Samtalet på Facebook : En studie om IKEA Sveriges kommunikation i sociala medier

Sammanfattning: Introduction In this study, we have explained the complexities of social media, as it is still a relatively unexplored area. With the rapidly growing use of social media in recent years, companies have chosen to establish themselves in social networks to advertise themselves and communicate with their customers. In this study we analyze IKEA Sweden and their use of social media on the national market, where focus lies upon IKEA Sweden Facebook-page. The study intends to find out how the company uses social media as a marketing and communication tool and also analyzes the relations and conversations that occur on the Facebook-page.   Purpose and research questions The purpose of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of how a large Swedish company as IKEA has chosen to use social media and how it's perceived by them. We also intended to find out how IKEA Sweden uses social media in their daily work and how the company communicates through this media channel. The research questions for this study were: how does IKEA Sweden use social media and in what purpose? How does IKEA Sweden want their communication on Facebook to look like and how do they really communicate? What are the employees at different levels view of the company's use of social media? How do they see the development of social media, in general and for the company?                       Methodology We are using semi-structural interviews and text-analyzing as qualitative methods. We chose to do a text-analysis of IKEA Sweden's Facebook page where relationships, interactions, intertextuality and coherence where viewed upon. Semi-structured interviews have been used with five respondents who therefore represented IKEA Sweden in this study.   Theoretical perspective We present a number of different theories to give the reader a greater insight into the relationship between scientific media theories and its application in how companies communicate through social media. To further enhance the reader's understanding of the material presented in this study we describe how we attach these theories to this study and why we found them relevant.   Conclusions IKEA Sweden has a vision to strengthen relations with their consumers and to market themselves on Facebook. They want to create an image of themselves as transparent, available and honest in the dialogue and managing feedback from their consumers. IKEA Sweden use social media as a supplement to tradition marketing and consumer service. We have been able to discern certain awareness in our respondents of the fact that companies are increasingly encroaching on their consumers' private spaces, which may affect the company's presence in social media in the future.