The Impact of Perceived Social Media Marketing Activities: An Empirical Study in Saudi Context

Purpose – The purpose is to investigate the impact of social media marketing activities in the context of Saudi consumers of social media. A research model is developed in this study to examine the relationships. Design/methodology/approach – This research is quantitative and uses the probability sampling technique, simple random sampling. Data is collected through a questionnaire in a survey of 241 Saudi social media users. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with PLS 3 was used with SPSS 22.0 for statistical data analysis. Chi–square and overall model fit indices further confirm the structural model fit. Findings – The results indicate that social media marketing activities significantly influence brand loyalty, purchase intentions, value consciousness and brand consciousness; brand loyalty has a significant statistical impact on eWOM; eWOM influences purchase intention significantly; brand consciousness does not mediate the relationship between perceived social media marketing and brand loyalty, while value consciousness mediates this relationship. Research limitations/ future research – The research is limited to Saudi social media users and this limits the results from being generalized. Future research must be conducted in other countries. Moreover, limited research is conducted with these variables in previous studies. Originality/value – This article is pioneering in that it investigates the effects of social media marketing in the context of Saudi consumers, a topic of relevance for both marketers and scholars in the era of social media. It provides empirical evidence and valuable insights through a proposed model.