The communication of innovation carried out by spanish companies in 2016 and 2017 through social networks

This research focuses on the communication of innovation that companies carry out through the most important digital social networks in Spain. Through content analysis, we study whether companies that have received public R&D&I aid use social media to report the support achieved. The profiles of organizations are observed on seven platforms during a two-year time frame. The study shows that the presence of innovative companies in social networks is modest and that them are hardly used to complement the information and communication requirements, contemplated in the legal reference texts. Taking into account the level of penetration of digital social networks in Spain is higher than the world average and that it is an adequate means to share information of public interest, it would be of interest to include them within the communication obligations. Also, its inclusion would require reflection on the information to be published, when it should be done and what platforms to use.