Social media, relationship marketing and corporate ESG performance

•The positive correlation between social media use and corporate ESG performance underscores the platform's role in ESG performance.•The paper finds the importance of public participation in improving corporate ESG performance.•The paper finds that credit financing policy is a key factor supporting corporate ESG performance. The potential causal relationship between social media, relationship marketing and corporate ESG performance is explored in this study. By collecting data from China's A-share companies, this research employs benchmark regression analysis, tests action mechanisms, and conducts heterogeneity analysis. The findings indicate that leveraging social media and implementing relationship marketing strategies can enhance enterprises' ESG performance. This improvement is achieved by strengthening the external monitoring pathway to elevate the ESG level of enterprises. Moreover, these effects are more pronounced in non-state-owned enterprises.