Social media marketing contributes to customer value: The role of customer engagement

Social media sites have become ubiquitous, and firms turn to these sites as a tool for effective marketing. This study examined the effect of social media marketing on customer value and investigated whether customer engagement mediated this relationship. We analyzed data collected from 335 existing users of social media sites for sports shoes brands in China. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the research hypotheses. Results showed that social media marketing was positively related to customer value. Further, customer engagement played a mediating role in the relationship between social media marketing and customer value. The findings suggest that marketers should exert effort in using social media to foster customer engagement and enhance customer value.