In the sport industry, many stakeholders, including sport organizations, players, coaches, sports reporters, and fans, utilize Twitter. Twitter has become a practical marketing tool, in part, although Twitter users have not been studied in terms of sociodemographics, team identification, media consumption, team related Twitter consumption, or game consumption of their favorite team. Exploring the demographics and consumptive behavior of Twitter users can be valuable for sport organizations to create marketing plans and make managerial decisions. The purpose of this study was to determine the makeup of sport consumers on Twitter for market segmentation purposes and examine their sport media consumption levels, sport-related Twitter usage, team identification level, and team consumption. Differences between Generation X and Y consumers were also determined. An online survey was administered to Twitter users (N = 219). Descriptive statistics, chi-square analyses and MANOVAs revealed characteristics about the users.

Rumors always trigger public panic in China, while the advanced Internet technology has tremendously influenced the daily life of the Chinese. Thus, the dynamics of rumor spreading via the social media in China are worthwhile discussing. In order to fulfill the aim of this research, one of the prevalent Chinese social media sites, the Sina microblog, is introduced and analyzed within the context of the salt-buying frenzy incident that occurred in China in 2011. Various theoretical approaches, from the sociological and media studies perspectives, are introduced to form the framework for analysis. The relevant data and materials were collected via questionnaires with Chinese Internet users, while previous academic research and publications provide supportive materials. From the analysis of this social media site and contemporary Chinese circumstances, it was seen that the Guanxi network extended and enlarged the influence of online rumors to offline Chinese. In other words, the Guanxi network, expanded by social media, can be considered as the most important part of the dynamic process of rumor spreading in China. However, the openness and freedom of the Internet atmosphere were found to be the main factors in eliminating online rumors.

Over the past years communication patterns have been changing continuously due toincreased public demand for information and knowledge. Numerous social networks andwebsites have escalated and gained the attention of the academics and practitioners, as wellas the business society. Previously scholars researched this field of interest from differentperspectives. Thus it could be stated that the emphasis was put on the impact of the certainsocial media networks in terms of communication strategy. However, no holistic approachhas been noticed in regards to why and how companies can use different mediasimultaneously in order to overcome a crisis situation. This research is aimed at filling thegap within existing literature. This thesis complements the previous studies and provides a broader understanding uponthe role of social media in the crisis communication process by the use of the triangulationmethod. This approach refers to the implementation of both quantitative and qualitativestudies based on a questionnaire addressed to various organisations and by observing theactions taken by the company currently facing the crisis situation. The empirical findingsprovided concrete data on why companies use social media and how they can be deployedto communicate with the large audience during turbulent times. The conducted study revealed that even if social media plays an important role in thecommunication and information sharing, traditional media is still perceived as moretrustworthy by the organisations. Therefore, companies in crisis should combine the use ofthese two kinds of media in their corrective actions taken in order to regain public trust andovercome the crisis.

Sammanfattning Titel: Ge ditt varumärke ett lyft! – en studie om hur företag bygger och stärker sina varumärken i sociala medier. Författare: Emilia Sjögren och Sofie Tellram. Handledare: Navid Ghannad. Nivå: Kandidatuppsats, marknadsföring (15hp), VT 2012. Nyckelord: Sociala medier, Varumärke, Kommunikation, Sociala nätverk, Bloggar. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva hur företag kommunicerar i sociala medier samt vad som är syftet med att kommunicera. Genom detta vill vi få ökad kunskap och förståelse för hur företag kan bygga upp och stärka sina varumärken genom sociala medier. Metod: Uppsatsen har en kvalitativ metod med en deduktiv ansats i vilken tre fallföretag intervjuats. Företagen är kunniga inom sociala medier och arbetar aktivt med dessa. Teoretiskreferensram: Detta avsnitt inleds med traditionella kommunikationsteorier följt av kommunikation i sociala medier. Teoriavsnittet avslutas med övergripande teori om varumärken. Empirisk studie: I denna del presenteras de intervjuer som genomförts med tre fallföretag. Slutsats: Uppsatsens slutsats är att företag bygger och stärker sina varumärken i sociala medier genom olika aktiviteter och utifrån vad som är företagets syfte med kommunikationen väljer de socialt media. / Abstract Title: Give your brand a lift! – a study of how companies build and strengthen their brands in social media. Authors: Emilia Sjögren and Sofie Tellram. Adviser: Navid Ghannad. Level: Bachelor thesis in marketing (15 Swedish credits), Spring 2012. Keywords: Social media, Brands, Communication, Social networks, Blogs. Purpose: Our purpose is to describe how companies communicate in social media to build and strengthen their brands and to describe the purpose of the communication in social media. Our purpose is also to increase our knowledge and understanding of how companies build and strengthen their brands through social media. Method: This thesis has a qualitative method with a deductive approach in which three case studies are studied. The companies have high knowledge in the given topic and work active with social media. Theoreticalframework: This part of the thesis begins with traditional communicationtheories followed by communication in social media. The part ends with a comprehensive theory about brands with leads to a model which summarizes our theoretical framework. Empiricalframework: In this part the results of the interviews with the three Case studies are presented. Conclusion: The study shows that companies build and strengthen their brands in social media through different activities. Depending on the companies purpose it chooses a social media to communicate in.

