<p>With the increased use of social media as a marketing tool, marketing strategies and the way brands communicate with customers is changing. Due to its low cost and characteristic short length of messages, Twitter is an especially beneficial marketing tool. Twitter is free and consists of making posts that are easy to compose and easy to consume, which makes it an ideal way for companies, such as startups, to reach customers without having to use many resources. However, companies should be strategic in their use of Twitter and no data exists on the best practices for startup companies as they develop Twitter marketing plans. This study sought to address this issue and explored different methods for engaging followers and which of these methods were the most effective for technology-oriented startups to use. A content analysis revealed that engagement tools, such as media, hashtags, URLs, and mentions serve their intended purpose for tech startups and were related to engagement. However, using conversational, two-way communication, as suggested by marketing companies and literature, proved to not be positively related to engagement rates. One-way, promotional language that is typically advised against was more related to higher engagement. Thus, startup tech companies should continue to prioritize engaging followers with engagement tools but should focus on non-conversational topics, such as their products, events, news, and updates.</p>

In communication and marketing there have been a shift from a transaction focus with emphasis on persuasion to a relationship focus referred to as a two-way communication with increased interactivity. Traditional companies are challenged to understand how their business can take advantage and adapt to the digital changes and opportunities when it comes to communication and building relationships and gain the ability to anticipate and deliver what customers expect them to. B2B companies have a slower adaption to digital media and digital changes compared to B2C companies and when it comes to digital channels there is many opportunities to discover. B2B companies still feel dependent on traditional communication when it comes to building relationships but the digital trend pressure companies to get involved and keep up digitally. The constantly expanding digital landscape force B2B companies to find a way to utilize digital platforms and channels in order to create strong digital relationships with retailer and audience The purpose of this study is to investigate and gain an understanding how B2B wholesalers communicate and build digital relationships with retailers. A qualitative method is used featuring a single-case study with Company X a B2B firm operating in the wholesale trade business as a producer and a wholesaler. Data used in the study is collected from semi-structured interviews with employees from the sales and marketing department. Digital marketing is one of the most emerging tools within communication, that B2B businesses not yet use to its full potential but are eager to discover the opportunities and advantages B2C companies adapted for a long time. B2B businesses use digital tools to support and strengthen the communication and relationship with retailers however findings reveal traditional tools is still the prefered communication method in B2B. Our findings suggest how there are still qualities lacking in digital communication that can only be achieved through traditional communication with psychical meetings. Empirical suggestion on how a B2B company can adopt techniques from B2C and apply it in a B2B context.

This thesis is a philosophical contribution to the theories on risk communication. The topic of risk communication is approached from several different angles, but with a normative focus on equality and vulnerability. Essay I is a comment on risk perception theory and the psychometric model in particular. In risk perception research individual risk taking is described as either a result of valuing the benefits from risk taking or a failure of comprehending the severity or probability of risks. The essay argues that sometimes individuals take risks simply because they are in a vulnerable position and have no other choice. Four factors are identified as crucial in risks from vulnerability: poor outset conditions, lack of reasonable options, hope and liability to disinformation. Essay II addresses the democratic approach to risk communication and the ideal of risk communication as a dialogue between more or less equal stakeholders. The Essay argues that even the more innovative and dialogue oriented approaches to risk communication are unequal. This is often blurred by the confusion between the described ideal and the description of these newer approaches. This inequality is analysed in a three-fold way: influence over the communication process; influence over and access to information; and influence over risk decisions. The Essay develops a typology of different risk communication practices and influence distributions and concludes that the form of risk communication most commonly referred in the literature is the most imbalanced kind where all three types of influence falls to the same party. Essay III explores the concept of trust, an often-mentioned objective for risk communication. The concept of trust is analyzed from previous philosophical approaches, and the idea of trust as comfortable defocusing is introduced. It is argued that not only the gains for the trustee but also the gains and risks for the truster, generally and in the case from risk communication, can be explained by this notion. It is concluded that public trust for institutions or organizations need not be framed on an individual level. Instead, the vulnerability of trusting can be counter-acted by a delegation of different stances, including both control and trust, among different individuals and institutions in society. / QC 20101116

