Företag lägger allt större vikt vid skapandet av upplevelser för konsumenter, vilket utgör det fjärde ekonomiska erbjudandet. Upplevelseindustrin växer samtidigt som varor och tjänster i allt högre grad blir digitaliserade. Användandet av sociala medier ökar även och det har skett en förskjutning mot visuella sociala medier där bilder står i centrum. Upplevelser existerar även i digitala miljöer och det finns information om hur företag bäst bör utforma dessa. Med anledning av att det saknas en tydlig definition av begreppet upplevelser i litteraturen samt att det saknas ett konsumentperspektiv gällande upplevelser i digitala miljöer, är studiens syfte att undersöka och skapa förståelse för upplevelser på Instagram med en forskningsfråga som ämnar undersöka vilka faktorer på Instagram som påverkar upplevelsen på Instagram. Studien är kvalitativ med ett deduktivt angreppssätt av undersökande karaktär med en interpretivistisk och konstruktionistisk ståndpunkt. För att erhålla betydelsefulla insikter i ämnet samlades data in genom två fokusgrupper. Studien visar att upplevelser på Instagram består av konsumtion av bilder i form av observation och interaktion. Förväntningar, användarvänlighet och tidigare upplevelser påverkar upplevelsen på Instagram som skapas genom sinnena, delaktighet och känslor. Upplevelsepotentialen är högre på Instagram än på andra sociala medier som inte är bildbaserade men lägre än i det verkliga livet på grund av att färre sinnen kan stimuleras. / Companies are putting a large emphasis on the creation of experiences, which makes the fourth economic offering. The Experience Economy is growing, while products and services are being digitalized to a larger extent. The usage of social media is growing, with especially large focus on visual social media that are centered around pictures. Experiences also exist in digital environments and there is plenty of information available on how companies best should design these. Since there is no clear definition of the concept experience in the literature and a consumer perspective is missing regarding experiences in digital environment, the purpose of the study is to explore and create an understanding for user experiences on Instagram with a research question that investigates how different factors on Instagram affect the user experience. The study is exploratory, qualitative and deductive with an interpretative and constructionist position. To gain meaningful insights within the subject, two focus groups were conducted. The study shows that experiences on Instagram consist of consumption of pictures in the form of observation and interaction. Expectations, user accessibility and past experiences affect the user experience on Instagram that is created through the senses, participation and feelings. The experience potential is higher on Instagram than on other types of social media that are not focused on pictures but lower than in real life, as less senses can be stimulated.

Title: Who are you? A study on companies reviewing of Facebook profiles.  Social media has opened up new possibilities in recruitment situations in forms of background checks on social networks such as facebook. Even though there are many advantages, there are few recruitment workers who choose to embrace the possibilities with social networking.

Studiens syfte var att beskriva och analysera hur ungdomar anser att sociala medier påverkar identitet och socialt samspel ungdomar emellan. Genom en fokusgruppsintervju har ungdomar kommit till tals och sinsemellan fått chansen att diskutera frågor kring sociala mediers påverkan på såväl, beteenden och delaktighet, som självbilden. Resultatet ger en bild av att sociala medier riskerar att få konsekvenser på ungdomarnas självbild och interaktion. Främst då fokus hamnat på att via sociala medier förmedla och upprätthålla bilden av sig själv som den perfekta, med dyr livsstil och sunda levnadsvanor. Vilket ungdomarna anser problematiskt, stressfullt och ångestladdat, den negativa påverkan är dock bara en sida och de sociala medierna framstår som viktiga arenor i ungdomars liv. / The purpose of this essay was to describe and analyze the impact social media has on youths identity and social interaction from a youths perspective. We used a method of qualitative interview, by letting youths discuss the issue in a group, with consideration to our questions about behavior, participation, and self-image. The results showed that the respondents saw an impact on youths identity and social interaction. In social media youths wants to show themselves as perfect, with an expensive lifestyle and healthy habits. The participants saw this as a problem, causing stress and anxiety, the negative affection is on the other hand only one side of it all, and social media is of great importance in the life of youths.

