Pinning Down Identity in Social Media: Food Cultural Transfer on Pinterest

This research has been conducted within the realm of where today’s digital media society and the timeless concept of cultural identity overlap. The aim of this thesis is to explore the nature of online cultural identity management. By focusing on the social media platform, Pinterest, this study considers the food-pinning behavior of a group of Americans living in Finland and connects their online actions with their cultural identity. Through an examination of Pinterest as a social space, and even a third place, the relative theoretical literature provides and interesting background for a contemporary discussion on the matter. Literature on food as a cultural marker is also brought into consideration. Using the methods of introspection and an adapted version of virtual ethnography, a study was conducted, and ultimately, the analysis of data obtained from the Pinterest boards of ten individuals shows that the vast majority of food-related information in this setting is US-sourced. A questionnaire provides further insight into the individuals’ Pinterest usage. I argue that pinning is an act of online identity management, whether it is a conscious act or a situational effect, and that using Pinterest maintains and even strengthens these individuals’ cultural identity as Americans. This study adds to current discussions pertaining to transnationalism, globalization, and online cultural identity, as well as opens channels for further research on this dynamic topic, which is needed to understand ourselves as cultural beings in the digital age.

Sosiaalinen rekrytointikanava - tykkääjien kokemukset yrityksen Facebook-sivusta, case Rekrytointipalvelu Sihti Oy

Pro gradu –tutkielman tavoitteena oli tutkia Facebook-tykkääjien ja Oma Sihti –palveluun kirjautuneiden työnhakijoiden sosiaalisen pääoman rakentumista ja hyödyntämistä. Case-yrityksen toimialana oli henkilöstönvuokraus ja asiantuntijarekrytoinnit. Työn tavoitteena oli lisäksi selvittää kuinka vastavuoroista kommunikointi online-yhteisöissä on, miten aktiivisia ja sitoutuneita yhteisön jäsenet ovat ja kuinka hyvin tykkääjät tuntevat toisensa. Empiirisen tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tuoda teoria käytännön tasolle ja sosiaalista pääomaa, sen rakentumista ja hyödyntämistä tutkittiin erityisesti vuorovaikutuksen kautta. Tutkimus toteutettiin kvantitatiivisena tapaustutkimuksena. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin verkkokyselyinä yrityksen Facebook-sivuilla sekä Oma Sihti –palvelussa. Tutkimukseen poimittiin sosiaalisen pääoman alueelta online-yhteisöön liittyvät olennaiset asiat ja tutkittiin niiden näkymistä verkkopalveluissa. Tutkimuksen tulokset tukivat teoriaa. Online-yhteisössä voidaan nähdä olevan sosiaalista pääomaa ja se rakentuu ja sitä hyödynnetään yhteisön jäsenten kesken.

Sosiaalinen media markkinointiviestinnän välineenä presidentinvaalikampanjassa

Vuoden 2012 presidentinvaalit veivät sosiaalisen median käytön politiikassa aivan uudelle tasolle. Tässä tutkimuksessa kohteena onkin Vihreän Liiton ehdokkaan Pekka Haaviston vaalikampanja, joka painottui vahvasti sosiaalisen median ympäristöön. Empirian tarkoituksena on ymmärtää, miten sosiaalista mediaa hyödyntämällä Haavisto onnistuttiin nostamaan altavastaajan roolista toiseksi potentiaaliseksi presidenttiehdokkaaksi Sauli Niinistön kanssa. Empiirisen tutkimuksen tueksi käydään tutkimuksessa ensin läpi aihetta syvemmin valottavia teorioita ja aiemmin tehtyjä tutkimuksia markkinointiviestinnän, markkinointiviestintäkampanjan sekä sosiaalisen median alueilta.

Disconnect.Me. User Engagement and Facebook

In the beginning of its 10th year of existence Facebook has engaged and connected 1.2 billion monthly active users. This article-based dissertation Disconnect.Me – User Engagement and Facebook approaches this engagement from the opposite direction: disconnection. The research articles focus on social media specific phenomena including leaving Facebook, tactical media works such as Web 2.0 SuicideMachine, memorializing dead Facebook users and Facebook trolling. The media theoretical framework for this study is built around affect theory, software studies, biopolitics as well as different critical studies of new media. The argument is that disconnection is a necessary condition of social media connectivity and exploring social media through disconnection – as an empirical phenomenon, future potential and theoretical notion – helps us to understand how users are engaged with social media, its uses and subsequent business models. The results of the study indicate that engagement is a relation that precedes user participation, a notion often used to conceptualize social media. Furthermore, this engagement turns the focus from users’ actions towards the platform and how the platform actively controls users and their behavior. Facebook aims to engage new users and maintain the old ones by renewing its platform and user interface. User engagement with the platform is thus social but also technical and affective. When engaged, the user is positioned to algorithmic connectivity where machinc processes mine user data. This data is but sold also used to affect and engage other users. In the heart of this study is the notion that our networked engagements matter and disconnection can bring us to the current limits of network culture.

