With the rise of social media and the emergence of smartphones, new possibilities have arisen for companies to create and maintain customer relations. Today, customers expect companies to be represented on social media platforms. Customers today will discuss companies and products on social media, regardless of whether the companies are represented on the platforms or not. Therefore, it is important for companies to be present on these platforms in order to be a part of the discussion. On Instagram, a company can share content that would perhaps be unfitting for any other medium. This thesis researches how the top five Interbrand companies on Instagram have worked with marketing and PR, and how their posted content affects the users’ level of interaction.    Two methods of analysis have been used in the writing of this thesis. In the first one, content analysis, the content and level of interaction of 200 Instagram posts were examined. Furthermore, a survey was conducted, with the aim of investigating Instagram users’ motivations for using the platform and of following a company profile on Instagram.   The material has been researched with an overall marketing and public relations perspective. Other theories that have been used concern customer relationship management, self-representation and self-disclosure, back stage and front stage and word-of-mouth theories.   The results show strong indicators that different kinds of posts evoke different levels of user interaction. The companies mainly use Instagram to market their products and to share information about events and new releases. These kinds of posts mainly receive a low level of interaction, with as little as one percent of the companies’ followers liking, and two in 10 000 commenting on the pictures. However, when the companies utilized Instagram’s co-creative features, for example by encouraging the users to use company specific hashtags, the level of interaction increased by as much as five times. Other interesting results concern back stage sharing and how interaction affects trust in a company’s message.

Denna rapport presenterar en utveckling av uDecide, som är ett sorts hjälpmedel för att lättare kunna ta beslut. Ett verktyg som man kan använda för att ställa frågor till andra människor med hjälp av en bild och svarsalternativ för att få ett personligt svar eller åsikt. Syftet med detta projekt är att utveckla en användbar hi-fi prototyp som i sin tur ska vidareutvecklas av webbyrån Roxbury och uDecidegrundarna. Arbetet utgår från en befintlig uDecide iOS mobilapplikation, och fokus har lagts på att förbättra användarupplevelsen och implementera nya funktioner. Med hjälp av förstudier och användartester har vi utvecklat en webbaserad, responsiv hi fi-prototyp. Lösningen presenterar ny utveckling av navigering, struktur på inlägg och ny meny. Ett kommentarsfält har implementerats i hi-fi prototypen vilket kommer att ge användarna möjlighet att interagera med varandra och ge mer personliga åsikter. / This report describes a development of the mobile application uDecide. uDecide is a tool which you can use to ask other people a question including a picture and alternative answers to get an individual answer or opinion. The objective of this project is to develop an usable hi-fi prototype, which in turn will be further developed by the web designers Roxbury and the founders of uDecide. The development originates from a current uDecide IOS mobile application and focus is to improve user satisfaction and to implement new functions. Supported by pre-development research and user tests we have developed a webbased, responsive and interactive hi-fi prototype. The solution presents a new development in navigation, structure of additions and responses, including a new menu. A commentary function has been implemented in the hi-fi prototype, which will give the users the option to interact and provide more personal opinions.

A relação das pessoas com a fotografia vem sendo alterada pela conjunção de dois fatores: a evolução das câmeras digitais e o compartilhamento de fotografias na Internet. A popularização tanto das câmeras como da Internet criou condições para que as pessoas pudessem massivamente publicar imagens na rede mundial de computadores, tornando-se componente de uma modificação na cultura, definida por Henry Jenkins como cultura da convergência, em que as pessoas assumem um papel mais participativo na produção e consumo de bens simbólicos. O consumo e fruição da fotografia passam por transformações que envolvem o novo suporte: a tela digital regida por uma interface, e este suporte reduz a relação de tempo que as pessoas gastam observando a fotografia. O acesso rápido e fácil promovido pela rede também confere à fotografia a possibilidade de ter maior alcance, maior tráfego, o que pode conferir-lhe maior valor de exposição, no sentido atribuído a este termo por Walter Benjamin. Surgem comunidades de grande porte, como o Flickr, com bilhões de imagens publicadas. Na rede, elas também passam a estar indexadas por sistemas buscadores que permitem às pessoas encontrar fotografias com os temas que têm interesse e permitindo o contato direto com o autor das mesmas, o que possibilita o surgimento de um comércio direto de imagens. Todos esses fatores acabam por influenciar a forma que a fotografia é produzida e o espaço no mercado para a atuação dos fotógrafos profissionais. Para descrever esses fatores, foram realizadas uma pesquisa bibliográfica, uma entrevista aberta e algumas entrevistas semiabertas como abordagem metodológica. / The relation of people with photography has been changed by the conjunction of two factors: the evolution of digital cameras and the sharing of photography via the Internet. The popularization of both digital cameras and the Internet has created conditions so that people can prolifically publish images on the Word Wide Web. It has become a component of a cultural shift, defined by Henry Jerkins as a convergence culture, in which people take a more participative role in the production and consumption of symbolic goods. Consumption and enjoyment of photography has been transformed by a new medium: the digital screen controlled by an interface, and this medium changes the relationship with time that people have while observing photography. The quick and easy access promoted by the net also gives photography the possibility of greater reach and greater traffic, which can give them greater exhibition value, in the sense attributed to this term by Walter Benjamin. Large communities have flourished, such as Flickr, with billions of images published. On the net, they also become indexed by search engines which allow people to find photographs with the the themes that they are interested in and permitting for direct contact with the photographer, allowing for a direct market of images. All of these factors influence the form by which photography is produced and the marketplace for professional photographers. To describe these factors bibliographic research as well as both open and semi-open interviews using a methodological approach were conducted.

