Financial Performance and Social Media: A Research on Tourism Enterprises Quoted in Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST)

Social media is one of the fastest and the most effective ways of information sharing. Thousands or even millions of people can be reached through social media. It might be stated that increased use of social media led many companies to be more interested in social media with varying reasons ranging from communication to advanced networking or providing information. Therefore, businesses have started to give importance not only websites but also social media interactions. In today's business context several companies are promoting their goods on social media similar to the service companies including tourism industry. Social media is used as an information providing platform providing financial and non-financial information for the evaluation of investors and other stakeholders interested in investment activities. Major aim of this study is to analyze and evaluate the relationship between financial performance (market value, net sales, net profits, price/earnings ratio etc.) and efficient use of social media. Mann-Whitney U test of SPSS software is used in order to evaluate the data collected within the scope of this research.