Source: Mathai, S., Kumar, S., Sreen, N. and Jeswani, S. (2025), "Are social media marketing activities reaping benefits for brands? The moderating role of education", Marketing Intelligence & Planning https://doi.org/10.1108/MIP-02-2024-0137

Show notes: https://www.marketingsciencelab.org/p/does-social-media-work

Social media is everywhere these days, but what effect does it have on brands? This recent research digs into that very question, exploring whether social media marketing (SMM) actually boosts brands by analyzing consumer-based brand equity (CBBE) and continued usage intentions. The study also investigates how educational levels influence the ways consumers respond to brand activities in social media. It’s quite timely work, given the exponential growth of social media in our marketing world.

Core Findings

SMM Activities Are Key to Boosting Brand Equity: The research affirms that active social media marketing positively influences how consumers understand brands.

* Brand Awareness: The research shows that SMM helps consumers remember, recall, and recognize brands in the marketplace.

* Perceived Quality: When brands actively employ SMM, the activity itself shapes the positive perceptions we hold about their quality and performance.

* Brand Association: SMM is instrumental in building connections and mental images associated with brands that we hold in our imaginations.

* Brand Loyalty: Engaging SMM activities help cultivate stronger brand loyalty among consumers.

Brand Equity Fuels Continued Usage: Components of a strong CBBE help consumers to stay with the brands that have earned our loyalty through long-standing relationships. Indeed, consumers who are aware of, perceive quality in, and feel strongly associated with brands in their everyday lives are much more likely to remain with the brands they feel something for.

Education Plays an Important Role: Education serves as an important marker for consumers who react differently to the intersection between social media, brand loyalty, and continued usage.

* Moderately educated consumers (Graduates) showed a much stronger correlation between SMM activities and positive brand image construction.

* Highly educated consumers (Post-graduates & Doctorates) are much more responsive to brand-related SMM activities in terms of brand loyalty. And when these consumers are making a brand purchase decision, they’re much more likely to value perceived quality as part of that process.

* The key difference between these cohorts is in the details: it appears that highly educated consumers base their purchase decisions more on perceived quality, rather than just brand association.

Actionable Takeaways

* Invest in Social Media: Social media marketing is not just some trend you need to follow because others are. You should use social media marketing to build brand equity, make better offers, and—as you will see in a minute—foster continued brand engagement.

* Content Is Key: Focus on the kinds of content that will boost your brand. Create compelling, informative, and entertaining content that grabs attention, improves brand recall, and fosters brand recognition.

* Focus on Quality: Use social media to communicate a sense of brand value and quality, especially when building a customer base that will stick with your brand for the long haul. Focus on communicating service benefits and use customer feedback to enhance brand messaging.

* Tailor Strategies by Education Level:

* When speaking to a broad audience, think carefully about SMM activities that are in the image and associations of your brand.

* For audiences that are in the higher education cohort, communicate to them at their level with consistent engagement and brand messaging that is focused on quality and reliability.

* Address Negative Feedback: Develop processes for addressing negative consumer feedback that will show responsiveness and care in your customer-facing marketing. Actively managing negative comments online can also improve brand quality.

Real-World Examples

* Brand Awareness: Makeup brands that run TikTok challenges, or who make highly shareable, visual content will likely find themselves at the top of many consumer's purchasing queue.

* Perceived Quality: A tech company that shares how-to videos on YouTube showing consumers the many innovative features or benefits of their product is in an excellent position to gain consumer trust and loyalty.

* Brand Association: Coffee shops that focus on Instagram to enhance their visually appealing "lifestyle content" can greatly increase their chances of becoming "the place to be."

* Brand Loyalty: A clothing retailer that runs social media contests with early-access sales has an excellent chance of enhancing loyalty and encouraging more purchases from their loyal brand ambassadors.

Education Moderation:

* When a Telecom Company is focused on those who are seeking a Master's degree or its equivalent, their marketing should take into account a more visually driven campaign that emphasizes the “image” of being connected (and that’s probably on Instagram or TikTok).

* By contrast, that same company, if their focus is on those who possess Post-graduate or Doctorate-level education should instead think in terms of producing more long-form content. They might do well to release blog posts that communicate the brand's knowledge of security, reliability, and customer service.

This research delivers solid evidence that, when used strategically, social media marketing is not just hype. It can build essential brand equity, cultivate loyalty, and drive continued usage intention.

Educational levels of a consumer are a relevant factor in terms of how they respond to social media marketing, thus marketers must engage with all cohorts, albeit in nuanced ways.

The key for marketers is to think strategically about your social media output, making it align with the goals for your brand while also keeping your customer demographic in mind.

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