FROM EMERGENCE TO EXPANSION: A BIBLIOMETRIC MAPPING OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING RESEARCH

Social media marketing (SMM) has become a prominent area of scholarly and practical interest in the digital era. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of 1488 publications on SMM indexed in Scopus from 2008 – 2025. The aim is to map the evolution of SMM research and provide a comprehensive overview of its intellectual structure. Using bibliometric techniques, the analysis identifies publication trends over time and pinpoints the most prolific contributors (leading authors, journals, and countries) in the field. It also highlights the most highly cited articles that have shaped the knowledge base. Furthermore, co-authorship network analysis reveals patterns of collaboration among countries, while keyword co-occurrence analysis uncovers key thematic areas in SMM literature. Finally, bibliographic coupling is employed to detect clusters of related research, indicating major thematic streams. The findings offer an integrated perspective on how SMM scholarship has grown and evolved, identifying influential research themes and collaboration networks. This study contributes by synthesizing a large body of SMM research, which can inform researchers and practitioners about the current state of the field and guide future research directions.