In recent years we have seen an increase in the number of public transit service disruptions due to aging infrastructure, system failures and the regular need for maintenance. With the fleeting growth in the usage of these transit networks there has been an increase in the need for the timely detection of such disruptions. Any types of disruptions in these transit networks can lead to delays which can have major implications on the daily passengers. Most current disruption detection systems either do not operate in real-time or lack transit network coverage. The theme of this thesis was to leverage Twitter data to help in earlier detection of service disruptions. This work involves developing a pure Data Mining approach and a couple different approaches that use Graph Neural Networks to identify transit disruption related information in Tweets from a live Twitter stream related to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) metro system. After developing three different models, a Dynamic Query Expansion model, a Tweet-GCN and a Tweet-Level GCN to represent the data corpus we performed various experiments and benchmark evaluations against other existing baseline models, to justify the efficacy of our approaches. After seeing astounding results across both the Tweet-GCN and Tweet-Level GCN, with an average accuracy of approximately 87.3% and 89.9% we can conclude that not only are these two graph neural models superior for basic NLP text classification, but they also outperform other models in identifying transit disruptions. / Master of Science / Millions of people worldwide rely on public transit networks for their daily commutes and day to day movements. With the growth in the number of people using the service, there has been an increase in the number of daily passengers affected by service disruptions. This thesis and research involves proposing and developing three different approaches to help aid in the timely detection of these disruptions. In this work we have developed a pure data mining approach along with two deep learning models using neural networks and live data from Twitter to identify these disruptions. The data mining approach uses a set of dirsuption related input keywords to identify similar keywords within the live Twitter data. By collecting historical data we were able to create deep learning models that represent the vocabulary from the disruptions related Tweets in the form of a graph. A graph is a collection of data values where the data points are connected to one another based on their relationships. A longer chain of connection between two words defines a weak relationship, a shorter chain defines a stronger relationship. In our graph, words with similar contextual meanings are connected to each other over shorter distances, compared to words with different meanings. At the end we use a neural network as a classifier to scan this graph to learn the semantic relationships within our data. Afterwards, this learned information can be used to accurately classify the disruption related Tweets within a pool of random Tweets. Once all the proposed approaches have been developed, a benchmark evaluation is performed against other existing text classification techniques, to justify the effectiveness of the approaches. The final results indicate that the proposed graph based models achieved a higher accuracy, compared to the data mining model, and also outperformed all the other baseline models. Our Tweet-Level GCN had the highest accuracy of 89.9%.

Social media, even though a new phenomenon, has gained much interest in the last decade and has been a frequent topic of researchers. Sport marketing has also been a popular topic in academia, especially in North America. This thesis will address the use of social media in Nordic ice hockey clubs, including the exploration of their social media strategies and effectiveness. Previous research has not concentrated on ice hockey in Europe, nor has it examined their social media strategies. The study is seen to be necessary, especially given the large differences in the European and North American sport cultures and business models. The research was conducted through a qualitative multiple-case study by gathering data from both secondary sources as well as through semi-structured face-to-face interviews carried out with ten ice hockey clubs from both Sweden and Finland. The questions of the interviews were formed by the concepts derived from previous literature and the authors’ own experience. The results indicate that Nordic ice hockey clubs are still partly struggling with their social media strategies and that with the implementation of a clear strategy, including segmentation, the clubs would be able to take advantage of the relationship marketing and branding possibilities offered by social media. In line with this, the authors argue that the social media strategies of ice hockey clubs are not as effective as they could be and suggest further actions for managers to achieve higher social media effectiveness.

Purpose: To explain how some of the local TV stations of Swedish Television relate to the rules of public service when using social media. Method: This essay is written by a qualitative method and is the result of interviews with eight respondents from four different editorial offices in Sweden: SVT Väst, SVT Skåne, SVT Västernorrland and SVT Västmanland. After having interviewed the respondents and read relevant literature, we could draw conclusions and discuss how the editorial offices deal with the contract of public service while being on social media. Main results: Our results showed that the difference between commercial media and public service media is getting smaller. It’s important for the editorial offices of the local TV stations to use social media as a platform for their news, even though there are commercial ads on Facebook, for instance. It’s also important for them to be where the public is, although it’s on a commercial digital platform as Facebook or Twitter. We also found that the rules of public service may be changed in a near future. The bigger editorial offices want to get viewers by having sensational headlines, whereas the smaller ones focus on the relationship with the public.

This study examined federal court cases related to the use of social media websites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn) in various employment practices (e.g., selection, promotion, employee monitoring, layoffs). Court cases were identified using various online databases in an attempt to create an exhaustive list of cases to be used to better understand the role that social media has played in organizational settings and the legal implications of its use. The results of this study show that there were a significant number of cases involving termination and Facebook, and organizations prevailed in court significantly more than the defendant did. The results of this study provide organizations, employees, and applicants with a better understanding of how organizational social media use has been perceived in the court of law, thereby allowing people and employers to make better decisions regarding social media use.