Dagens teknik erbjuder en mängd olika sätt för människor att kommunicera och interagera med varandra. Denna uppsats är en studie i bilddelning på sociala medier med fokus på amatörfotografers användande av tekniken i syfte för att nå ut med sina fotografier. Huvudfokus lades på vad för strategier de använde sig av, men även på användarnas olika målsättningar. Med hjälp av tidigare forskningsarbeten och djupgående intervjuer har vi lyckats återkoppla den egna empirin med våra teoretiska utgångspunkter och dragit slutsatsen att användandet av sociala medier i syftet för att nå ut med sina bilder till andra människor varierar väldigt stort från person till person. Hur tekniken används för detta syfte är därmed unikt för den individuelle användaren, dock har vi lyckats identifiera vissa likheter i användandet av sociala medier i dessa syften. / Today’s technology offers a variety of ways for people to communicate and interact with each other. This paper is a study of photo sharing through social media networks with a focus on the amateur photographers’ usage of this technology in order to widen the spread of their pictures. A key focus was placed on what kinds of strategies were used, but also on what kind of motivations the photographers had. Using previous research and in depth interviews we’ve managed to combine our own empirical data with our theoretical interpretations and have come to the conclusion that the use of social media in the purpose of reaching out with photos to other people varies greatly depending on the person being asked. Thus, how this technology is used depends wholly on the individual user. However, we have managed to identify some similarities in the usage social media for these purposes.

Genom århundraden har bilden varit en viktig del i vårt samhälle. Den har varit en källa till underhållning, sparande av minnen och även ett sätt att kommunicera på. Bilder har använts på många olika sätt och sedan 1800-talet har vi kunnat fånga bilder genom fotografier. Med den teknik vi har i dag, kan bilder tas och delas via mobiltelefonen och på grund av detta har fotodelning ökat snabbt. Inte bara genom att vi nu har ett urval av olika fotodelningsapplikationer, utan de erbjuder även verktyg för att retuschera bilder innan de delas vidare med fördefinierade filter för enkel redigering. Vi var därför intresserade av hur dessa verktyg påverkat vårt sätt att retuschera bilder. Med det menar vi om möjligheten att använda filter förändrat hur vi tänker om retuschering och om detta spelat roll i vårt sätt att dela bilder. Resultat från enkät och intervjustudierna har visat att majoriteten av de foton som delas går genom någon form av retuschering. Vare sig det är genom fördefinierade filter eller om de redigeras manuellt finns det mycket få användare av fotodelningsapplikationer som delar oredigerade bilder. Vidare har det visat sig, som en effekt av filterfunktionen, att fler människor introduceras för konsten att redigera. / Through centuries the picture has been an important element in our community. It’s been a source to entertainment, memory sharing and also a way of communication. Pictures have been used in many ways and since the 19th century we have been able to capture pictures on photos. With the technology we have today, pictures can be taken and shared via the cellphone and because of this the photo-sharing have increased rapidly. Not only do we now have a selection of different photo-sharing networks they also offer tools to retouch the photos before sharing with predefined filters for easy editing. We were therefore interested in how these tools influence the way we retouch our photos. By that we mean if the opportunity to use filter affect how we think about retouching and if this affect the way we share our photos. By questionnaire and interview study, the result showed us that the majority of the photos that are being shared are going through some kind of retouches. Whether it is by predefined filters or if they are manually edited there are very few users of photo-sharing networks who shares unedited photos. Further it has merged that because of the filter function, more people are being introduced to the art of editing.

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