Frågeställning: Hur kan Mälarenergi öka kundernas användande av mobilapplikationen och förbättra kommunikationen genom utveckling av denna?                      Syfte: Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka och kartlägga potentialen för det framtida användandet av Mälarenergis applikation för mobiltelefoner och ge förslag på en kampanjidé. Metod: De metoder som använts i denna studie är kvalitativa intervjuer och kvantitativ datainsamling som skett via en enkätundersökning. Information har hämtats in från Mälarenergis och konkurrenters hemsidor. Vi har även använt oss av relevant litteratur och vetenskapliga artiklar. Slutsats: Slutsatsen i denna studie är att Mälarenergi behöver en ny applikation, en applikation med fler funktioner som tilltalar kunderna samt en mer omfattande marknadsföring. Nya funktioner och tävlingar kommer bidra till att användandet av applikationen ökar och genom det bildas en tätare kommunikation mellan Mälarenergi och kund.

Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, welche Motive Konsumenten dazu verleiten, soziale Medien im sogenannten "Web 2.0" aktiv oder passiv zu nutzen. Hierbei liegt das Augenmerk insbesondere auf soziodemographischen und psychologischen Merkmalen der Nutzer. Als zentrales Ergebnis der Arbeit kann herausgestellt werden, dass sich die befragten 188 Personen insgesamt anhand von zwei Dimensionen: Aktivität vs. Passivität und soziale Motivation vs. individuelle Motivation in 5 Gruppen beschreiben lassen. Mithilfe klassischer und neuer Marketing-Instrumente (z.B. Virales Marketing) lassen sich diese Gruppen zielgenau ansprechen.

The research examines and explores the differences and similarities between how the social media platform of Facebook is used in the context of the basketball industry. The research centers on the respective Finnish and Swedish basketball leagues. More precisely, the study scrutinizes nine basketball teams social media representatives – four Finnish and five Swedish – perceptions on how their respective sport clubs act on the medium of Facebook, through the use of relevant marketing theories. “How do Swedish and Finnish basketball clubs manage their brands and fan clubs on Facebook?” In the recent years sport marketing has been researched extensively, however the research on sport marketing has focused solely on more established sport leagues (e.g. National Basketball Association, Premier League among other bigger leagues). The major emphasis in sport marketing has been on bigger leagues; this research focuses on the smaller and less established leagues of Finland and Sweden. There is a limited or no literature to be found of sport marketing, which specifically focuses on smaller national leagues. Additionally, the study adds knowledge to a relatively new and evolved way of marketing. Social media marketing research is at its infantry stage, at least when considering research done in more traditional marketing, thus the research could add knowledge to this young marketing sphere. The study is based on a social constructivist approach, where the social actor creates reality. The teams’ social media representatives had their own unique interpretations of team’s actions on the social media platform of Facebook. Moreover, the primarily reason for the study was to create understanding of the perceptional Facebook practices used by two countries basketball teams. The main research question was divided into three research objectives to get more accurate results. Relevant theories of branding and customer relationship management, where emphasis is on relationship marketing, were used to answer the three more specific research objectives. More specifically the theory of relationship marketing is used to identify the teams’ relationship management practices on the social media platform of Facebook and the theory of brand equity was used to understand how the teams’ build their brand image on the medium. Additionally, appropriate organizational definitions are used to recognize the underlying reasons why the sample teams are motivated to use the platform of Facebook. The results indicated that there were both similarities inside the examined country’s teams’ perceptions of Facebook activities and differences between these perceptional practices. However, the differences were of a lessening degree than similarities. Similarly, the country comparison showed that there were only minor differences between Facebook practices used by two countries’ club practices. The study gives a sound general view of smaller and less established sport league teams, thus the study could give a good foundation for further studies on other smaller and less established countries sport league clubs. Furthermore, it could also be used as a building block for a more extensive study, where perceptions of multiple club key stakeholders could be compared with each other to find similarities and differences between their perceptions gaps.

Uses and gratifications theory posits that media use is an intentional and selective process by individuals in order to satisfy emotional needs. Basis this theory, the author conducted an exploratory study to compare social media engagement with four factors of acculturation among Hispanic Americans. These variables were also compared to the variables of education level and generation in order to test for a relationship. An online questionnaire captured data from a sample of Hispanic American participants (N = 85). Correlation analysis was performed, and results indicated that generation had a significant relationship with social media engagement and three out of four of the factors of acculturation.

Social media have grown into a powerful marketing communications tool in the global market. A number of companies are dedicating their time and resources for building trust and rapport with consumers through various social media platforms, but there is a dearth of research on their use of Twitter. The current study, therefore, examines global brands with a Twitter account and their tweets targeted at consumers. The results indicate that marketers attempt to attribute human characteristics to their brands using human representatives, personal pronouns, verbs in the imperative form. Also, satisfaction and investment were the most frequently found consumer-brand relationship determinants in the global brands’ tweets. This study offers the perspective that Twitter serves not only as an optimal vehicle for disseminating corporate information but also as a means to develop and cultivate consumer-brand relationships. Limitations and future research are discussed. / text

This paper will explore how track and field athletes are currently using social media, what types of social media attract or repel sponsorship and what barriers and opportunities exist for social media use in the sport of track and field. A variety of different sources will be used including academic papers, interviews with community managers from Saucony and Brooks and social media publications. / text