Analysis of Strategies and Paths for Listed Companies in China to Utilize Social Media to Attract Stakeholders to Participate in ESG Governance: A Case Study of Zijin Mining Group Company Limited

Stakeholder engagement via digital platforms is increasingly pivotal for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) accountability, yet empirical evidence regarding how Chinese firms navigate this landscape remains insufficient. This study investigates the strategies and pathways employed by Chinese listed companies to facilitate stakeholder participation in ESG governance through social media, utilizing Zijin Mining Group Co., Ltd. as a representative case. Adopting a multi-methodological approach that combines literature research with social media analytics (SMA), the research examines ESG-related disclosures and interactions across Weibo, WeChat, TikTok, and the SSE Interactive E platform from March 2023 to May 2024, supplemented by a longitudinal analysis of the firm’s ESG reports from 2018 to 2023. The findings demonstrate that Zijin Mining predominantly utilizes social media for unidirectional communication aimed at securing social legitimacy, resulting in low substantive stakeholder interaction. Quantitative analysis reveals that engagement strategies are heavily concentrated at Level I (information) and Level II (response), while Level III (communication) actions account for only 9% of the total. Furthermore, while the SSE Interactive E platform serves as a critical interactive hub, it exhibits limited ESG-specific discourse and a failure to effectively address negative stakeholder feedback. By elucidating the discrepancy between digital disclosure and genuine engagement, this study enriches social accounting literature and provides targeted strategic countermeasures for optimizing digital ESG governance frameworks in emerging markets.