DOES SOCIAL MEDIA (eg Facebook/Twitter) INFLUENCE BET-FAIR PRICES ?

my two cents:

it would come down to several things:

1 is it opinion or information? 1 & 3 would have more impact than 2 imo
2 how trustworthy and significant does the information appear? a well known source making a specific claim (example 3) would probably have more impact than something more vague (1) or from a less high profile source.

team news breaking on twitter might shed some light.

Twitter and to a lesser extent fb definitely do affect prices and there is most certainly evidence of the sheep effect.  I don't understand how anybody can describe themselves as a serious punter without following the right people on twitter.

If I apply my mind to it, I am sure that I could find many examples of timely info followed by the sheep effect and you will need to get historical prices from befair to prove this if you are serious about your project.  One example was an April Fools joke ( a very poor one) that appeared late on 31st March, it said that Benitez had resigned from Chelsea.  Of course he was not going to stay but if you look at the transactions late on 31st March you will see a lot matched at 1.01, the price drifted back out when people realised that was a "joke".

If you can get to the bottom of the unusual and unprecedented over exuberance on the last Everton manager market I would be fascinated to hear of your conclusions, I suspect that was largely twitter rumour based.

Your example about Groves sparring with Kessler is not a good one as there was another twitter rumour that he was sparring very badly!

Often twitter simply breaks the news first for instance on withdrawals from competitions and grid place penalties for F1 to name a couple but you will find over reactions in the market no matter where the news breaks.

Yesterday, Tom Moody tweeted that that the Aus v NZ match was called off about 30-60 seconds before Sky announced it (not sure of exact timings as I saw a retweet, not the original). The price crashed on CMM No from 1.7 to 1.01 in about 10 seconds.

So I'd say that answer to the OP is Yes

Twitter is one of the most valuable tools I have, especially for u.s. sports.

Prior to twitter, I had anetwork of journalists from my previous home, montreal.

They would text me from hockey arena's when team news was released to them on a sheet 35 minutes before the puck was dropped, 15 minutes before radio and 30 minutes before television. 

Watching price movements was evident, especially with liquidity. 

With twitter, team news comes in all day.  I have jurnalists that follow teams on the road so are in the hotels with the players.

If you are serious about betting, build your network, your lists for teams, your trainers and jockey's.  For sports, don't put your bet on until you've read the updates.  I think I was 5 for 5 this season taking NHL underdogs when there were last minute goalie changes with the short priced fave.

Shapeshifter's post is also an excellent response to my " looking for value" thread questions.
A very good, tangible example of how a pro goes about finding and exploiting an "edge".
Thank you for that SS.