An Empirical Investigation on Social Media Userss Demand for Accounting Information Distributed Via Social Media Platforms

Abstract

While social media has received little attention in the financial accounting literature, organizations are increasingly using social media platforms to connect with potential investors because social media provides a low-cost, low-barrier means of distributing financial information and communicating with the investing public. Despite this trend, little empirical evidence exists as to what financial information is of interest to social media users. The purpose of this paper is to explore and model the information content, both financial and non-financial, sought by social media users. Using the perspectives of social media users (i.e., a third party perspective), we use Gallaugher and Ransbotham’s (2010) Megaphone, Magnet, and Monitor communication framework to identify the content social media users desire. Our results indicate that a five category model better fits the desires of social media users. Though we find little empirical evidence suggesting a strong demand for financial information among social media users, we do find that nonprofessional investors demand financial information content more than noninvestors. Thus, this study provides some empirical evidence to support the notion that social media can provide start-up firms with a low-cost means of communicating with potential and existing investors.