From Engagement to Conversion: Reviewing Social Media Marketing Strategies and Consumer Behavior

This paper explores how social media marketing (SMM) strategies can affect the purchase decisions of consumers by using a literature review on the relevant studies published in modern journals. In particular, it explores how practices that include short-form video content, live streaming and real-time interaction, influencer partnerships and user-generated content (UGC) inform the shopping behaviors of consumers in the social media-dominated marketplaces. The review clarifies interdependence among these strategies and purchase decision-making, including the methods that are most suggested as prevailing contributors of engagement and conversion. By summarizing the existing theoretical and empirical knowledge, the article presents a full-fledged picture of the most efficient SMM activities and can be viewed as a valuable source of information and guidance on possible ways of optimizing the activity of marketers, businesses and advertisers operating in ever-intensifying digital environments. Moreover, the provided findings provide a conceptual basis of further empirical studies regarding performance of social media marketing and its changing dynamics.