Facebook disclosure

This study examines Facebook disclosures of companies. It addresses the following questions: what events and factors influence corporate Facebook disclosures, do corporate Facebook disclosures help price adjustments after earnings announcements, and which investors react more to such disclosures? Results show that companies disclose more on their Facebook pages around news days and earnings announcement days. This behavior is more pronounced for days when companies announce earnings that beat market expectations. Companies also adjust their Facebook disclosure activities based on news-returns relations, and prior trade positions around earnings announcements. These results suggest that companies use Facebook as a strategic disclosure medium to amplify or mute earnings signals. Results also show that earnings related posts are more informative than the quantity of posts. Disclosures of earnings related posts on earnings announcement days help accelerate the price adjustment process. Earnings related disclosures also influence volume reactions of both retail investors and non-retail investors, but retail investors react more to such disclosures than non-retail investors.