Real-time social systems are the fastest growing phenomena on the web, enabling millions of users to generate, share, and consume content on a massive scale. These systems are manifestations of a larger trend toward the global sharing of the real-time interests, affiliations, and activities of everyday users and demand new computational approaches for monitoring, analyzing, and distilling information from the prospective web of real-time content. In this dissertation research, we focus on the real-time social trails that reflect the digital footprints of crowds of real-time web users in response to real-world events or online phenomena. These digital footprints correspond to the artifacts strewn across the real-time web like posting of messages to Twitter or Facebook; the creation, sharing, and viewing of videos on websites like YouTube; and so on. While access to social trails could benefit many domains there is a significant research gap toward discovering, modeling, and leveraging these social trails. Hence, this dissertation research makes three contributions: • The first contribution of this dissertation research is a suite of efficient techniques for discovering non-trivial social trails from large-scale real-time social systems. We first develop a communication-based method using temporal graphs for discovering social trails on a stream of conversations from social messaging systems like instant messages, emails, Twitter directed or @ messages, SMS, etc. and then develop a content-based method using locality sensitive hashing for discovering content based social trails on a stream of text messages like Tweet stream, stream of Facebook messages, YouTube comments, etc. • The second contribution of this dissertation research is a framework for modeling and predicting the spatio-temporal dynamics of social trails. In particular, we develop a probabilistic model that synthesizes two conflicting hypotheses about the nature of online information spread: (i) the spatial influence model, which asserts that social trails propagates to locations that are close by; and (ii) the community affinity influence model, which asserts that social trail prop- agates between locations that are culturally connected, even if they are distant. • The third contribution of this dissertation research is a set of methods for social trail analytics and leveraging social trails for prognostic applications like real-time content recommendation, personalized advertising, and so on. We first analyze geo-spatial social trails of hashtags from Twitter, investigate their spatio-temporal dynamics and then use this analysis to develop a framework for recommending hashtags. Finally, we address the challenge of classifying social trails efficiently on real-time social systems.

Due to the advancement of the Internet, information delivery has been forever changed. Technology rapidly outpaces traditional methods of conveying educational material. As a result, educators must seek non-traditional methods to deliver information. The use of social media outlets such as Facebook is one avenue of information delivery. The purpose of this study was to determine the uses and gratifications of the followers of the Trinity Waters Facebook page. A qualitative research design and purposeful sampling of (n=9) respondents were employed in this study. A semi-structured interview protocol was utilized in order to direct the study‘s research objectives. Respondents‘ desire increased availability of information and greater opportunities to establish networks with contemporaries. In addition, respondents sought practical information that could be applied to their daily pursuits. This study showed that followers of the Trinity Waters Facebook page want a greater amount of educational information disseminated through the page. As a result of this study, Trinity Waters should continue to seek out and distribute information that is significant and specific to the Trinity River basin. Trinity Waters should continue to pursue and disseminate information on current legislative or political actions that are specific to the Trinity River basin and also the state and federal levels. Events, meetings or seminars pertaining to the Trinity River basin and conservation efforts should be actively promoted by Trinity Waters via the Facebook platform. This study should be replicated with other extension programs throughout the state and nation. Further research should also be conducted on the implication of Facebook and social media in extension education settings.

Tiggare/tiggeri är fenomen som blivit allt vanligare i vårt svenska samhälle. Samtidigt som företeelsen av tiggare/tiggeri blivit mer synlig har även röster som kräver ett förbud av tiggeri höjts. Märkbart är hur det via social media sprids budskap med starka argument som belyserden problematik många människor upplever med tiggeriet. Via social media skapas uppslutningar med olika mål, som växer och frodas i nätets öppna rum. Syftet med vår studie är att få en förståelse för vad en sammanslutning av människor, i detta fall ett Facebook evenemang, kan generera i form av kommunikativ praktik samt vilken inverkan social media kan ha i frågan om dess förmåga att sprida ett budskap. Vi vill sedermera förstå uppropet och det budskap som förmedlas samt se till hur social media spelat roll fördess utveckling. Med en netnografiskt inspirerad forskningsmetod undersöker vi det socialaliv och samspel som sker online, men inom ett begränsat rum, det vill säga det evenemang vivalt att studera. Vår teoretiska referensram utgår från Canettis teori om massan makt vilken viknyter an till vårt nätverksamhälle och till sociala medier. Vidare utgår vi från begreppetFraming vilket är en kulturell inramning vilken beskriver hur sociala rörelser konstrueras, tolkas och beskriver verkligheten, samt rörelsens egen roll. Ur ett sociologiskt perspektiv vill vi förstå uppropet "Förbjud tiggeriet nu", dess budskap samthur dess mobilisering skedde inom ett offentligt rum som Facebook. Resultatet visar på hur ett budskap växer fram, hur det förmedlas och hur det sprids samt vilken stark förmåga till mobilisering ett offentligt evenemang på social media har.

