Consumers like and follow on social media. Do they actually impact sales?

Companies are increasingly relying on social media for marketing communication and customer engagement. Nevertheless, despite the increasing interest in social media, literature about its effectiveness on actual sales is still scant. The paper aims to measure the impact of firm generated social media content on sales by considering 13 companies of major national and international brands in the Italian market in a three years period (Jan 2014 – Dec 2016). Preliminary results suggest that online brand presence is important as it impacts their sales. Furthermore, different social media platforms and different metrics have differential impacts on brand sales. Future research lines are presented.