Director Notes: Corporate Use of Social Media
By Matteo Tonello, Managing Director, Corporate Leadership, The Conference Board
While companies devote considerable effort to creating and managing social media presences, little is known about how they use social media to communicate financial information to investors. A new report from The Conference Board’s Director Notes series examines the use of social media by S&P 1500 companies to disseminate financial information and the response from investors and traditional media.
Authored by Jim Naughton, Ahmed Tahoun, Clare Wang, and Michael Jung, the report shows that companies use social media to overcome a perceived lack of traditional media attention and that social media usage improves the company’s information environment. There is also evidence that, in contrast with other types of company communications, the beneficial effects of social media on the company’s information environment are offset when the investor-focused social media communications are disseminated by other social media users.
The findings are relevant for managers and boards establishing corporate social media disclosure policies, since they suggest that companies may benefit from developing different approaches to disseminating positive versus negative earnings news.
Click here to download the complete report.
About Director Notes:
Founded in 2010 by Matteo Tonello, Director Notes is a series of online publications in which The Conference Board engages experts from several disciplines of business leadership (including corporate governance, risk oversight, and sustainability) in an open dialogue about topical issues of concern to member companies. Click here to subscribe for free. For information on membership to The Conference Board, please email us at [email protected].