Online to Offline: The Impact of Social Media on Offline Sales in the Automobile Industry

Given the limited research into the impact of social media on offline sales of durable goods, this study examines the dynamic relationships between firm-generated content (FGC), user-generated content (UGC), traditional media, and offline light vehicle sales. Data were collected from the official Facebook and Twitter pages of 30 U.S. car brands from 2009 to 2015. We utilized a panel vector autoregressive model to investigate the dynamic relationships among multiple time series variables while controlling for influential durable goods characteristics. The empirical results suggest that Facebook and Twitter have heterogeneous effects on offline vehicle sales. Moreover, FGC is more effective than UGC for influencing offline light vehicle sales. Viral impressions from Facebook and Twitter are essential, although the effects vary by social media platform (Facebook versus Twitter) and content type (FGC versus UGC). The result of the impulse response function analysis indicates that both the firm's marketing efforts (FGC and traditional media) and UGC have a long-term effect on offline sales, with the long-term effect of a firm's marketing efforts outlasting that of UGC. Incorporating FGC and UGC from Facebook and Twitter and traditional media could improve the performance of offline sales prediction. We also documented the within-Twitter synergistic effect between FGC and UGC for offline car sales and cross-channel substitution relationships (FGC on both Facebook and Twitter serves as a substitution to traditional media). Finally, we provide guidance for managers seeking to leverage multichannel marketing to boost the offline sales of durable goods.