Bakgrund: Social media tillhörde den vardagliga rutinen för många. Gravida använde internet som den största informationskällan. Kvinnans självkänsla lyftes vid en positiv bekräftelse. Genom att de gravida fick ett socialt stöd och fick höra andras berättelser om deras erfarenheter och upplevelser fick de tröst och bekräftelse, ett sätt att finna välbefinnande.   Syfte: Att beskriva gravidas erfarenheter och användning av social media, samt se om det finns ett samband mellan självkänsla och välbefinnande.  Metod: Studien gjordes med en kvantitativ ansats genom en enkätundersökning. Enkätinsamlingen gjordes med hjälp av Mödrahälsovården (MHV) i Kalmar Län. Totalt ingick 161 gravida kvinnor. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av SPSS. För att se skillnader gjordes Pearson Chi-square test. En linjär regressionsanalys gjordes för att analysera samband.   Resultat: Social media var en daglig rutin för de gravida, totalt av de som använde social media loggade 92.2% av dem in minst en gång per dag. Den yngre åldersgruppen använde social media i större utsträckning än den äldre åldersgruppen. Hälften av de yngre loggade in på social media varje gång de tittade på sin smartphone eller dator och 29.6% av de äldre. Inga av grupperna lyfter fram något specifikt som deras syfte med statusuppdateringar vad det gällde att få bekräftelse, stöd, uttrycka sina tankar eller känslor kring graviditeten. Resultatet visade att gravida som hade lägre känsla av välbefinnande spenderade mer tid på social media.  Slutsats: Det visade sig att logga in på social media hade blivit en daglig rutin för de gravida. Däremot framkom det inte något tydligt syfte med statusuppdatering eller användningsområde av social media. Vi såg att det fanns ett samband mellan hur många minuter de gravida använde social media och välbefinnande. / Background: For many women, social media is a part of the daily routine. They use the Internet as their primary source of information. The self-esteem is strengthened by a positive afformation. Pregnant women find consolation and affirmation in listening to experiences from others, as a way to well-being.  Purpose: To discribe the experience and usage of social media among pregnant women, and to see if there is a correlation between self-esteem and well-being.  Method: The study is a quantitative attempt based on a survey. The survey was conducted with assistance from the maternity welfare (MHV) in Kalmar county. A total of 161 pregnant women responded. To illustrate discrepancies, a Pearson Chi-square test was used. A linear regression analysis was preformed to analyze correlations.  Results: Social media is a daily routine for pregnant women. Of the women using social media, 92.2% logged on at least once a day. In the youngest age group social media was used to a larger extent than in the older age group. Half of the younger women logged on to social media platforms every time they checked their smartphone or computer, 29.6% of the older women. None of the age groups stated a specific motive for status updates, such as receiving affirmation and support or to express concerns and fellings about the pregnancy. The result indicates that pregnant women with a low sence of well-being spend more time on social media.  Conclusions: The results indicate that logging on to social platforms has become a daily routine for pregnant women. On the other hand no clear motive for status updates or the use of social media could be proven. We found that the amount of time, measured in minutes, spent on social media correlates to the well-beeing of pregnant women.

Background: The dramatic increase of the popularity of social media has affected in a large extent how SMEs reach and engage with their target customers to promote their products or services and to brand their firms. How SMEs incorporate social media for better business growth has gained huge attention from both academic and industrial sectors. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the aspects that are incorporated by SMEs when implementing social media in order to gain knowledge how SMEs could incorporate those factors when implementing social media. Research questions: What are those aspects that SMEs are incorporating to implement social media? Methodology: This study adopts six semi-structured interviews with six case organizations to identify and evaluate the aspects that are incorporated by SMEs to implement social media in the context of Sweden. Three small size and three medium-size firms in Växjö, Sweden who use social media for business purposes have been selected. Conclusion: The findings of this research identified and evaluated several aspects that are incorporated by all SMEs to implement social media in the context of Sweden: decision making about platform(s) and their deploying; governance responsibility; value metrics; accessibility; risk management; online community followers growing; content creation and updating; incentive strategy; monitoring social media sites; comments utilizing for future development; message processing rules; customer feedback timelines and report creating and sharing. The result shows the new approach of social media implementation which brought by Culnan, McHugh, and Zubillaga (2010) can help the researchers to identify and evaluate the aspects that SMEs are incorporating to implement social media, and chose to acquire knowledge that they can take advantage of from those aspects to incorporate and reinforce their social media implementation. Equally by putting into practice these aspects SMEs foster their growth in a number of ways such as customer relations, external and internal communication and several other ways.

