Company Reporting on Social Media: A Content Analysis of the Albanian Companies

Abstract

Social media represent an important tool for information dissemination and companies have widely accepted the potential benefits associated with their usage. In this regard, we analyze the social media reporting practices for a sample of 200 Albanian companies during one year. In specific, we focus on the content of the posts shared by the companies on their Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn official pages. Our main objective is to understand the purposes of social media reporting activities of Albanian companies and whether there are differences in their disclosure practices compared to companies from the European Union (EU). This article demonstrates that less than half of the companies of the sample have at least one social media page and Facebook represents the social media most preferred by companies for their reporting initiatives, while LinkedIn the least preferred. In addition, we find that Albanian companies use social media mainly for marketing activities. When analyzing if there are specific variables that could explain company reporting activities on social media, we find that company sector, audience and sales might explain its activity on social media. This study adds to the existing literature by providing social media reporting activities from the perspective of a developing country planning to be part of the EU and thus implementing its promoted disclosure practices. In addition, our findings corroborate with previous studies analyzing the social media reporting practices mainly for EU and US companies.