BUSI 436 Week 7 Research Paper 3 Example

What Makes Brand Social Media Work: Post Design, Owned and Earned Media, and Measurement

Introduction

Most small businesses now post on social media, but few can say whether it works. That uncertainty wastes the owner's scarce time. Owners often judge success by follower counts or by whether a post "did well," without asking what the post was supposed to accomplish. Roberts and Zahay (2018) describe social media as a set of tools for building relationships and conversations with customers, which must be planned and measured like any other part of an Internet marketing plan. A useful distinction is between owned media, the content a brand publishes on its own pages, and earned media, the attention customers give it through comments, shares, reviews and mentions. This paper asks what makes a brand's own posts effective and how a small business should judge whether its social media effort is paying off.

What Makes a Post Popular

De Vries et al. (2012) studied brand posts on social network fan pages across several product categories and examined which characteristics made posts more popular, measured by likes and comments. They found that vivid posts, such as those with videos or images, tended to earn more likes, while interactive posts, such as those asking questions, drew more comments but not more likes. Posts that stayed at the top of the brand's page were more popular, and the valence of other users' comments also related to a post's popularity.

Two lessons follow. First, different post types do different jobs: vivid content builds appreciation, and questions start conversations. A brand should choose formats according to its goal for each post. Asking a question is a way to hear from customers, not a way to collect likes, and a brand that judges question posts by their likes will wrongly conclude that conversation does not work. Second, placement and timing matter, because a post that customers do not see cannot do either job.

For the composite tea seller, this research suggests alternating vivid posts, such as short videos of a tea leaf unfurling, with interactive ones, such as asking followers which tea they drink on rainy days, and pinning the most important announcement, such as a new seasonal tea, at the top of the page.

From Posts to Value

Popularity is not the end goal. Colicev et al. (2018) studied brands' social media activity and examined how owned media, the brands' own posts, and earned media, what customers said about the brands, related to consumer mindset metrics, including awareness, purchase intent and satisfaction, and through those to the firms' shareholder value. They found that social media activity was connected to these mindset metrics and that owned and earned media played different roles, with earned media, the conversation customers created, carrying particular weight.

For a small business without shareholders, the lesson still holds: social media creates value when it changes what customers know, intend and feel, and the conversation customers create is often more influential than the brand's own posts. That shifts the purpose of a brand's posts from broadcasting to sparking conversation, and it shifts measurement from counting followers to tracking signs of changed mindset and behavior.

Choosing Platforms and Frequency

A small business cannot be active everywhere, so it should choose platforms by where its customers already spend time and by what the business can sustain. For a tea company whose customers respond to visual content and calm routines, an image and video platform suits the product, while a professional network would add little. Frequency matters less than consistency: three useful posts a week, every week, build more attention over a year than bursts of daily posting followed by silence. The research on post popularity suggests that a few well-designed posts outperform many hurried ones, since vivid images and genuine questions earn the likes and comments that keep a page visible. Planning a monthly calendar of post types, such as a brewing video, a question, a customer photo and a new-arrival announcement each week, helps a small team keep that consistency without daily improvisation.

Engaging Customers and Encouraging Earned Media

Because the conversation customers create carries particular weight, a brand should design its social media to invite participation. Asking customers to share photos of their morning cup, featuring the best ones each month, responding to every comment and question, and thanking customers who post reviews all encourage earned media. Creators and enthusiastic customers can extend that conversation further, provided every paid or gifted relationship is clearly disclosed. Negative comments are part of the conversation too. Answering a complaint publicly and promptly, with an apology and a remedy, shows onlookers how the brand treats customers, and research on earned media suggests that what onlookers see shapes their view of the brand at least as much as the brand's own posts.

Limits of Social Media for a Small Business

Social media is not the best tool for every goal. It is slow at bringing in new customers compared with search, where people are already looking, and platforms change the reach of brand posts frequently, so a business can lose much of its audience overnight. For these reasons, the course's sample plan uses social media mainly to engage existing customers and spark conversation, while relying on search and email for acquisition and repeat sales. Recognizing these limits keeps a small business from spending time on social media that would earn more elsewhere.

Applying the Research: A Month of Tea Company Posts

A month of posts for the tea company shows how the research would shape everyday practice. In the first week, the company might post a short video of a jasmine tea unfurling in hot water, a vivid post meant to earn appreciation, and a question asking followers what they drink on rainy afternoons, meant to start conversation. In the second week, it would share a customer's photo of an evening tea routine, with permission, and a brief guide to brewing green tea without bitterness. In the third week, it would announce a new seasonal tea, pinned to the top of the page, and answer every question that followers ask about it. In the fourth week, it would feature a shop specialist explaining a favorite tea in a minute-long video. Each post has a purpose and a measure: likes and shares for the videos, comments for the questions, clicks and orders for the announcement. At the end of the month, the coordinator would review which posts met their purpose and which did not, and adjust the next month's calendar accordingly. Over a year, that discipline turns an irregular habit of posting into a deliberate program connected to the business's goals.

A Measurement Framework for a Small Business

Combining the research, a small business can measure social media at three levels. At the post level, it should track the outcome each format is meant to produce: likes and shares for vivid content, comments and replies for questions. At the conversation level, it should track earned media, such as mentions, tagged photos and reviews, which the research suggests carry particular influence. At the outcome level, it should connect social activity to customer behavior, using tracked links, discount codes and a simple question at checkout about how customers heard of the business, along with periodic short surveys of awareness among local customers. For the tea company, the most important outcome measure is repeat purchase among customers who engage on social media, since the plan uses social media mainly to deepen relationships. A simple way to track it is to tag customers who arrive through social links or mention social media at checkout and to compare their reorder rate with that of other customers over six months. If engaged followers reorder more often, the social program is doing its job even if its follower count grows slowly.

A Biblical Perspective on Community Management

Social media puts a brand's words in public, in front of customers who may be delighted, curious or angry. Paul told the Ephesian believers to keep harmful words to themselves and to say what strengthens others and suits the moment, so that listeners are helped (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Ephesians 4:29). For a business, that standard shapes how it answers complaints, how it responds to critics and how it speaks about competitors. A brand that answers an angry comment with patience and a real remedy builds up both the customer and the onlookers who read the exchange. The research's emphasis on earned media gives the instruction practical weight: how a brand behaves in public conversation shapes what customers say about it, which in turn shapes its value.

Conclusion

Effective brand social media starts with posts designed for a purpose, vivid content for appreciation and questions for conversation, and placement that ensures customers see them. Its value lies in changing what customers know, intend and feel, especially through the conversations they create. A small business should therefore measure social media at the post, conversation and outcome levels rather than by followers alone, and should conduct its public conversations in a way that builds up. The same principles shape the social program in the tea seller's Week 8 plan. They also apply well beyond tea: any small business that treats social media as a place to serve and talk with customers, rather than to broadcast at them, will find the research on post design and earned media a practical guide.

References

Colicev, A., Malshe, A., Pauwels, K., & O'Connor, P. (2018). Improving consumer mindset metrics and shareholder value through social media: The different roles of owned and earned media. Journal of Marketing, 82(1), 37-56. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.16.0055

de Vries, L., Gensler, S., & Leeflang, P. S. H. (2012). Popularity of brand posts on brand fan pages: An investigation of the effects of social media marketing. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(2), 83-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intmar.2012.01.003

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Roberts, M. L., & Zahay, D. (2018). Internet marketing: Integrating online and offline strategies (4th ed.). Cengage Learning.