The growth of the Internet and social media has led to companies considering the use of influencers in sponsorships and collaborations on Instagram. The subject has been problematized and the gap found is a need for a framework combining different factors when identifying influencers, which resulted in the following research question; From both a company- and consumer perspective, which factors are important to take into account when identifying an influencer for sponsorships and collaborations on Instagram? The purpose is first to identify and incorporate important factors discussed in previous research into a proposed framework, which aims to be used when identifying influencers to sponsor on Instagram. Second, after conducting the empirical research, the framework is extended depending on the new collected information. Background theories and concepts that lay the foundation to influencer marketing are presented. Also, previous frameworks regarding identification of influencers are introduced. The theoretical framework chapter is concluded with a proposed framework alongside introducing the factors. Abductive research strategy is used as well as a method triangulation, using both a qualitative and a quantitative approach. The study is an explorative research due to conducting both a documentary analysis and a questionnaire. The factors studied have shown to be of different importance for companies and consumers. The findings indicate that there are multiple types of influencers. The Updated influencer identification model consists of seven important factors; ideal, trust, popularity, productivity, managing sponsorships and collaborations, information content and visual aspect.

Building a corporate brand is as a crucial resource for the survival of companies. Social media as a tool for branding practices has been emphasized in research about startups. In such research, less focus is on certain groups of startups, such as Knowledge-intensive startups (KI Startups). This is peculiar as such startups differ in societal contributions and how they are constituted. Thus, as social media branding practices might enhance the survival rate, it is important to extend this research about KI startups.    The purpose of this thesis is to understand how and why KI startups in Sweden use social media to build their corporate brands in regards of four different branding elements.   The thesis has an exploratory and interpretivist philosophy with an abductive approach. A qualitative method was chosen to collect the empirical data. Firstly, a pilot study which contained a questionnaire was sent to a sample of KI startups to attain an initial understanding of the field. Secondly, semi-structured interviews with six KI startups were conducted for a main study.   The findings indicate that the interviewed KI startups use social media to build brand awareness, influence and engage customers, attract new employees, and to build reputation. The findings also indicate that some KI startups use social media to attain a credible and knowledgeable brand perception.    Our findings may help other KI startups when choosing a social media channel, and what content to post in the brand building process. Suggestions for further research are a similar, but more extensive study in Sweden, or a study in a country that is different to Sweden.

Thesis (MTech (Internal Auditing))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / The research study focuses on the risk management practices and procedures small, medium and large enterprises in the Cape Metropole have in place to mitigate social media risks. Enterprises and employees of these enterprises use social media platforms for business and personal purposes. There usage could have an impact on the enterprise should social media risks materialise due to a lack of formalised risk management practices and procedures. The purpose of the research study is to determine whether enterprises have risk management practices and procedures in place to mitigate social media risks. The research study also expands on the controls enterprises have in place and seeks to gain an understanding of the type of social media platforms used by the enterprise. The research study consisted of a literature review and an empirical study to investigate social media risk management practices and procedures in enterprises. A quantitative research method were used to carry out the required research, by making use of a structured questionnaire to obtain responses from respondents from small, medium and large enterprises in the Cape Metropole. The research results obtained revealed that most enterprises have implemented risk management practices and procedures. However, not all enterprises have risk management functions in place which involves all relevant departments to support in mitigating social media risks, more specifically to monitor and manage adherence to social media policies and procedures. The researcher recommends that enterprises have to enhance their control environment and improve existing risk management functions, practices and procedures on a continuous basis before such risks materialise and potentially damage their enterprise.

