Greetings, netizens of Böras, Jönköping, and Manchester! I’ll be heading your way to chat about social friending, hashtags, Instagram, and politician selfies. Come and say hi?

PS: Special thanks to Ameera, Barbara, Danielle, and Adi for hosting me!

See you on the Internet,
Crystal

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Frenemies and cashtags: Social friending and hashtag lifecycle among social media microcelebrities

The Swedish School of Library and Information Science (SSLIS)
University of Borås

30 March 2015, Monday, 1430-1600hrs

Commercial lifestyle bloggers are among the most influential social media microcelebrities in Singapore, being predominantly self-taught young women who weave advertorials and advertisements into personal blog entries and social media posts. In essence, they are selling an aspirational middle-class lifestyle to their readers, seemingly attainable through the goods and services marketed. The bloggers depend and trade on ‘social currency’, that is, their virtual world reputation and rank in the industry. One measure of reputation is the number of ‘Likes’, ‘Follows’, ‘ReTweets’, ‘Favourites’, ‘Friends’ and ‘Readers’ a blogger can effectively garner on various social media platforms. Taking a grounded theory approach, this paper focuses on the bloggers’ individual construction and circulation of this form of social capital. Specifically, the paper discusses the bloggers’ socializing techniques and the lifecycle of hashtag use as business strategies.

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Capturing Class and Curating Commerce: Monetizing Instagram

Media Management and Transformation Center (MMTC)
Jönköping International Business School (JIBS)
Jönköping University

7 April 2015, Tuesday, 1000-1100hrs
B6046, Jönköping International Business School

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Make love, Make envy, Make money: Power-coupling on social media

Centre for Family Enterprise and Ownership (CeFEO)
Jönköping International Business School (JIBS)
Jönköping University

13 April 2015, Monday, 1200-1300hrs
B6046, Jönköping International Business School
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Vote for my selfie: Politician selfies as charismatic leadership
(plenary speaker) 

Selfie Citizenship
Digital Innovation
Manchester Metropolitan University

16 April 2015, Thursday, 0930-1600hrs
The Shed, Digital Innovation
John Dalton West, Manchester Metropolitan University
Chester Street, Manchester, M1 5GD
<about / programme / registration / location>

Commercial lifestyle bloggers are among the most influential social media microcelebrities in Singapore, being predominantly self-taught young women who weave advertorials and advertisements into personal blog entries and social media posts. In essence, they are selling an aspirational middle-class lifestyle to their readers, seemingly attainable through the goods and services marketed. The bloggers depend and trade on ‘social currency’, that is, their virtual world reputation and rank in the industry. One measure of reputation is the number of ‘Likes’, ‘Follows’, ‘ReTweets’, ‘Favourites’, ‘Friends’ and ‘Readers’ a blogger can effectively garner on various social media platforms. Taking a grounded theory approach, this paper focuses on the bloggers’ individual construction and circulation of this form of social capital. Specifically, the paper discusses the bloggers’ socializing techniques and the lifecycle of hashtag use as business strategies.