Sortering, samhälle och sociala medier : En kvalitativ fallstudie av ett kommunägt företags kommunikation på Facebook

Sammanfattning: Title: Recycling, society and social media: a qualitative case study of a municipally-owned company’s Facebook communication. The aim of the study has been to, through a case study of a company’s Facebook communication create understanding for how the medium may be used as communication channel in order to achieve effective, engaging communication with the company’s Facebook followers. The company Stormossen is a municipally-owned waste disposal company located in Kvevlax, Finland. The study uses a mix of the theoretical perspectives intentionalism and hermeneutics, in that its aim is to look at both sides of the communication process - the sender and the receiver - thus gaining a comprehensive picture of the research problem. The theoretical frame is made up of theories on new media logic and social media, participation, communication strategies and social communication. Two methods are applied in the case study, an informant interview with a key person at the company and a qualitative content analysis of the company’s official Facebook page. A total of 133 status updates were selected for analysis, mainly focusing on examining the content, mode of communication and the followers’ interaction and communication on the page. The main results of the study have shown that the company has not fully adapted to the new media logic in their Facebook communication. The communication strategy used is mainly an inside-strategy with emphasis being placed on organizational targets and the one-way distribution of information about the company and its services, with limited attempts to involve and initiate dialogue with the followers. These findings are in line with earlier research on how companies use social media. The company also has an unclear picture of who their followers are and why they would be interested in interacting with the company on Facebook. The followers on the other hand are mainly passive, and their motive for communication can be explained with the need for self-presentation. In order to create content and communication that the followers find relevant and want to interact with and share, the company has to actively work to adapt more to the new media logic. Facebook should be used both as a way of making information available but also for networking with and inviting followers to participation and dialogue, thus making themselves useful to the followers in order to build a good reputation and effective communication. Key words: Social media, Facebook, web 2.0, social communication/social marketing, civic information, communication strategy, social media-strategy, new media logic, participation, communication model, case study, qualitative study, Stormossen, municipally-owned company