Problem: Facebook is the most frequent and most used Social Media of our time. Facebook shapes new opportunities in communication and collaboration between companies and consumers that have not been possible before. Facebook is a marketing channel that gives companies an easy and free way of sharing fast information and communication online. However, Facebook’s main purpose is to maintain and create relationships online. Researchers say that in order to have a long-term relationship with loyal consumers, trust is needed. Therefore, it is interesting for companies to know the important variables that can create trust on Facebook. Trust generates loyalty and long-lasting relationship that in turn guarantee an income over time. The strengthening the relationship over Facebook is a free and fast way of creating these benefits to a company. Purpose: This study investigates important variables in the trust building process between companies and consumers on Facebook. We also explore how trust can be created in the relationship trough the companies Facebook activities. The thesis contains a case study of three different companies that use Facebook as a marketing channel. The reason behind the case study was to explore how these companies work to create trust. Methodology: The study is qualitative research and is based on three existent cases. In-depth interviews and observations of Swedish companies were the two methodologies used. Conclusions: The Facebook-Trust model was developed and represent how trust can be created through over Facebook. Companies can use the Facebook-Trust model in order to create trust in the relationship with the consumer. The case study revealed that the companies did not work according to the model. Companies are not aware of that they can create trust on Facebook. Therefore, the Facebook-Trust model is useful for the companies in this study.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to create an understanding of how customer engagement, communication / interaction and customer insight are driving forces behind the use of Social CRM from a leadership perspective. Method: The purpose of the study, we believed it was appropriate to use a qualitative approach to conduct the study. The empirical data were collected through semi-structured interviews. The sample consisted of 10 companies located in the Gävle area who are active on social media. The interviews were coded to obtain keywords and patterns. These patterns and keywords are then analyzed to arrive at the study's results. Results and contributions: Our results suggest that all the identified benefits, customer engagement, customer insight and communication are driving forces to make use of social CRM. However, they are used to different extents with different purposes. The two main drivers are customer engagement and communication. Customer insight is the driving force that is used least extensively and least consciously. Our investigation has confirmed much of the already existing research in this area but also highlighted that all driving forces do not have the same priority. Our study contributes to a better understanding of the driving forces behind the use of social CRM.

This study explores the association between the Customer Relationship Orientation of a company, their Social Media Use through Social Customer Relationship Management Capabilities, with Customer Relationship Performance in order to determine if Social Media can be used as an effective Customer Relationship Management tool in a business-to-business context. In addition, the research will explain if the company’s expectations conform to the customer’s experience. Four digital managers within Swedish small and medium sized enterprises were interviewed and 34 of their corresponding customers took part in an online survey. The findings indicated due to companies limited Social Customer Relationship Management Capabilities the positive impact on Customer Relationship Performance was not achieved through Social Media Use. Furthermore the online surveys revealed that Social Media is not the most effective Customer Relationship Management tool, nevertheless a weak relationship was found and thus Social Media can be used in addition to the companies’ already established Customer Relationship Management activities. Future research will focus on increasing the sample size, revisiting the study in a few years, and why certain intermediaries were significant.

Sociala medier har medfört en revolutionerande förändring av människors livsstil och grundligt även förändrat hur affärsverksamheter samspelar med sina kunder. Numera spelar sociala medier en viktig roll när det gäller att vara konkurrenskraftig på marknaden. Genom sociala medier kan organisationer komma närmare sina kunder och skapa goda relationer. Denna studie undersöker hur små hotell i Stockholms län arbetar med marknadsföring via sociala medier med fokus på kundcentrering. Studien utgår från en kvalitativ ansats. De insamlade datamaterialet består av nio intervjuer med respondenter från olika hotell. Med hjälp av tidigare forskning har skribenterna tagit fram en teoretisk syntes vilken beskriver sju punkter som handlar om arbetet med kundcentrerad marknadsföring via sociala medier. Den teoretiska syntesen har varit till hjälp i analyseringen av empirin. Resultatet visar att små hotell kommit långt i arbetet med kundcentrering med hjälp av sociala medier. Det visade sig att hotellen tar god hänsyn till kunders feedback som också tillämpas inom verksamhetens utveckling. Resultatet visar även att de små hotellen ser fler möjligheter inom sociala medier som de skulle kunna utveckla och arbeta mer med. / Social media has brought a revolutionary change in people's lifestyles and has changed the interaction between businesses and their customers. Nowadays social media plays an important role when being competitive on the market. Through social media, organizations can come closer to their customers and create good relationships. This study research how small hotels in Stockholm County use marketing, through social media, as a tool when focusing on the customers. The study is based on a qualitative approach. The data collected consists of nine interviews with respondents from different hotels. With the help of previous research, the writers have developed a theoretical synthesis which describes seven points that deal with the work of customer-centered marketing, through social media. Theoretical synthesis has been helpful in the analysis of empiricism. The result shows that small hotels have come a long way in focusing on customer centering using social media. It turned out that the hotels take good care of customers feedback, that is also applied in the business development. The result also shows that the small hotels see more opportunities in social media that they could develop and continue to work with.

