The demand for efficiency and intelligent decision-making has become paramount, prompting a crucial examination of the limitations of traditional automation. Organizations find themselves at a crossroads, searching for a transformative solution that transcends conventional approaches. Enter the era of Hyperautomation – an innovative paradigm that goes beyond simple automation by integrating artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, and advanced techniques such as cognitive computing and data mining. Hyperautomation in Business and Society is a comprehensive exploration of how Hyperautomation addresses the complexities of modern challenges, offering a compelling solution to propel businesses and society into a new era of efficiency and intelligent decision-making. This book sets out to achieve a dual purpose: to enlighten and to guide. Starting with a breakdown of intelligent automation, the book progresses to dissect the latest IA technologies, platforms, and the intricate ways in which it optimizes workflows. Spanning diverse applications across sectors such as logistics, marketing, finance, and customer care, it paints a vivid picture of IA's transformative influence. Notably, it addresses the challenges faced by IA implementation, offering a nuanced exploration of real-world applications and their impact on businesses. Geared towards undergraduate and postgraduate students, researchers, and practitioners, this book is a compass for those navigating the ever-changing landscape of intelligent automation.

These proceedings represent the work of contributors to the 11th European Conference on Social Media (ECSM 2024), hosted by the University of Brighton, UK on 30-31 May 2024. The Conference and Programme Chair is Dr Panagiotis Fotaris from the University of Brighton. ECSM is now a well-established event on the academic research calendar and now in its 11th year the key aim remains the opportunity for participants to share ideas and meet the people who hold them. The scope of papers will ensure an interesting two days. The subjects covered illustrate the wide range of topics that fall into this important and ever-growing area of research.

Today, many fashion brands use social media marketing strategies to increase awareness about their brand and influence consumers’ decision-making patterns. Further, consumers use social media platforms to find relevant and reliable information for structuring their preferences and making evaluations. Web 2.0 tools in the digital age provide consumers with a plethora of interactive and user control information that helps them acquire and share brand information, which in turn impacts their purchase decision preferences. The bulk of the data produced by social media tools provides brand marketers with information about the consumers’ wants, beliefs, commitment habits, and purchasing intentions, which in turn is useful for the development and implementation of marketing strategies. Social Media and Online Consumer Decision Making in the Fashion Industry provides critical research on effective methods, techniques, and tools for evaluating the impacts of social media on the consumer decision-making process. The book explores the pertinence of web-based social media tools and how the fashion business sector can benefit from social media innovation approaches in digital environments. Covering topics such as mobile apps, consumer decision-making processes, and communication technologies, this book is ideal for students, brand executives, marketing professionals, researchers interested in social media technology, and more.

The goal of this book is to show the role of TikTok as a tool for political purposes. To this end, the authors analyse the messages posted on this social medium by political figures and institutions such as politicians and political parties, their impact on political landscapes, as well as the transformation of political communication techniques in order to suit the platform’s features. In the last two years, the exponential growth of TikTok has led an increasing number of politicians and institutions to incorporate it into their communication strategies. The platform displays some very different features from other social media that determine the way in which the content is presented. In addition, it manages to reach an audience that normally does not access or share political messages. Within this context, the volume pursues two main objectives. First, to examine how the communication techniques and the peculiarities of this social medium – where short videos with actors in informal attitudes prevail – affect the political message. A second objective is to analyse the influence of the messages distributed through TikTok that redefine political scenarios, and of the relationships of politicians and parties with voters. The core of the book comprises case studies that are organised into three parts, with nine chapters in all. The authors are scholars and practitioners of political communication, with diverse geographical representation, who approach the topics from a range of methodological perspectives. The first part addresses the state of the art and the influence of TikTok features on the way political communication is performed. The second part discusses the influence of TikTok on electoral scenarios and political culture in India, Bangladesh, the United States, and Ecuador. Finally, in the third part, TikTok is analysed as an instrument for promoting far right politicians and parties in Europe, as in the case of Matteo Salvini in Italy, and AfD in Germany and Vox in Spain. The volume is oriented to both scholars and communication professionals, such as journalists, communication consultants, and speechwriters, who want to become familiar with the platform, learn about its political impact, or wish to deepen their understanding of transformations in communication techniques and their adaptation to this growing social medium.

Conference Proceedings of 8th European Conference on Social Media