Social media has become an important marketing and communication tool worldwide, mostly through the largest social platforms Facebook and Twitter. With two-way communication via Internet companies has gotten the opportunity to interact and communicate directly with their customers. Facebook has been the focus point through the study because it has shown to be the most efficient and frequently used platform for communication. Our study aimed to confirm how communication via social media actually looks like. To be able to reach the best results, we have conducted the study from a phenomenological approach, which means; usage of qualitative semi-structured interviews to reflect the respondents experience on the phenomenon social media as a communication tool. Social media has shown to be a great way of communicating externally for companies who are willing to spend time engaging in the platform. The opportunities social media has brought, such as interaction has led most of the companies to use social media as their primary communication channel, all thou social media is probably not going to replace the traditional channels. This study has also allowed us to develop a model for communication through social media, for companies who are thinking of communicating through social media, and for companies who are communicating through social media today.

Denna kvantitativa studie undersöker faktorer som kan ha påverkat resultatet på Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions medarbetarundersökning relaterat till påståendet "There is open and honest two-way communication at our company” och varför. Studien tillämpade en enkät som distribuerades på Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions intranät och via e-post och fanns att tillgå för cirka 1900 medarbetare. Totalt besvarade 34 medarbetare på studiens enkät.  Sara von Platens avhandling “Internkommunikation och meningsskapande vid strategisk organisationsförändring: En studie av Sveriges Television” och Mats Heides avhandling “Intranät - En ny arena för kommunikation och lärande” används för perspektiv med relevans för denna studies forskning. Vidare utgår studiens teoretiska ramverk från tvåvägskommunikation, organisationskommunikation och organisationskultur. Studien berör och diskuterar utöver dessa teorier även internkommunikation i relation till studiens resultat.  Inhämtad empiri tyder på att brist på återkoppling, dålig kommunikation och information mellan Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions olika divisioner, utebliven information och brist på att alla får ta del av information kan vara faktorer som påverkat att Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions fått ett lägre resultat på deras senaste medarbetarundersökning kopplat till påståendet "There is open and honest two-way communication at our company”. Upplevd kultur inom organisationen, brist på engagemang från medarbetare och brist på att involvera medarbetare i kommunikationen kan även ha bidragit till att medarbetarundersökningen fick ett lägre resultat kopplat till påståendet som nämnts. / This qualitative study examines factors that may have influenced the results of Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions employee survey related to the statement “There is open and honest two-way communication at our company” and why.  The study applied a survey that was distributed on Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions intranet and was sent out by their internet and e-mail. The survey was available to about 1,900 employees. A total of 34 employees responded to the study’s questionnaire. Sara von Platen’s thesis “Internal communication and meaning-making in strategic organizational change: A study of Swedish Television” and Mats Heide’s thesis “Intranet – A new arena for communication and learning” intended for perspectives with relevance for this study. The study's theoretical framework is based on two-way communication, organizational communication, and organizational culture. In addition to these theories, the study also addresses and discusses internal communication. Collected empirical evidence indicates that lack of feedback, poor communication and information sharing among Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions different divisions and lack of information and failure to provide information to all employees may have affected the results of Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions employee survey related to the statement “There is open and honest two-way communication at our company”. The study further interprets that the culture perceived within the organization, as well as lack of engagement and involvement of employees in communication may also contributed to the lower result.

Past research has shown that dialogic communication has essential characteristics that foster two-way communication between organizations and their stakeholders. This study investigates how public relations firms incorporate the principles of dialogic communication on their websites. The top and bottom 50 websites from the Holmes report on Top 250 Global PR agency rankings were content analyzed. Kent and Taylor’s (1998, 2003) five principles of dialogic communication were applied to find out if public relations firms incorporate the principle of dialogic communication effectively on their websites, provide relevant information for stakeholders and prospective clients, and if there are differences between PR rankings in terms of website usability and the dialogic loop. Findings reveal that bottom 50 PR websites are not as dialogic as the top 50 PR websites. In addition, the study revealed that both top and bottom to a considerable extent incorporated the principles of dialogic communication.

