Social Media Marketing Research: A Comprehensive Empirical Assessment
Keywords:
Social Media Marketing, Customer Engagement, Social CRM, Content Strategy, MeasurementAbstract
Purpose: This review synthesizes empirical and conceptual research on social media marketing (SMM) published from 2010 to 2017 to clarify key concepts, mechanisms, outcomes, and managerial implications. Methodology: We conducted a structured literature review across leading marketing, information systems, and business journals, selecting empirical and high-impact conceptual studies published between 2010 and 2017. Studies were coded for theoretical lens, methods, platforms examined, outcomes, and managerial implications. Findings: The literature converges on core themes like, definitional clarity and typologies of social media; customer engagement and user motives; creative/content strategies that drive engagement; social CRM and firm capabilities; and measurable firm outcomes when social initiatives are integrated with other marketing activities. Empirical results are heterogeneous; strong engagement/awareness effects are common, while direct sales effects are context-dependent and often mediated. Implications: Managers must adopt capability and integration perspectives, aligning content, metrics, CRM, and organizational processes, to convert social interactions into performance gains. Originality: By consolidating empirical findings across disciplinary lenses and platforms, this review clarifies practical mechanisms linking social media activity to marketing outcomes and highlights measurement and causal challenges for future research.
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