JultikaUniversity of Oulu repository

The aim of this thesis is to provide companies guidance on how to adopt social media as a part of their marketing strategy and efforts. Social media has been making its way to being a crucial part of marketing communications for over a decade now and its importance has been steadily growing over the years. Marketers and managers have started to see the potential in the channel, and early research on the phenomenon has provided them with insight on how to use the channel properly. With use of literature the author wants to show how companies can benefit from the use of social media in marketing, and what challenges they may face while implementing these changes. Along with possible benefits companies will face risks when engaging with social media. There are some key challenges arising from the literature that will be tackled and given guidance on how to counter them.