Companies may use Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites to share news, provided they first tell investors which sites they'll use, a US regulator said.
"We do not wish to inhibit the content, form, or forum of any such disclosure," the Securities and Exchange Commission said.
"In fact, we encourage companies to seek out new forms of communication to better connect with shareholders," the regulator said in an eight-page report, which can be found at tinyurl.com/InvestReport.
A study by the Conference Board and Stanford University's Rock Center for Corporate Governance released last spring found 77% of companies use social media to communicate and interact with customers.
Only 14.4% however said they used the media to communicate with shareholders.