The proliferation of social networking sites (SNS) over the last 20 years is a techno-social phenomenon of our age. Since it emerged in 2004, Facebook, the most popular social network in the world, steadily outcompeted its rivals in the overwhelming majority of countries. However, there are a few exceptions, Russia being one of them: Vkontakte, country’s local SNS, has remained the most popular site of this kind in Russia. The aim of this master thesis is to discover what motivates Russian SNS users to prefer a domestic networking site over its global rival Facebook. Uses and gratification theory and social network theory form a theoretical framework of this study and guide the choice of methodology, as well as the process of analysis and discussion. Qualitative methodological approach, and in particular interviews and comparative case study, was applied in this research. Thus, 14 interviewees were recruited and asked about their experiences of Vkontakte and Facebook usage. In addition, the comparative analysis of both sites was conducted in order to establish the differences in tools, features and services which potentially could influence the usage patterns of Russian SNS users. It was discovered that the difference in a number and quality of tools on Facebook and Vkontakte, primarily video and audio, significantly influence the frequency of usage and time spent on these sites. Moreover, it was established that the networks of Russian users on Vkontakte contain both weak and strong ties, while Facebook networks contain mostly weak ties, which makes global network less interesting and attractive for country’s users. And finally, the study suggests that although both sites have noticeable disadvantages, users tend to think of Vkontakte as a more favorable SNS even in this respect and highlight that their dissatisfaction with some aspects of Facebook usage was greater than that of Vkontakte. The study provides novel information regarding under-researched topic of SNS usage in Russia, and thus contributes to the existing academic works in the field.

This study analyzes the official Vkontakte group of United Russia during the period of January 10 – April 10, 2013. Parliamentary majorities of United Russia have been a pillar of the Russian political regime which, despite being undemocratic, is still characterized by considerable competition. Therefore, the study draws upon the two-way symmetrical model of public relations which is compatible with the catch-all character of the party and the horizontal, open-ended nature of social networks. According to the model, an organization wishing to build an attractive image should communicate with its publics in a two-way fashion and be ready to change in accordance with people’s preferences.   The method of content analysis is employed in the study in order to establish instances of two-way communication between the members of the group and its moderators. Special attention is paid to discussions regarding legislation since such conversations can clearly evidence that the party is ready to react to ordinary people’s interests and preferences. However, according to the findings of the study, the users’ messages seldom received feedback and almost all of their suggestions and questions regarding legislation were ignored.

The social networks are becoming very popular among both general users and companies. More and more firms are using them as an efficient tool of advertising and promoting themselves. Today, there exist plenty of social networks. Among them, Facebook and Twitter are the most world-wide popular and well-known. Besides, some countries have their own ones, as in case of Russia where the leading social network is Vkontakte. The aim that this thesis faces is to make an observation how social networks are used in different countries, to compare the results and give recommendations to the studied countries France, Russia and Sweden in the example of Subway Company. Besides, another aim of our thesis is to provide Subway Vietnam with recommendations about how to be as efficient as possible on Facebook, based on the three observed countries: France, Russia and Sweden. The social networks are start to be discussed in the scientific literature, thus there is not enough of suitable literature. Still we chose the content strategy and social media as the leading frame of reference. These theories accompanied with method we chose in our observation and analytical part. Our chosen method is qualitative approach with netnography and interview tools applied for the case study in the example of Subway Company in France, Russia, Sweden and Vietnam. The observations and analysis are made individually to every country and later compared in a summarizing table in order to provide recommendations to every country and particularly to Vietnam which Subway has just entered. This thesis is contributed to Subway Company and its local branches particularly in France, Russia, Sweden and Vietnam. In general, this work can be regarded as guidelines for companies that use social networks in the promoting aims.