Inviting the Audience – Interactive, Participatory, and Social Television in Finland

The television and the ways it has invited the audience to take part have been changing during the last decade. Today’s interaction, or rather participation, comes from multiplatform formats, such as TV spectacles that combine TV and web platforms in order to create a wider TV experience. Multiplatform phenomena have spread television consumption and traditional coffee table discussions to several different devices and environments. Television has become a part of the bigger puzzle of interconnected devices that operates on several platforms instead of just one. This thesis examines the Finnish television (2004–2014) through the notion of audience participation and introduces the technical, thematic, and social linkages as three different phases, interactive, participatory, social, and their most characteristic features in terms of audience participation. The aim of the study is also to focus on the idea of a possible change by addressing the possible and subtler variations that have taken place through the concept of digital television. Firstly, Finnish television history has gone through numerous trials, exploring the interactive potential of television formats. Finnish SMS-based iTV had its golden era around 2005, when nearly 50% of the television formats were to some extent interactive. Nowadays, interactive television formats have vanished due to their negative reputation and this important part of recent history is mainly been neglected in the academic scope. The dissertation focuses also on the present situation and the ways television content invites the audience to take part. “TV meets the Internet” is a global expression that characterises digital TV, and the use of the Web combined with television content is also examined. Also the linkages between television and social media are identified. Since television can nowadays be described multifaceted, the research approaches are also versatile. The research is based on qualitative content analysis, media observation, and Internet inquiry. The research material also varies. It consists of primary data: taped iTV formats, website material, and social media traces both from Twitter and Facebook and secondary data: discussion forums, observations from the media and Internet inquiry data. To sum up the results, the iTV phase represented, through its content, a new possibility for audiences to take part in a TV show (through gameful and textual features) in real-time. In participatory phase, the most characteristic features from TV-related content view, is the fact that online platform(s) were used to immerse the audience with additional material and, due to this, to extend the TV watching enjoyment beyond the actual broadcast. During the Social (media) phase, both of these features, real-timeness, and extended enjoyment through additional material, are combined and Facebook & Twitter, for example, are used to immerse people in live events (in real-time) via broadcast-related tweets and extra-material offered on a Facebook page. This thesis fills in the gap in Finnish television research by examining the rapid changes taken place on the field within the last ten years. The main results is that the development of Finnish digital television has been much more diverse and subtle than has been anticipated by following only the news, media, and contemporary discourses on the subject of television. The results will benefit both practitioners and academics by identifying the recent history of Finnish television.

Yhdessä ja liikkeellä. Mobiili sosiaalinen media

Sosiaalinen media viittaa verkkopalveluihin, joiden toiminta perustuu käyttäjien ja käyttäjäyhteisöjen aktiiviseen sosiaaliseen vuorovaikutukseen. Matkapuhelimien kautta sosiaalinen media on liikkeellä ja pitää käyttäjät yhdessä ajasta ja paikasta riippumatta. Sosiaalisen median vetovoima perustuu siihen, että ihmiset jakavat tietoja, kuvia, videota ja ääntä sekä kommentoivat ja jatkavat viestiketjuja. Yhdessä ja liikkeellä -kirja tarkastelee sosiaalisen median uusinta ilmiötä, videoiden jakamista kännykkäpalvelun kautta. Mobiilit videot voivat kertoa jaetuista elämyksistä, konserteista, benji-hypyistä tai jazz-festivaalin vessajonosta. Liikkuva kuva kertoo usein enemmän kuin useampi valokuva, ja monen käyttäjän videokuva samasta tapahtumasta voi jo kertoa monipolvisen tarinan. Yhdessä ja liikkeellä esittelee Mobile Social Media -tutkimushankkeen tuloksia. Tavoitteena on ollut tutkia, millaiset tekijät tukevat mobiilin sosiaalisen median käyttöä ja miten sosiaalista mediaa hyödynnetään matkapuhelimilla, miten sosiaalisen median yhteisö voi muodostaa kännykkävideoista yhteisen tarinan, millaisia teknologisia haasteita mobiilin sosiaalisen median käytölle on. Tutkimushanke on CAT - Culture Art and Technology -verkoston yhteistyötä. Verkostoon kuuluvat Aalto-yliopiston, Tampereen teknillisen yliopiston ja Turun yliopiston Porin yksiköt.

