The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said on Tuesday that companies can use social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter to announce key information as long as investors have been altered about which social media will be used to disseminate such information.

The SEC confirmed that Regulation Fair Disclosure, which requires companies to distribute information to the general public broadly and non-exclusively, applies to social media the same way it applies to company websites.

The agency issued guidance in 2008 clarifying that websites can serve as an effective means for disseminating information to investors if they've been made aware that's where to look for it.

"Most social media are perfectly suitable methods for communicating with investors, but not if the access is restricted or if investors don't know that's where they need to turn to get the latest news," George Canellos, Acting Director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement said in a statement.

The SEC clarified the disclosure guidelines in a report of an investigation involving Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, who posted Netflix's monthly on-line viewing on his personal Facebook page last July although the company didn't report the data to investors through a press release or SEC filing.

The agency didn't initiate an enforcement action against Hastings or Netflix because there has been market uncertainty about the application of Regulation Fair Disclosure to social media, the report said.