This paper seeks to understand how the micro-blogging tool, Twitter, can be used effectively by marketers and advertisers by incorporating the attributes of information quality, information usefulness and source credibility into their tweets. Case analyses of five of the most popular Twitter accounts were conducted with regards to the appearance of each account and the content of their tweets. Recommendations for improving the quality of each Twitter account were also provided. / text

Background:  Social media is a constantly growing medium for communication that enables companies to interact with current and potential customers. It is of utmost importance that companies learn how to use social media in order to engage their customers, which will lead to greater customer loyalty. There is a large amount of literature on social media and customer loyalty separately, but not on how these subjects relate and interact. Therefore, the case study performed involving Mormor Magdas Därproducerade Glass will put focus on the activities that engage customers, which can lead to loyal customers.  Purpose:  The purpose of this thesis is to develop a better understanding of how small firms increase customer engagement through social media, leading to the creation of greater customer loyalty. Method:                           A qualitative approach to the research has been chosen which consists of a single case study that will allow for a deeper analysis of the subject. Data collection was performed through two interviews with the owners of the case study company and several observations of the company’s social media uses. Conclusion:                         By following the model provided in this thesis, more effective uses of social media for a small business are demonstrated, which will engage customers and enhance the company’s image, leading to greater customer loyalty. This model will also give a business a simplified picture of social media uses and how to use them properly. The case study shows a business the types of posts that are effective in engaging customers: frequent updates, prompt responses to all queries, and a focus on the specific social media platforms that are the most fruitful for each particular business’s needs.

The purpose of this master's theses is to analyze possibilities utilization of social network in business. The theses is focused on comparison of the most important contemporary social networks in the world and also on looking for thein commercial utilization. Before this, there is the analysis of the situation of internet and clearing of the term internet marketing. In theses, there is emphasis on separation of two main ways of advertising in social networks. First way is making the communities about the companies, products or brands and the second one is advertising by promotional systems of the networks. In the theses, there are a lot of results of many studies, that were performed by key agencies. Also there are many practical examples of business usage of social networks. The theses contains the possibilities of connecting the social networks and other marketing tools like advergaming, affiliate marketing and viral marketing. In the end of the theses, there are case studies, that analyse usage of social medias in four Czech companies from different business departments.

Today, social media is becoming more and more common in people's everyday lives. Several studies that have shown that connection to social media has a connection with the person's wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to examine whether there is a connection between a person's self-esteem and the use of social media Instagram, but also see how it differed between men and women. Instagram was chosen because it is a newer social media and is very unexplored. The hypothesis before the study was that there is a connection between Instagram and self-esteem, and that women use Instagram more than men. A total of 89 participants answered a questionnaire. Correlation was used to investigate relationships and the result showed that there was no correlation between the use of Instagram and self-esteem. T-tests showed that there are differences between men and women when it comes to using Instagram but when it came to self-esteem the answers did not vary. Continued research could be done in other cultures and different age groups / I dagens samhälle blir sociala medier alltmera vanliga i människors vardag. Det har gjorts flera studier som visat att uppkoppling till sociala medier har ett samband med personens välmående. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om det finns ett samband mellan en persons självkänsla och användande av sociala median Instagram, men även att se om det är skillnad mellan män och kvinnor. Instagram valdes för att den är en nyare social media och är väldigt outforskad. Hypotesen inför studien var att det finns ett samband mellan användande av sociala median Instagram och självkänsla, samt att kvinnor använder sig mera av Instagram än män. Totalt svarade 89 deltagare på en enkät. Korrelation användes för att undersöka samband och visade att det inte fanns någon korrelation mellan användande av Instagram och självkänsla. T-test visade på att det finns skillnader mellan män och kvinnor när det kommer till användande av Instagram men när det kom till självkänsla varierade inte svaren. Fortsatt forskning skulle kunna göras inom andra kulturer och olika åldersgrupper.

In this research report I examine the current approaches to the design of technology against the development of the Golden Shield project, as undertaken by the Chinese government. The Golden Shield technology is designed to control all forms of electronic communication, including social media technologies. I argue that the current approaches to the design of technology are inadequate. There is a need to include moral values as a consideration in the design of social media technologies, specifically when human well-being is impacted. I offer the capabilities approach as a solution that the designers of technology ought to consider as an option when designing technology as this approach defines conditions for human well-being. I define informational freedom as a capability. Excluding informational freedom in the design of social media technology leads to the user of the technology suffering harm as they are unable to fulfill the capability of informational freedom.

Recent trends and developments in the fields of Big Data, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence are completely transforming the way brands are engaging and communicating with their audience, allowing more personalized communications than ever. With the spread of social networking sites, such as Facebook, YouTube or Instagram a new opportunity arises for companies to connect to their consumers. However, since social media personalization implies the collection and analysis of highly personal data, consumers may develop negative reactions, attitudes or perceptions towards personalized advertising. Research covers extensively issues such as privacy concerns, invasiveness, forced exposure or irritation, which can lead to advertising avoidance. Though understanding the user perspective is crucial, the topic advertising avoidance in the context of personalization, especially in social media environments, hasn’t been discussed at great length. The purpose of this thesis is to understand how YouTube users experience personalized advertising while using the platform. The empirical findings of this thesis contribute to the ongoing research on personalized advertising within a social media setting. In addition, by understanding what can influence personalized ad avoidance on YouTube and describing how consumers express ad avoidance on the platform, this thesis aims to nurture a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. This study is based on an interpretative, abductive as well as a qualitative research design. It uses semi-structured interviews to explore the views, experiences, beliefs, and motivations of individual participants as well as focus groups that can leverage group dynamics to generate new qualitative data. The results of this thesis show that YouTube users experience ad avoidance in relationship with personalized ads for several reasons linked to prior negative attitudes, perceived goal impediment or ad irritation. The analysis of the findings revealed that users can experience cognitive, affective and behavioral ad avoidance as presented in the literature, but a theoretical model which can perfectly explain the phenomena of personalized ad avoidance on social media is currently not existent. While some antecedents claimed by the previously mentioned theoretical frameworks were also visible in the study, additional aspects may have an impact on how consumers experience personalized advertising avoidance in the social media environment, and more specifically on YouTube.