Post-industrial 2.0 – Social Web as the second coming of the post-industrial society

This study presents a review of theories of the so-called post-industrial society, and proposes that the concept of post-industrial society can be used to understand the recent developments of the World Wide Web, often described as Web 2.0 or social Web. The study combines theories ranging from post-war management science and cultural studies to software development, and tries to build a holistic view of the development of the post-industrial society, and especially the Internet. The discourse on the emergence of a post-industrial society after the World Wars has addressed the ways in which the growing importance of information, and innovations in digital communications technology, are changing our society. It is furthermore deeply connected with the discourse on the postmodern society, which emphasizes cultural fragmentation, intertextuality, and pluralism. The Internet age is characterized by increasing masses of information that are managed through various technologies. While 1990s Internet technologies often used the network as a traditional broadcasting channel with added interactivity, Web 2.0 technologies are specifically designed to utilize the network model by facilitating communication between various services and devices, and analyzing the relationships between users and objects in order to produce intelligent insight. The wide adoption of the Internet, and recently of Internet-enabled mobile devices, is furthermore continuously producing new ways of communicating, consuming, and producing. Applications of the social Web, such as social media or social networking services, are permanently changing our traditional social, cultural, and economic practices. The study first presents an overview of the post-industrial society, the Internet, and the concept of Web 2.0. Then the concept of social Web is described with an analysis of the term social media, the brief histories of the interactive Web and social networking services, and a description of the concept ―long tail‖, used to represent the masses of information available in the Web that do not receive mainstream attention. Finally, methods for retrieving and filtering information, modeling social and cultural relationships, and communicating with customers, are presented.

DEVELOPING SOCIAL CAPITAL WITHIN COMPANIES THROUGH ENTERPRISE 2.0

Whereas external social media has been studied, hyped and integrated into companies´ strategies, an insignificant concentration has been put on internal social solutions, which companies provide increasingly to their personnel. An enterprise focusing solely on the benefits of external social media might end up underestimating the true potential embedded in social business. The purpose of this thesis was to examine how social collaboration can be depicted as a structuration process in an Enterprise 2.0 environment. Furthermore, this thesis sought to reveal the benefits, challenges and possibilities of social business. This thesis focused on researching Enterprise 2.0 at the workplace. The studied Enterprise 2.0 solution was IBM Connections. The qualitative research methodology was an extensive case study. Three companies took part into this thesis and all in all 12 employees were interviewed. Additionally, seven IBM Social Business Experts were interviewed in order to receive a better understanding of the phenomenon. Three research questions were designed to fulfill the purpose of this thesis. The research questions were: 1. How are the dimensions of social capital structured through collaboration? 2. How does agency form in Enterprise 2.0? 3. How does social collaboration emerge as a result of the interplay between agency and dimensions of social capital in an Enterprise 2.0 environment and creates outcomes such as trust, identification and knowledge? The main research findings indicate that social collaboration increases trust, identification and knowledge by giving employees more capabilities to do their work. Consequently, social collaboration increases company performance by making individuals and groups more effective. The support of top management is crucial in making Enterprise 2.0 successful, because it is more a cultural than a technological change. Power agency, the lack of top management support and old established work ways such as email and databases work as barriers to social collaboration.

Sosiaalisen median käyttö rekrytoinnissa työnantajan näkökulmasta

Tutkielmassa perehdytään siihen, mitä motiiveja yrityksillä on käyttää sosiaalista mediaa rekrytointiprosessissaan. Tämän lisäksi on pohdittu, mitkä sosiaalisen median kanavat ovat tärkeimpiä rekrytoinnin tarpeisiin ja mitä riskejä niiden käytössä voi olla rekrytoinnissa.

