How social media impacts brand value: the mediating role of customer satisfaction

The growing popularity of social media platforms has increased brand investments in social media marketing. However, it is not clear whether and how social media marketing leads to the creation of value for consumers and brands; therefore, we investigate how marketer and user-generated content on social media affects consumer and brand metrics. Based on the marketing productivity chain, we propose that customer satisfaction, a leading consumer metric, mediates the link between social media content and brand value. To test such assertions, we use a sample of 87 brands from 17 industries and collect a unique dataset that combines social media data from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube with customer satisfaction, brand value, and advertising expenses. We find that user-generated content has a stronger effect on customer satisfaction than marketer-generated content. We also find that YouTube is the most effective platform for user generated content. Interestingly, we find that the effects of marketer-generated content depend on the brand’s corporate reputation. In other words, more reputable brands can leverage their marketer-generated content more effectively.