Business professionals can take a sigh of relief after the Securities and Exchange Commission expressed support for social media sites to air market-moving corporate news.

The SEC ruling pertains to how companies communicate with investors. It says that postings on sites such as Facebook and Twitter are just as good as news releases and company websites as long as the companies have told investors which outlets they intend to use. Companies are required to disseminate information in a way that wouldn’t be expected to give an advantage to one group of investors over another.

The conversation began after the SEC launched an investigation into a July Facebook posting from Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who bragged that the streaming-video company had surpassed one billion hours of views in a month for the first time. This news sent the firm’s shares higher. The SEC opened the investigation in December to determine if the post had violated rules that bans companies from selectively disclosing information. As part of its Tuesday announcement, the commission said it wouldn’t pursue civil charges against Mr. Hastings, even though he used his personal Facebook page.

“An increasing number of public companies are using social media to communicate with their shareholders and the investing public,” the SEC said in its Tuesday report. “We appreciate the value and prevalence of social media channels in contemporary market communications, and the commission supports companies seeking new ways to communicate.”

Only 14.4% of companies communicate with shareholders via social media, according to a 2012 survey by the Conference Board and Stanford University. Yet more than three-quarters of the companies in the survey said they use social media to interact with customers.

Experts believe that the SEC was correct in their decision to not take action against the Netflix CEO. Joseph Grundfest, a former member of the commission who now teaches at Stanford Law School, says that the SEC is “bowing to reality in blessing social media.”

Be on the lookout to see how companies change or monitor how they issue important news through social media.