Research in Social Media: Data Sources and Methodologies

This paper examines both the opportunities and limitations in the use of social media for accounting research. Given the dynamic nature of social media and the richness of the context, there are opportunities for researchers to directly observe communication and information exchanges, typically within the context of an observable social network. The paper provides an overview of the characteristics of four commonly used social network sites (SNSs): Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and StockTwits. The data collection details, opportunities, and limitations are set out. The paper also provides illustrative examples of codes that a researcher might employ to extract information from the SNSs. To provide a comparison of accounting-relevant interactions, the paper measures the extent of posts on StockTwits, Twitter, and Facebook for a random sample of corporate announcements.