Author(s): Alberico Rosario, Rui Cruz, Liliana Ribeiro
Social media has transformed consumers into value co-creators in the consumer marketing strategy and in the past decade, social media users have significantly increased. Today social media plays a significant role in creating product awareness and promoting brands and given the stiff competition in current markets, companies are looking for ways of identifying and understanding consumer needs and behaviours. Thus, social media have become a valuable tool for collecting and analysing consumer information regarding the target audience’s interests and behaviours these opportunities support the implementation of consumer-focused marketing strategies and messages since consumers use social media to compare brands and their alternatives before purchasing decisions. Internet users often share their experiences and opinions about a company and its products or services and aspiring customers use information to make judgments, making it a fundamental tool of modern-day marketing. The following research aims to analyse the contributions of social media in defining and improving consumer marketing strategy in the last decade. To conduct this research, a systematic literature review was conducted following a Domain Based Review categorised as a Structured Review focusing on widely used methods and theories. Major findings allow us to understand the role of social media in consumer marketing strategy as well as major aspects of consumer interactions and engagement.