<p>Swedish consulting companies within the architecture-and engineering business exist on a market that is distinguished by an increasing globalization and internationalization. The companies’ commissions are based mostly on long-term, personal clientele. These relations are threatened by a huge number of coming retirements and high employee turnover.</p><p>Consequently these companies need to improve and strengthen their relationships with existing customers, to create long-term employee and customer loyalty. The purpose of this essay was to analyze and evaluate consulting companies´ internal marketing. To elucidate the problem a survey has been performed on three architecture- and engineering business and their client. From the study, elements that are important to create loyalty have been derived. The theories are based on involvement, branding and organization.</p><p>From the result it may be concluded that all consulting companies fulfil every factor considered important to create loyalty. These factors are mainly strong brand, high involvement and customer satisfaction. The companies realize the great importance of personal relations and are aware of the strategic procedures needed to create loyalty. They have also successfully created loyal customers. However, this loyalty is directed to individuals instead of companies.</p><p>The fact that loyalty is directed to individuals instead of companies is not a big problem today, but coming retirements and high employee turnover means that in the future it will be more important to focus on creating loyalty towards the companies. To secure their future situation, the companies need to develop strategies to strengthen customer relations to the company.</p><p>The conclusion is that companies in this position need to work strategically to build their brand image. By creating a stronger brand internally the companies will maintain an attractive working place, increasing loyalty amongst employees. This in turn will strengthen the possibilities to create long-term customer loyalty towards their brand.</p><p>Suggestion to further research is to study additional factors that are important to create loyalty directed to the company.</p> / <p>Svenska konsultföretag inom arkitektur- och teknikbranschen agerar på en marknad som kännetecknas av en ökad globalisering och internationalisering. Företagens uppdrag bygger främst på långsiktiga och personliga kundkontakter som hotas av stora pensionsavgångar och hög personalomsättning. Av denna anledning behöver de nu förstärka relationerna med de befintliga kunderna samt knyta personalen till sig för att skapa både lojala anställda samt lojala kunder. Uppsatsens syfte var att analysera och utvärdera konsultföretagens interna marknadsföring. För att belysa problemet har en surveyundersökning gjorts på tre konsultföretag inom arkitektur- och teknikbranschen, samt hos deras kunder. Utifrån studien skulle faktorer härledas som är viktiga för konsultföretag för att skapa lojala anställda samt lojala kunder. Teoridelen baseras på teorier om involvering, branding och organisation.</p><p>Resultatet visar att konsultföretagen uppfyller samtliga av de faktorer som anses viktiga för att skapa lojalitet. Dessa faktorer är främst starkt varumärke, höginvolvering samt kundtillfredsställelse. Företagen inser vikten av personliga relationer samt är medvetna om de strategiska arbetssätten för att skapa lojala kunder. Studien visar att företagen har lyckats med detta. Lojaliteten är dock personanknuten och inte riktad till företagen.</p><p>Att lojaliteten är personanknuten är i dagsläget inget stort problem, men då stora pensionsavgångar väntar och personalomsättningen blir allt högre kommer det bli mer aktuellt i framtiden att fokusera lojaliteten till företaget. För att säkra situationen i framtiden behöver företagen arbeta strategiskt med att förankra kundkontakterna till företaget.</p><p>Slutsatsen är att företagen i detta läge behöver arbeta strategiskt med att bygga upp sitt varumärke. Genom att börja varumärkesuppbyggandet internt och förankra företagets identitet erhålls en attraktiv arbetsplats, vilket stärker lojaliteten hos de anställda. Vidare ökar detta förutsättningarna för att skapa en långsiktig varumärkeslojalitet hos kunderna.</p><p>Som förslag på vidare forskning gavs, att studera ytterligare faktorer som är viktiga för att skapa varumärkeslojalitet.</p>

<p><strong>Purpose </strong>The purpose is to analyze the parliamentary parties political communication in the social media channels before the election 2010.</p><p><strong>Methodology </strong>This essay is a descriptive study from nine interviews of the responsible people in the parliamentary parties. In addition to that two more interviews were done with social media experts</p><p><strong>Theoretical perspective </strong>This essay is based on two-way communication and communication strategies</p><p><strong>Conclusions </strong>The parliamentary parties use social media as a complement to traditional media. The purpose is to create dialog and to minimize the gap to the voters, but in many ways it is being used as a one-way communication channel.  The parliamentary parties are trying to use the social media channels in Swedish conditions, but in many ways they try to imitate an American used strategy.</p>

Purpose The purpose is to analyze the parliamentary parties political communication in the social media channels before the election 2010. Methodology This essay is a descriptive study from nine interviews of the responsible people in the parliamentary parties. In addition to that two more interviews were done with social media experts Theoretical perspective This essay is based on two-way communication and communication strategies Conclusions The parliamentary parties use social media as a complement to traditional media. The purpose is to create dialog and to minimize the gap to the voters, but in many ways it is being used as a one-way communication channel.  The parliamentary parties are trying to use the social media channels in Swedish conditions, but in many ways they try to imitate an American used strategy.