Syftet med studien är att ta reda på hur och på vilka sätt modeföretag kan marknadsföra sig via digitala medier för att skapa närmare kontakt och påverka kundernas köpbeteende. Undersökningen är baserad på en kvalitativ metod i form av sex intervjuer. Intervjuerna bygger på fyra huvudgrupper i processen av användandet av digitala medier. Respondenterna som medverkat i intervjuerna är alla på något sätt aktiva eller har kunskap inom digitala medier. Studien visar på en problematisering om huruvida utvecklingen av digitala medier påverkar modeföretag eller inte. Samhällets digitalisering innebär både negativa och positiva effekter för modeföretagen. De positiva effekterna inkluderar bland annat möjligheten för modeföretag att ha en snabb kommunikation med kunderna, samt att det går oerhört snabbt att nå ut med budskap till omvärlden. Baksidan av detta är att även negativa budskap sprids lika fort, samt att kunden ställer högre krav på att modeföretag ska vara kontaktbara dygnet runt. Resultatet av studien är att digitala medier är en otrolig tillgång för modeföretag, framförallt gällande kommunikation med kunder och marknadsföring.

Building on Critical Art Ensemble’s initial formulation of the data body, and on Kevin Haggerty and Richard Ericson’s concept of surveillant assemblages, my thesis explores a further articulation of digital subjectivity by examining ‘data body’ as a referent for the various data connections and layers that a neoliberal subject is presumed to gather and generate over the course of a day. The flesh is bound to and by this data, as many examples indicate data’s ability to expand, spread, “go viral” and have a discernible effect on a user’s practical existence. My thesis deals with the ways that disciplinary and security logics are at work in these digital spaces and how they establish a tertiary regime, as outlined by Foucault. By considering the work of Lauren Berlant and Sara Ahmed to support my assertion of bodies as situated and institutionally validated by technology, I discuss the modulation of affects such as fear and threat to establish modes of conduct mediated by the data bodies of their users.

The “connection generation” craves interaction with and connection to vast social networks through the sharing of information, photos, opinions, entertainment and news. This sharing comes in the form of electronic word-of-mouth or eWOM, and provides marketing and communication managers with an unparalleled opportunity to reach a large number of consumers quickly. With the ever increasing growth of the internet and the rise of social media and social network sites, viral marketing has cemented itself in the marketing and corporate agenda. However, while there has been a shift in marketing budgets towards online and social media, little is known about how to successfully leverage viral marketing. Consequently, understanding why some videos go viral and others do not is becoming an increasingly popular focus of academic research. This study aimed to answer the following research question: What are the factors that drive the virality of online content?   In an attempt to answer this exploratory research question, four papers were used to look at its constituent parts. In the first paper, the role of emotion in the sharing of online content was investigated. Rime’s social sharing of emotion theory was used to explain why emotion could drive the spread of content online. We suggested that people’s propensity to share viral content was a function of the intensity, sociality and complexity of the emotion elicited by the viral content.   The following two papers further investigated the role of emotion in viral marketing by looking at the relationship between content and emotion. Paper 2 used interviews in a qualitative research design to propose a decision-tree of the interplay between content and emotion in viral marketing. This paper showed that the relevance of the content has an influence on viewers’ emotional response. Paper 3 took a closer look at the relationship between content and emotion by using a two-stage design: First, content analysis was done on the comments of selected YouTube videos. Second, an experiment was used to test the emotions that these videos elicited in respondents, the valence of those emotions, the intensity with which they were felt, as well as various content-related factors (e.g. the creativity and humor used in the videos). This paper looked specifically at the use of political communication in viral marketing and showed that creativity, valence and the intensity of the emotions elicited by the content are key drivers of viral success.   The final and fourth paper culminates in a model for the sharing of content online. This paper built on the findings from the previous papers, but also made use of interviews, and the analysis of a longitudinal dataset to propose a comprehensive model for the spread of content online. The longitudinal dataset was compiled using the top 10 posts from Reddit.com, a viral aggregator website, over the period of 25 days. The comprehensive model shows that there are external, intrapersonal and interpersonal drivers of viral content. The external drivers of viral content are the viral videos themselves (content) and its popularity. The content construct refers to various aspects related to the content itself, for example how informative, creative, humorous etc. the content is. Its popularity, on the other hand, was driven by both WOM and mainstream media reports. The intrapersonal drivers of viral content refer to the emotions that the content elicited in viewers. Viewers’ emotional response to the content was influenced by its relevance, but also by the valence and intensity of the emotion that they felt. Even though some content elicited intense emotions in viewers, some viewers did not share the content and interpersonal drivers of viral content was introduced to the model. These drivers recognise the social aspect of social media, and that content gets shared with large social networks. The model contends that people share viral content with their social networks as a form of online gift giving, out of altruism, or simply to build their own reputation. Finally, we contend that, in this content à emotion à social sharing chain, people share viral content both online and offline, as many respondents simply told their friends about the content (thus prompting them to go and watch the content themselves) or showed them the content themselves. This online and offline sharing of content increased the popularity of the content and a self-reinforcing chain was created, increasing the exponential growth typically associated with viral content.   As consumers are exposed to an increasing amount of marketing messages, and marketing budgets shrink, marketing managers could greatly benefit from better understanding how to more effectively make social media part of their marketing strategy. Viral marketing allows for a low-cost way of communicating marketing messages with great potential for impacting the market. This study ultimately shows what marketing managers can do to increase their chances of viral success, and ends off with a list of managerial recommendations to leverage the external, intrapersonal and interpersonal factors present in viral campaigns. / <p>QC 20140911</p>