Memoria virtualis - death and mourning rituals in online environments

The main objective of this work has been to understand the ritual aspect of how private people use the Internet to mourn and honor their intimates in various online environments. The research material was compiled in 2007–2013 through ethnographic and autoethnographic observations in social media applications, online memorial websites, one shared virtual environment (Second Life) and one massive multi-player online role-playing game (World of Warcraft). The research material consists of – in addition to the ethnographic observations – three online surveys with 153 respondents (mainly from Finland, the United States and the United Kingdom). In addition, the researcher conducted 38 longer online interviews (i.e. via email, an avatar). The theoretical framework is derived from ritual theory, hermeneutic-phenomenological anthropology and discourse analysis. The research questions are as follows: Why are death rituals practiced in online environments? How are virtual memorials created in various online environments? What kind of systems of meanings are virtual memorials constructed from? The results indicate that online mourning and honoring is appropriated in addition to the “traditional” offline rituals. In online environments the bereaved can choose, where, when, how and with whom they share their grief and loss. Memorials are created in the web intentionally and unintentionally, where the latter refers inter alia to the Facebook profile of the deceased where his/her intimates gather to mourn and honor immediately after the death. The first refers to intentionally memorialized online places spaces via different service providers. Virtual memorials are a way to construct the identity of the deceased, as well as the bereaved in multiple ways. They also re-enforce and create a sense of communality both privately and publicly, and enable one meaningful online place where all the intimates of the deceased can gather together to mourn and honor despite the geographical or time distances. Tämä väitöstutkimus tarkastelee miten nykyiset kuolemanrituaalit ovat digitalisoituneet verkkoympäristöihin. Tutkimus on suoritettu verkkoetnografisin sekä autoetnografisin menetelmin sosiaalisen median sivustoilla, virtuaalimuistomerkkipalveluissa, yhdestä virtuaalimaailmassa (Second Life) sekä yhdestä reaaliaikaisessa verkkopelissä (World of Warcraft) vuosina 2007–2013. Tutkimusaineisto koostuu etnografisten havainnointien lisäksi kolmesta verkkokyselystä, joissa vastaajia on yhteensä 153 pääasiassa Suomesta, Yhdysvalloista sekä Iso-Britanniasta. Kyselyjen lisäksi tutkija on tehnyt myös 38 laajempaa verkkohaastattelua eri ympäristöissä (esim. sähköposti, avatar virtuaalimaailmassa). Teoreettinen kehys koostuu rituaaliteoriasta, hermeneuttis-phenomenologiasta sekä diskurssianalyysista. Tutkimuskysymykset ovat seuraavat: miksi kuolemanrituaaleja harjoitetaan verkkoympäristöissä, miten virtuaalisia muistomerkkejä luodaan verkkoon, sekä millaisista merkitysjärjestelmistä virtuaaliset muistomerkit muodostuvat? Tutkimustulosten mukaan verkkosureminen ja muistaminen ovat tulleet perinteisten kuolemanrituaalien rinnalle, jolloin sureva itse voi päättää miten, missä, milloin sekä kenen kanssa suree läheistään. Muistomerkkejä verkkoon luodaan suunnitellusti (intentional) sekä suunnittelemattomasti (unintentional), jolloin jälkimmäinen viittaa esimerkiksi edesmenneen Facebook profiiliin, missä hänen läheisensä kokoontuvat muistelemaan ja suremaan välittömästi kuoleman jälkeen. Ensimmäinen taas viittaa suunnitelmalliseen muistomerkin luomiseen, jota varten löytyy useita palveluntarjoajia. Virtuaalimuistomerkit ovat keino rakentaa sekä edesmenneen että surevan identiteettiä, vahvistaa ja luoda yhteisöllisyyttä niin yksityisesti kuin julkisesti, sekä luoda yksi yhteinen aina ja kaikkialta saavutettavissa oleva merkityksellinen paikka verkkoon, missä kaikki läheiset voivat ajasta ja paikasta riippumatta muistella ja surra läheistään.

Social Networking Sites as a part of Medical Device Manufacturer's Marketing Communications

The purpose of the thesis is to examine how a medical device manufacturer can exploit social networking sites as a part of its everyday marketing communications. The ultimate goal is to create an ideal process of developing marketing communications in social networking sites as a medical device manufacturer with the help of theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience. Theoretical part examines the traditional process of developing marketing communications, defines social networking sites and presents marketing activities carried out on these sites as well as introduces the characteristics of healthcare technology industry. Empirical part is collected through participation in medical device manufacturer’s marketing operations and by observing effects of different factors and actions on social media marketing. In addition, completed interviews and a meeting with company’s personnel have been utilized for data collection. This part offers comprehensive information on the examined company’s current marketing operations, industry, and activities carried out on social networking sites. As a result of the thesis a comprehensive process description of integrating and using social networking sites as a part of company’s marketing communications was formed. With the help of the process description factors and actions which have an effect on marketing operations in social networking sites are presented and methods for further developing these activities are introduced.