Swedish consulting companies within the architecture-and engineering business exist on a market that is distinguished by an increasing globalization and internationalization. The companies’ commissions are based mostly on long-term, personal clientele. These relations are threatened by a huge number of coming retirements and high employee turnover. Consequently these companies need to improve and strengthen their relationships with existing customers, to create long-term employee and customer loyalty. The purpose of this essay was to analyze and evaluate consulting companies´ internal marketing. To elucidate the problem a survey has been performed on three architecture- and engineering business and their client. From the study, elements that are important to create loyalty have been derived. The theories are based on involvement, branding and organization. From the result it may be concluded that all consulting companies fulfil every factor considered important to create loyalty. These factors are mainly strong brand, high involvement and customer satisfaction. The companies realize the great importance of personal relations and are aware of the strategic procedures needed to create loyalty. They have also successfully created loyal customers. However, this loyalty is directed to individuals instead of companies. The fact that loyalty is directed to individuals instead of companies is not a big problem today, but coming retirements and high employee turnover means that in the future it will be more important to focus on creating loyalty towards the companies. To secure their future situation, the companies need to develop strategies to strengthen customer relations to the company. The conclusion is that companies in this position need to work strategically to build their brand image. By creating a stronger brand internally the companies will maintain an attractive working place, increasing loyalty amongst employees. This in turn will strengthen the possibilities to create long-term customer loyalty towards their brand. Suggestion to further research is to study additional factors that are important to create loyalty directed to the company. / Svenska konsultföretag inom arkitektur- och teknikbranschen agerar på en marknad som kännetecknas av en ökad globalisering och internationalisering. Företagens uppdrag bygger främst på långsiktiga och personliga kundkontakter som hotas av stora pensionsavgångar och hög personalomsättning. Av denna anledning behöver de nu förstärka relationerna med de befintliga kunderna samt knyta personalen till sig för att skapa både lojala anställda samt lojala kunder. Uppsatsens syfte var att analysera och utvärdera konsultföretagens interna marknadsföring. För att belysa problemet har en surveyundersökning gjorts på tre konsultföretag inom arkitektur- och teknikbranschen, samt hos deras kunder. Utifrån studien skulle faktorer härledas som är viktiga för konsultföretag för att skapa lojala anställda samt lojala kunder. Teoridelen baseras på teorier om involvering, branding och organisation. Resultatet visar att konsultföretagen uppfyller samtliga av de faktorer som anses viktiga för att skapa lojalitet. Dessa faktorer är främst starkt varumärke, höginvolvering samt kundtillfredsställelse. Företagen inser vikten av personliga relationer samt är medvetna om de strategiska arbetssätten för att skapa lojala kunder. Studien visar att företagen har lyckats med detta. Lojaliteten är dock personanknuten och inte riktad till företagen. Att lojaliteten är personanknuten är i dagsläget inget stort problem, men då stora pensionsavgångar väntar och personalomsättningen blir allt högre kommer det bli mer aktuellt i framtiden att fokusera lojaliteten till företaget. För att säkra situationen i framtiden behöver företagen arbeta strategiskt med att förankra kundkontakterna till företaget. Slutsatsen är att företagen i detta läge behöver arbeta strategiskt med att bygga upp sitt varumärke. Genom att börja varumärkesuppbyggandet internt och förankra företagets identitet erhålls en attraktiv arbetsplats, vilket stärker lojaliteten hos de anställda. Vidare ökar detta förutsättningarna för att skapa en långsiktig varumärkeslojalitet hos kunderna. Som förslag på vidare forskning gavs, att studera ytterligare faktorer som är viktiga för att skapa varumärkeslojalitet.