The Role of Social Media Marketing in Building Brand Awareness: A Literature-Based Review

Abstract

Brand awareness, the extent to which consumers recognize and recall a brand, is a foundation of brand equity and a prerequisite for consumer choice. Social media has changed how brands pursue awareness by offering wide reach, targeting, interaction and consumer-to-consumer amplification at relatively low cost. This paper reviews 25 peer-reviewed studies published between 1993 and 2021, profiling fifteen core empirical studies in detail, to examine how social media marketing contributes to brand awareness and related outcomes such as brand image, brand equity, loyalty and purchase intention. The review synthesizes the literature into five themes: social media marketing activities, interaction and user-generated content, content strategy and engagement, word of mouth and influencer marketing, and the relationship between social and traditional media. The evidence generally indicates that well-planned, interactive and credible social media activity strengthens brand awareness and equity, and that consumer-generated communication is especially influential for brand image. However, most studies rely on cross-sectional surveys, single platforms, single countries or luxury and fashion contexts, and few measure awareness directly. The paper identifies these gaps, proposes a conceptual framework, and offers implications for marketers and directions for future research.