The first part of the thesis gives a systematic overview and conceptual analysis of the literature on studying misinformation and disinformation in social media, with a special focus on research projects using large scale data obtained from Twitter and Facebook. The literature review gives a detailed overview of the scope of data collected by the various research projects; the means of accessing the data, which are rooted in the concrete socio-technical arrangement of the various platforms, and the type of analytical tools they apply. Furthermore, it also maps the various theoretical questions behind the research projects. The author of the thesis also gives his own definition of information manipulation and describes a conceptual model of information manipulation in the context of social media. The second part of the thesis applies some of the insights from the literature review to a large Twitter data set collected during the monitoring of African elections. The analysis follows a qualitative approach and focuses on case studies created from specific incidents during the elections. Each of these incidents illustrates a special aspect of the problem of information manipulation in online social media.

Syftet med denna B-uppsats i informatik är att få en bild av samt få bättre förståelse för vilka faktorer det är som kan påverka vilka kvinnor i åldern 18-25 som offentliggör privat information på sociala medier.  Dock har inte djupintervjuer tillämpats utan enkäter, vilket annars är normalt för ett kvantitativt tillvägagångssätt. Enkäter valdes för att respondenterna skulle kunna svara anonymt eftersom syftet är att undersöka samt analysera vilka kvinnor i ålder 18-25 offentliggör privat information på sociala medier.     Utifrån en enkätundersökning som skickades ut elektroniskt till 25 kvinnor i åldern 18-25 har jag kunnat identifiera olika faktorer som bidrar till varför vissa kvinnor delar med sig av mer privat information på sociala medier.   Några av de slutsatser som dragits utifrån denna studie är att kvinnor som befinner sig i ett offentligt förhållande oftare delar med sig av information på sociala medier samt att de som studerar är mer aktiva på sociala medier.

A common characteristic of the theoretical developments within the field of social media marketing is that activities to which consumers devote themselves in social media settings shift power from firms to consumers. Extant literature has therefore analysed the practices of consumers within social media and their potential implications for marketing. The current state of social media, however, suggests that these settings are undergoing a process of transformation. Although social media were initially characterised as non-commercial in nature, firms have started to manage interactions within these digital landscapes. From initially being characterised by its social base, this development implies that social media have become increasingly commercialised. The aim of this dissertation is to expand the literature on social media by describing the process through which they evolve from their initially social character to a commercial utility. More specifically, it seeks to develop a conceptual framework that captures the role of marketing processes that lead to the commercialisation of these spheres. This is done mainly through a netnographic study of the Swedish fashion blogosphere in order to explain how and why consumers and professionals interact, organise, create and appropriate commercial values in the fashion blogosphere. Drawing on theory of spheres, this dissertation proposes a sphereological understanding of social media that expands the role of marketing. It is suggested that social media may be understood as a collection of micro-spheres that, together, comprise a densely connected foam of spatiality and place. In these spheres, consumers, together with commercial actors, take part in practices that become increasingly commercial. In that sense, marketing takes the roles of navigating social media in search of symbolic meanings of value, and of affecting, negotiating and redefining atmospheres of places in the social media landscape. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense the following paper was unpublished and had the status as follows. Paper 2: Accepted.</p>

Each year, the market place is becoming increasingly globalized and the role of the Internet has been crucial to this phenomenon. Marketers therefore are required to be current on the latest trends. The Internet can be used as a communication tool from the marketers and it is an ever changing medium. At first, most companies were only present through their website, whereas nowadays companies have a greater online presence through Social Media. This study aimed at finding out how Social Media presence can influence Brand Awareness and Trust in Business to Business (B2B) companies. It was based on a research model with two hypotheses. A survey was conducted among Swedish B2B companies within the Ljungby municipality. The survey resulted in 68 complete and usable responses, averaging a response rate of 65%. Using a linear regression, the results of hypotheses testing suggest that the usage of Social Media influences Trust; however it does not influence Brand Awareness. This indicates that companies that are concerned about the level of Trustworthiness within their company should have a Social Media presence, especially on Facebook since it was the most common among companies.