Sisältöstrategia ja sosiaalinen media osana B2B-yrityksen markkinointia

Tämä kandidaatintutkielma käsittelee sosiaalisen median markkinointia ja sisältöstrategiaa osana B2B-yrityksen markkinointiviestintää. Case-yrityksenä toimineen Maestron kanssa toteutettiin tutkimus, jossa pyrittiin selvittämään suomalaisen yritysjohdon tapoja käyttää sosiaalista mediaa ja kuluttaa sisältöjä. Tulosten perusteella pystyttiin selvittämään kohderyhmälle soveltuvimmat sisältötyypit ja kanavat, sekä tarkastelemaan valittujen markkinointiviestinnän muotojen soveltumista B2B-ympäristöön.

Pelillistetyn viestintäjärjestelmän profiilin yhdistäminen sosiaaliseen mediaan

Pelillistetyissä järjestelmissä saavutetut pisteet ja muut saavutukset näkyvät yleensä vain kyseisessä palvelussa. Edward Decin ja Richard Ryanin teorian mukaan on tärkeää, että käyttäjä pystyy jakamaan saavutetun maineensa ystävilleen. Viestintäjärjestelmän suosiota, vertaisviestintää ja pelillistämistä pyrittiin parantamaan mahdollistamalla sen profiilin jakaminen sosiaalisessa mediassa käyttäjän ystäville, jotka eivät ole rekisteröityneet kyseiseen viestintäjärjestelmään. Tätä varten toteutettiin liitännäinen, joka mahdollistaa profiilin jakamisen Facebookissa yhdellä klikkauksella. Toteutetun liitännäisen avulla käyttäjä voi jakaa profiilinsa Facebookissa, jonka lisäksi se on helppokäyttöinen ja muokattavissa pääkäyttäjän toimesta. Suurimmaksi ongelmaksi liitännäisen kehityksessä osoittautui Facebookin vielä kehityksessä olevat kirjastot, jota käytetään yhteyden muodostamiseen. Liitännäisen julkaisu vaatisi laajempaa testausta sen yleisen toiminnallisuuden ja käytettävyyden suhteen.

Miten suomalaiset päivittäiskosmetiikka-alan verkkokaupat toimivat sosiaalisessa mediassa ja voivat hyödyntää Facebookin tarjoamia mainostusmahdollisuuksia?

Kartoitus siitä, miten suomalaiset kosmetiikka-alan verkkokaupat hyödyntävät sosiaalista mediaa ja minkälaisia mainostusmahdollisuuksia Facebook tarjoaa.

Digital Content Marketing in the Business-to-Business Context. A Case Study on Marketing Communications Agencies.

Marketing has changed because of digitalization. Marketing is moving towards digital channels and more companies are transitioning from “pushing” advertising messages to “pull” marketing, that attracts audience with the content that interests and benefits the audience. This kind of marketing is called content marketing or “inbound” marketing. This study focuses on how marketing communications agencies utilize digital content marketing and what are the best practices with the selected digital content marketing channels. In this study, those channels include blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The qualitative research method was utilized in order to examine the phenomenon of digital content marketing in-depth. The chosen data collecting method was semi-structured interviewing. A total of seven marketing communications agencies, who currently utilize digital content marketing, were selected as case companies and interviewed. All the case companies are from the marketing communications industry because that industry can be assumed to be well adapted to digital content marketing techniques. There is a research gap about digital content marketing in the B2B context, which increases the novelty value of this research. The study examines what is digital content marketing, why B2B companies use digital content marketing, and how should digital content marketing be conducted through blogs and social media. The informants perceived digital marketing to be a fundamental part of their all marketing. They conduct digital content marketing for the following reasons: to increase sales, to improve their brand image and to demonstrate their own skills. Concrete results of digital content marketing for the case companies include sales leads, new clients, better brand image, and that recruiting is easier. The most important success factors with blogs and social media are the following: 1) Audience-centric thinking. All content planning should start from figuring out which themes interests the target audience. Social media channel choices should be based on where the target audience can be reached. 2) Companies should not talk only about themselves. Instead, content is made about themes that interests the target audience. On social media channels, only a fragment of all shared content is about the company. Rather, most of the shared content is industry-specific content that helps the potential client.