<p>Uppsatsen syftar till att beskriva och analysera hur SJ använder Twitter som ett nytt kommunikationsverktyg. Den stora krisen under vintern 2009/2010 har tagits in som en variabel för att se hur SJ har jobbat för att bevara legitimitet och anseende. Utifrån teorier om anseendehantering, kommunikation och krishantering har en teoretisk bas skapats. Med denna bakgrund utfördes två kvalitativa intervjuer samt en insamling av sekundärdata i form av ett webinarium gällande SJ:s arbete med Twitter samt en kategorisering av Twitterinlägg.</p><p>Analysen visar att sociala medier kan upprätthålla ett gott anseende, dels genom att företaget verkar modernt gentemot sin omgivning, dels genom den optimala typen av kommunikation som kan föras i kanalen. Krissituationer måste i sociala medier mötas med flexibilitet, både när det gäller vilken typ av kommunikation som förs i kanalen samt vilken tillgänglighet kanalen har. Dessutom måste företag vara väl förberedda så att de kan leva upp till kundernas ökade förväntningar. Annars kan deras anseende skadas.</p><p> </p> / <p>This thesis aims at describing and analysing how SJ uses Twitter as a new communication tool. The big crisis during the winter of 2009/2010 has been brought in as a variable to see how SJ has worked to maintain their legitimacy and reputation. Through theories on reputation management, communication and crisis management, a theoretical base has been created. With this background two interviews have been made and secondary data, including both a webinar about SJ’s work with Twitter and a categorization of Twitter posts, has been collected.</p><p>The analysis shows that social media can be used to maintain a solid reputation both by making the organization look modern and also through the optimal type of communication within the channel. It is important that a crisis is met with flexibility in social media, both when it comes to type of communication and the availability it provides. The organisation also needs to be well prepared to meet a crisis so that it can live up to the raised expectations of the customers. If not the reputation can be harmed.</p>

Uppsatsen syftar till att beskriva och analysera hur SJ använder Twitter som ett nytt kommunikationsverktyg. Den stora krisen under vintern 2009/2010 har tagits in som en variabel för att se hur SJ har jobbat för att bevara legitimitet och anseende. Utifrån teorier om anseendehantering, kommunikation och krishantering har en teoretisk bas skapats. Med denna bakgrund utfördes två kvalitativa intervjuer samt en insamling av sekundärdata i form av ett webinarium gällande SJ:s arbete med Twitter samt en kategorisering av Twitterinlägg. Analysen visar att sociala medier kan upprätthålla ett gott anseende, dels genom att företaget verkar modernt gentemot sin omgivning, dels genom den optimala typen av kommunikation som kan föras i kanalen. Krissituationer måste i sociala medier mötas med flexibilitet, både när det gäller vilken typ av kommunikation som förs i kanalen samt vilken tillgänglighet kanalen har. Dessutom måste företag vara väl förberedda så att de kan leva upp till kundernas ökade förväntningar. Annars kan deras anseende skadas. / This thesis aims at describing and analysing how SJ uses Twitter as a new communication tool. The big crisis during the winter of 2009/2010 has been brought in as a variable to see how SJ has worked to maintain their legitimacy and reputation. Through theories on reputation management, communication and crisis management, a theoretical base has been created. With this background two interviews have been made and secondary data, including both a webinar about SJ’s work with Twitter and a categorization of Twitter posts, has been collected. The analysis shows that social media can be used to maintain a solid reputation both by making the organization look modern and also through the optimal type of communication within the channel. It is important that a crisis is met with flexibility in social media, both when it comes to type of communication and the availability it provides. The organisation also needs to be well prepared to meet a crisis so that it can live up to the raised expectations of the customers. If not the reputation can be harmed.

Title: A municipality among others? A case study of Skellefteå kommuns selfpresentation This essay is a case study aimed to explore how a Swedish municipality portrait itself in its external communication. Increased competition due to bigger autonomy have made it more important for Swedish municipalities to appear attractive in relation to businesses, investors and potential immigrants. However, municipalities are big and complex organizations with many different stakeholders, which makes it difficult for them to appear as unique brands. The specific municipality targeted by this case study is Skellefteå kommun. Skellefteå kommun is considered particularly interesting in relation to the purpose of this study because they have high ambitions to grow, and as result of this invest heavy in, among other things, industry and housing. This presumably means that the municipality has a need to communicate this to the outside world, and that they actually have something concrete to position themselves against.  The theoretical framework of the essay consists of legitimacy, isomorphism, promotional culture, reputation management and brand communication. Further, to achieve the purpose of the essay a discourse-theoretical approach was applied to selected texts from the website of Skellefteå kommun, with the aim to make visible the values and meanings that Skellefteå kommun constructs about itself. In the analysis, growth was identified as a particularly important discourse, which largely affects the meanings the municipality constructs about itself. The result of the essay also indicates, like previous research, that it is difficult for municipalities to appear as unique. Skellefteå kommun build its brand around a number of universally applicable core values, and in addition to this growth and industrial investments appears as two particularly important competitive advantages. Nevertheless, the municipality’s communication, even in relation to the aforementioned competitive advantages, tends to result in vague formulations and abstract visions about the future.