Instagram - a tool for internal communication : A case study of the rotation curation account @Skaraborgsregemente

The purpose of this case study is to investigate how and why social media can be used as a tool for internal communications. Research has been made on how employees interpret and use the external communication at an Instagram account. The study is conducted as a qualitative in-depth case study and is based on three semi-structured focus group interviews with employees at Skaraborgs regiment; a semi-structured interview with the communications manager; and access to a number of documents from the regiment. In total, 12 employees participated in the interviews. The study has been conducted remotely with video interviews. The results of the interviews have been analyzed through the theoretical lens of auto communication which illustrates how external information can be converted into internal information. The information at @Skaraborgsregemente is interpreted by employees and converted into internal information that they use in their workday. The study proposes that the auto-communication model be supplemented with external influences, which makes the model more sensitive to external communication. This may affect the sender's message and also the receiver's interpretation when the model is applied in the Web 2.0 environment. Treem and Leonardi's (2013) theory of Affordances focus on social media as a contributer to the internal communications processes. With the support of the Affordances theory the study shows that the regiment by stimulating news flow, facilitating sharing of information and knowledge and contributing to an overall perspective the Instagram account contributes to the internal communications processes at the regiment. The study reports that employees use @Skaraborgsregemente in ten different ways: recruitment, education, news flow, recognition, personal knowledge, cross-border geographical, overall perspective, regiment spirit, uniform rules and safety issues