blootgestel is, aan te spreek. Deur die implementering van die voorsorgmaatreëls en kontroles soos geïdentifiseer uit COBIT 5, verseker ʼn besigheid dat hulle die IT-verwante risiko's op strategiese vlak suksesvol beheer. Hierdie studie bespreek ook kortliks die stappe wat 'n besigheid kan volg om te verseker dat IT-verwante risiko's op operasionele vlak aangespreek word deur die implementering van konfigurasie kontroles.

This qualitative study focuses on how social media policies and guidelines are used in practice within nine different Swedish industrial B2B companies. This study identifies their social media policies and guidelines in order to examine its content and investigates how the participating companies use their social media policies and guidelines in their marketing activities according to the interviewees. A qualitative research method with nine semi-structured interviews has been conducted and analyzed with a thematic analysis by using research and theory within the chosen subject.The findings of this study reveals that the companies have social media policies and guidelines in place in order to satisfy different needs, hence, some of the companies use it as a fundamental framework, while other companies incorporate it to a greater extent and use it as a way of handling risks.Through its managerial and social media policies and guidelines implications, this study contributes to the identified research gap regarding how social media policies and guidelines usage in B2B industries by providing insights from practice.