This multiple case study focuses on the customer relationship management (CRM) processes and the management of customer data within two international business-to-business (B2B) companies based in the southern parts of Sweden.  This study explores and compares these companies’ approaches to CRM in today’s era of social media and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). A qualitative research method in the form of 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted and later analyzed through coding using grounded theory.   The findings of this study show that the companies studied work in both different and similar ways when it comes to CRM, with one having recently implemented a new CRM system while the other relies on their enterprise resource (ERP) system for the same purposes. Neither company are proactively using social media and although both companies have taken action to adapt to the new rules set by the GDPR, neither seem to know exactly how it works. Through its theoretical-, managerial-, as well as social policy implications, this study contributes to the existing research on CRM in a B2B context by providing a contemporary perspective which takes into account the influence of social media and the GDPR.

How much is a brand worth? Brand equity is a measurement that reflects brand valuation, and is built through a brand’s various products, actions and activities. According to the Consumer Based Brand Equity (CBBE) model, the epitome of equity is achieved when the brand and the people are in a relationship, when the brand resonates with people. Until a few years back, most of this relationship played out in real life, but the arrival of new media and social media in particular is changing this. Brands are migrating into the realm of social media where people are socialising like never before. People move to social media, and so to maintain a relationship with them brands need to be there too. However, how do they go about engaging with people in these relatively unchartered waters? Is there a formula, a strategy that fits all? This study examines how brands work to maintain relationships with people in social media through looking at Social CRM and strategies that encourage participation and involvement. It aims to see whether there are differences in how different brand types manage their relationship with fans on the largest and most extensive social networking site, Facebook. Brands satisfy consumer needs and these influence consumer purchase decisions. The brand types investigated correspond to the different levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as it is the most cited and respected categorisation available. This means that a wide variety of brand are eligible for the investigation as long as their primary use is to satisfy one of the needs described by Maslow. The investigation takes the shape of a content analysis of 20 brands from four need categories (physiological, safety, behavioural, and ego), accompanied by a case study of one of these brands to illustrate the points made based on the quantitative data. What the data showed was that brands in general primarily focus on content rather than contact and collaboration in their engagement plans. Content is least time intensive and also easily involves the 90 percent of people that are categorises as lurkers. Two-way communication is encouraged but it varies between brand types. Brands within the safety need category were most open to two-way communication and also used it for customer service purposes. Collaboration is encouraged in social media but it is still used very sparsely, physiological brands being the most open to collaboration. However, the collaboration is more often cause-related than brand product/service-related.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Facebook activities on relationship drivers and relational benefits and the effect of relationship drivers of relational benefits perceived by customers to Pite Havsbad. To do this we have explored the relationship between a number of Facebook activities, relationship drivers and relational benefits. We developed two conceptual models, which included these relationships. We have written this degree project on commission for Pite Havsbad, which is a company that operates in the hotel industry in the county of Norrbotten in the north of Sweden. The research question that we formulated was as following:   What kind of impact does Facebook activities have on relationship drivers and relational benefits in the hospitality industry?   With this research question we aimed to make a practical contribution and to help Pite Havsbad develop their social media strategies in order to be able to build customer relationships. We also aimed to make a theoretical contribution to fill the research gap that exists in the research area on social media and customer relationship building. We used a quantitative data collection method in the form of a survey administered on Pite Havsbad’s Facebook page. Our population consist of the approximately 6 300 fans that Pite Havsbad has on Facebook. The data continuing of was 256 responses were processed in SPSS by conducting Cronbach’s alpha test, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis in order to test the hypothesized effects between our key variables.   The findings from this degree project show that Facebook activities affect both the relationship drivers and relational benefits, although they have less effect on relational benefits. The relational benefits are though highly affected by the relationship drivers. Over all, the Facebook activities of Pite Havsbad were highly valued by the respondents, which means that all of them are important to work with. Many of the activities also had positive effects on the relationship drivers, which means they can be used to build relationships with customers. By conducting this research we also helped Pite Havsbad with the starting point of creating a Social CRM strategy, which can be used for future relationship building with their fans on Facebook.

