Hantera medborgarrelationer via Facebook : Karlstads kommuns kommunikation före, under och efter en kris

Sammanfattning: In the new media society, social media has become an important part of many organizations' daily lives. Organizations, whether public or private, must be where their audience is and many times, these can be found on social media channels like Facebook. Leading researchers in the fields of crisis communication and relationship management believe that social media is a great tool for managing relationships between an organization and its' public, whether it's before, during or after a crisis. The purpose of this study is to examine how the Karlstad municipality use Facebook to manage civic relations before, during and after a crisis. The municipality's approach will be compared to the citizens' experiences of the municipality's communication in different stages of a crisis. The theoretical framework used in this essay is the research on crisis communication and relationship management. How these two frameworks can be integrated with social media like Facebook, is an important part of understanding how the Karlstad municipality make use of Facebook to manage civic relations and communicate before, during and after a crisis. The empirical study consists of a qualitative interview, two qualitative content analysis and an online survey. This triangulation of methods is done to answer how the municipality are supposed to communicate using Facebook in theory, how it looks like in practice and to get an idea of how the citizens are experiencing the Karlstad municipality's communicative efforts. The results show that the municipality has found a way to communicate through Facebook, which contributes to the citizens expectations of civil service fulfillment. The citizens get a better impression of the municipality and also find the municipality more trustworthy. The communication is of mutual benefit. Through the use of Facebook.. the municipality finds it easier to have a dialogue with the citizens, come in contact with new groups of citizens and easier reach its citizens.