Does it matter who “toots the horn” on Facebook and X? The differential effects of owned and earned social media on customers’ perceptions of firms

Purpose This study investigates how firms’ social media strategies, including firm-initiated owned social media (OSM) and customer-generated earned social media (ESM) content, affect customer perceptions of quality, value and satisfaction. By analyzing sentiment across millions of social media posts and linking them to customer mindset data, we aim to provide insights for optimizing social media engagement and enhancing customer outcomes. Design/methodology/approach We analyze a large multi-year sample, combining over 250,000 customer survey responses and 3.5 million social media posts from 167 US consumer goods companies. Using a novel positive valence surplus (PVS) metric, we assess the impact of social media sentiment and engagement on customer perceptions of quality, value and satisfaction across posts from both firms and consumers on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). Findings Both PVS and engagement positively affect customer perceptions for ESM posts, influencing satisfaction. For OSM posts, PVS is negatively related to user engagement, but engagement still improves quality perceptions. Overly positive OSM content leads to a backfire effect, particularly on Facebook, where it is more detrimental than on X. Originality/value This research utilizes PVS to measure the sentiment balance of social media content, which is a novel approach for assessing firm-initiated and customer-generated posts. Our unique dataset allows us to analyze the distinct impacts of OSM and ESM content on customer perceptions across two major social media platforms (Facebook and X). The findings provide actionable insights for managers to refine social media strategies.