The Effect of Social Media Brand Engagement on South African Consumers’ Purchase Intentions

Social media has perennially transformed consumers’ purchasing cycles. Today, consumers can effortlessly conduct online information searches about brands based on their interest in brands' social media pages or read brand reviews made by other consumers on social media networks. Social media is undisputedly characterised by ratings, comments, reviews, and other features found on websites that indicate what users think of the content being discussed. Taking note of what users say on social media and engaging in discussions is a great way for brands to influence these discussions and condition consumers’ purchase decisions and intentions. To achieve the objectives of this research, this study adopts a quantitative research method in which convenience and purposive sampling were utilised to recruit research participants. Self-administered, structured questionnaires are used to collect primary data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics are utilised in this study. Data is analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24.0. The outcomes of this research advocate that social media is an immensely powerful communication tool that can be used to shape consumers’ purchase intentions.