An Empirical Investigation on Social Media Users’ Demand for Financial Information Distributed via Social Media Platforms

• In Event: Social Media

Abstract

Social media is receiving increasing attention in the academic accounting literature. Despite this trend, little empirical evidence exists as to what organization-provided content is of interest to social media users. The purpose of this paper is to explore and model the organization-provided content, both financial and non-financial, sought by social media users. We find that social media users desire content that can be classified into five categories, though little empirical evidence suggests that financial information content fits well with social media users desires. However, we find that financial information content is a better fit among nonprofessional investors. Overall, we find that message characteristics that align with channel protocols, content that is interactive and addresses social media users as customer, to be the most desired.

Authors

• Neal Michael Snow, Lehigh University

• Robert Neil Marley, University of Tampa