Information Dissemination on Social Media: The Investment Value of Influencers’ Posts

This thesis investigates the influence of social media influencers on consumer sentiment and financial markets using a unique dataset manually collected from Instagram. The study examines the relationship between influencer sentiment and consumer sentiment, demonstrating that influencers’ posts significantly affect consumer sentiment across various demographic groups. It explores whether the opinions of social media influencers convey valuable information to the stock market or merely contribute noise. The findings indicate that influencer sentiment does not have a lasting impact on stock returns or firms’ operating performance, suggesting that their influence is more transient than substantive. This research highlights the importance of understanding the role of social media in information dissemination and its short-term effects on financial markets, contributing to the fields of behavioural finance and digital media studies.