Sociala medier : Hur företag använder sociala medier som ett verktyg inom kommunikation och skapandet av relationer

Tools and strategies for communicating with customers have changed a lot since social media became a trend in the virtual world. The development of social media has been shown to require an understanding of whether the information, entertainment and commerce can be linked together when it is no longer only companies that can spread a message to customers. Researchers argue that social media has become a hybrid of the marketing mix when using only traditional ways makes it possible to communicate business-­‐to-­‐customer and today social media allows customers to talk to each other, which can create both risks and opportunities for companies.The purpose of this study was to identify how companies use social media as a tool in marketing and to examine whether companies create close relationships through social media. The purpose was also to highlight the risks companies perceive in the usage of social media. I have chosen to investigate three research questions where the first of them intended to answer how companies use social media as a tool in marketing. The second research question examined responded to how companies create sustainable relationships through social media, and the last of them the risks companies perceive the use of social media might cause, and what risks by not doing so.The study was conducted by collecting answers through interviews with companies that interact through social media. The study showed that companies use social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and forums, to communicate with customers, where the communication is a two-­‐way communication. The study also showed that, as in theory, there is no unanimous answer when it comes to whether companies can create close relationships with its customers through social media. The sentences on the subject has proved to be shared and two of the companies believe that companies and customers cannot form close relationships, while one of them believe. In order to make a safer analysis more empirical data on issue is required. Furthermore, this study has shown that there are risks to use social media as well as to not do. One of the risks observed in the study are that the power that customers have when it comes to spreading information to others. Other risks regarding the use of social media that has been highlighted is the way companies choose to communicate with customers. The companies have stressed the importance of creating a strategy, as they will communicate through social media.Validerat; 20121106 (anonymous