Corporate sustainability and social media's impact on financial performance

The ultimate goal of companies' investments in social media and sustainability is to achieve the best financial performance. While social media offers opportunities for businesses with the development of technology and the internet, studies on how to take advantage of these opportunities in order to be included in the sustainability index are becoming increasingly important. This study examines the impact of companies' inclusion in the sustainability index and their use of social media platforms on their financial performance. Data was obtained from the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) and the Datastream database. The records of the companies included in the BIST100 Index on the four major social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram) were examined and their active use status was determined. In the empirical part of the study, panel data analysis, T-test and Mann Whitney U-test methods were used to answer the research questions. The main hypothesis of the study is that companies included in the sustainability index and using social media platforms have better financial performance. In line with the findings, companies included in the sustainability index and using social media tend to perform better on certain financial performance metrics. Companies included in the sustainability index have a strong liquidity position, a higher short-term debt repayment capacity, and inclusion in the index also increases sales revenue and reduces financial risk. This supports the conclusion that companies have a stronger debt repayment capacity and better financial performance. Social media usage has a positive impact on companies' profitability and return on equity. This effect was observed to be statistically significant in terms of active profitability and return on equity for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. For Twitter, it was observed to be significant in all ratios. However, there was no significant impact on net profit margin. The main hypothesis, which expects that the financial performance of companies included in the sustainability index and using social media will be better, is supported by the results.