Social media is a rapidly rising phenomenon, providing new opportunities for consumers and businesses to communicate and share information. The development of social media has allowed for customer relationship management (CRM) to extend its area of use, coining the now common concept social CRM. Social CRM allows for new levels of interactivity between companies and consumers, however the effectiveness of social CRM is uncertain in many areas, mainly due to it being hard to tie customer interaction in social CRM to tangibles for the company. One of these areas is customer acquisition, where there are difficulties for companies to see how actions in their social CRM efforts affect customer acquisition. Being able to reach out to customers in an effective way is not enough for companies to acquire a customer. The value the company is proposing also has to be attractive for the customer, to be considered. There are several attributes that a company has to consider for its value proposition, in order for it to be successful. Depending on the industry the attributes can have different weight, emphasizing that companies should know what customers in their industry value. For this reason, having better knowledge of what customers value than the competition, thus having a stronger value proposition, grants a competitive edge. The purpose of this research project is to provide better understanding of how to conduct social CRM, while at the same time investigating how value propositions of telecom companies can be improved, to eventually increase customer acquisition. In order to fulfill the purpose, extensive literature has been evaluated, in addition to data gathered in focus groups. Three focus groups were conducted in Luleå, Sweden, with a total of 18 participants of ages 20-30. The results of the research project point towards the customer being in charge of social CRM interaction with companies, meaning companies have to adapt their social CRM strategies to fit the customers’ desires. The social customer have high demands of privacy in social media, which implies a thin line companies have to walk to convey their message, while at the same time not intruding on the customer’s privacy. The findings also indicate that customers want high flexibility, simplicity, and trustworthiness from telecom companies’ value propositions, emphasizing companies to adapt their value propositions to meet these demands.

The goal of this thesis is to analyse ways companies, entrepreneurs or individuals can present themselves in terms of marketing on the internet especially with regards to the spread of social networks and growing significance of internet as a means of communication. Along with the possibilities of new marketing instruments, I focus on their influence on consumers and internet users. Goals of the thesis will be achieved by means of studying internet sources, specialized magazines and books, and by research among internet users. The research will be done by means of an internet questionnaire. The thesis is divided into five parts. The first two parts describe the environment of contemporary internet such as social networks, technologies, social CRM, and a definition of Web 2.0. Third part addresses technological possibilities of linking social networks to external applications. The fourth, practical part of the thesis is focused on the research among internet users and their opinion and behaviour on the internet with regards to marketing and the fifth part brings a thought on future development and use of marketing on the internet. I can see a contribution of this thesis in bringing new knowledge to potential advertisers on the internet so that they can -- based on my findings - decide and get inspiration in some of the contemporary or future advertising solutions and also for current advertising space providers and advertisers who get information on how different ways of promotion influence the consumers.

The rise of social media has challenged the traditional notionof CRM and introduced a new paradigm, known as socialCRM. While there are many benefits and opportunitiesassociated with the integration of social data in CRMsystems, a majority of companies are failing their social CRMimplementation. Since social CRM is still considered to be ayoung phenomenon, knowledge regarding itsimplementation and functionalities is limited. The purpose ofthis study is to contribute to the current state of knowledgeregarding the factors which influence the practicalimplementation of social CRM. In order to capturestate-of-the-art knowledge on this topic, a literature reviewwas conducted. In addition, interviews with CRM expertsworking within five Swedish companies were included inorder to gain additional insights from practice. Findingsindicate that the key features needed for social CRMimplementation revolve around the real-time monitoring,collection, processing, storing and analyzing of social data.Advanced technical tools, such as Big Data Technology, aredeemed required in order to handle large volumes of dataand properly transform it into valuable knowledge. The mostsignificant challenges identified heavily revolve aroundlimited knowledge as well as various technical andorganizational limitations. Additionally, findings indicatethat a multitude of uncertainties of practitioners revolvearound data legislations and privacy concerns. Hence, whilesocial CRM can entail a multitude of benefits, there are asignificant number of challenges which seem to stand in theway of unlocking the full potential of social CRM. In orderfor social CRM implementation to be made more accessiblefor organizations in the future, there is a need for moreknowledge and clarity regarding factors such as technicalsolutions, organizational changes and legislations.