Communications through Social media : New Challenges for Organizations

AbstractTitle: Communications through Social media – new challenges for organizations Kommunikation i sociala medier – nya utmaningar för organisationerAuthor: Jenny Lilius Location: University of Kalmar Language: Swedish Number of pages: 46 (62 including appendix) Level: BA Thesis in media and Communications StudiesAim: The main purpose of this thesis was to explore what kind of challenges organizations face when communicating through social media. Because social media is a new phenomenon the thesis also examined how organizations active in Sweden today looks upon, defines, monitoring what is said about them and uses social media today.Method: The thesis was based upon the qualitative gathering of empirical facts. Through deep interviews with five organizations and literature studies the author was able to gather the results.Theories The analysis is primarily based upon theories about organizational communications such as PR, Rogers’s diffusions of innovations and the marketing mix. But the study also includes theories digital communication and the different views upon communications.Main results: Through my thesis I was able to find out that the organizations look upon social media the same way as many PR consultants and practitioners do. Their mutual viewpoint is that social media is a consumer generated media and a platform for dialogue. This led me to the conclusion that an academic definition should be able to be drawn as well. The way the organizations defines social media differs from how they use it in their communication. All the contributory organizations use social media mainly for PR and marketing purposes and not for conversations with their surroundings. All but one organization have some kind of contemporary social and environmental analysis that includes social media. The thesis shows that there are many challenges that organizations have to face when deciding to start communicating through social media. The biggest challenge is to decide to what degree the organization is willing to have a rewarding and mutual dialogue or just want to use the media to reach new target audience.Keywords: Social media, sociala medier, web 2.0, Organisationskommunikation,Organizational Communications, omvärldsbevakning