Background The emergence of the Internet, and in particular social network sites, has led to the appearance of new powerful actors, i.e. Social Media Influencers, with the power to persuade their audience. This introduced a middleman in the company-consumer relationship and a new stakeholder to build relationships with. Small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) marketing activities differ from traditional practices. SMEs need to be more creative when engaging in Influencer Marketing given their resource constraints. The presence of a relationship can help SMEs to increase and improve their brand image, support the launch of new products and most essentially avoid large investments of Influencer Marketing. Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the methods Swedish SMEs use in their relationship building activities with influencers, as well as the underlying dimensions related to those methods. Method An inductive research approach is utilized, with the aim to extend the current knowledge available about relationship building with influencers. The use of a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews allowed the exploration of how SMEs build relationships with influencers from a management perspective. Conclusion This thesis indicates that Swedish SMEs’ relationship building activities are influenced by certain underlying dimensions. These are adherence to brand values, timeline of the collaboration, nature of the product, paid and earned forms of collaborations and the types of relationships SMEs establish: formal and informal. The means used by SMEs when building relationship with influencers were identified as communication, events, feedback and gifts. Further, resource constraints did not appear to influence how SMEs build relationships with influencers but instead the type and number of influencers they work with.

The work in this thesis sets out to explore how students perceive social media use in the context of higher education. More precisely, the focus is on students' use of, experience with, and attitudes toward the integration of social media into their learning environment. To complement this, teachers' incentives for including social media have been studied; to some extent their communication, attitudes, and online activity were also analyzed. The four different studies included in this thesis incorporated three major types of social media technologies: a social networking service (Facebook), a collaborative editable webpage (Wikipedia), and a microblog (Twitter). The studies adopted different approaches to data collection and analysis, including both qualitative and quantitative methods. The specific methods for each study were chosen to accommodate the research questions, for reasons of access to information, and due to ethical considerations. While each study differs in starting point and scope and provide particular contributions to the research area, the main contributions of the work as a whole are connected to findings on attitude changes, the professional role in students' use of social media, their teacher-like actions, confusion regarding moving between the identified roles, and the implementation of social media in higher education. The findings presented here are appropriate for guiding a nuanced discussion regarding the implementation of social media technologies in higher education, an implementation that was found to be contingent on appropriate use and a suitable social context. The findings suggest that the inclusion of social media in non-private contexts generally needs to have a clear aim and strategy for achieving it. The roles defined in this work - in terms of both being a student and the private and professional roles - could also serve as the basis for further exploration in other areas with comparable hierarchies in which it is necessary to understand how the individual relates to self-presentation, technological constraints, and roles, such as the relation between an employer and employee. / Denna avhandling avser att utforska hur studenter upplever användningen av sociala medier i högre utbildning. Närmare bestämt så ligger fokus på studenternas användning, erfarenhet och attityder till sociala medier när dessa integrerats i studenternas lärmiljö. Som komplement har också lärarnas incitament för inkludering av sociala medier belysts, samt i viss utsträckning även deras attityder, användning och kommunikation i respektive socialt medium. Fyra olika studier inkluderas i denna avhandling, och inkorporerar i sin tur tre olika typer av sociala medier: en social nätverkstjänst (Facebook), en publikt redigerbar webbplats (Wikipedia), och en mikroblogg (Twitter). Vidare har studierna använt olika metoder för datainsamling och analys, där både kvalitativa samt kvantitativa metoder finns representerade. Metoderna valdes med hänsyn till forskningsfrågorna, men baserades även på informationstillgång och etiska överväganden. De enskilda studierna hade olika syften och omfattning, och därigenom har de bidragit till specifika forskningsfynd. Huvudbidraget från detta arbete är kopplat till slutsatser kring studenters attitydförändringar, den professionella rollen i studenters användning av sociala medier, deras lärarliknande agerande, förvirring beträffande att röra sig mellan de identifierade rollerna, och implementeringen av sociala medier i högre utbildning. Resultaten utgör en grund för en nyanserad diskussion kring implementeringen av sociala medier i högre utbildning; en implementation som beror på lämpligt användande i lämplig social kontext. En tolkning av detta är att inkluderande av sociala medier i icke-privata kontexter bör ha ett klart mål och en tydlig strategi. Rollerna som definieras i detta arbete - student, privat och professionell - utgör underlag för utforskande inom områden där jämförbara hierarkier finns representerade och där det är nödvändigt att förstå hur individen förhåller sig till självpresentation, tekniska begränsningar och roller. Exempel på ett sådant är relationen mellan arbetsgivare och arbetstagare. / <p>QC 20171211</p>