More Than Marketing: Exploring the Link Between Social Media Marketing and Customer Engagement Through Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Social media has become a primary channel through which firms reach customers and sustain relationships with them, yet the literature that links social media marketing (SMM) to customer engagement is spread across many outcomes, platforms, and terms. This study maps that literature through bibliometric analysis. Records were retrieved from Scopus on 16 September 2026 (n = 591), narrowed to 142 records with database filters, and screened by title and abstract, leaving 108 English-language, open-access journal articles published in 2021–2026. Keyword co-occurrence analysis in VOSviewer (full counting, minimum three occurrences) produced a network of 40 keywords in eight clusters. Annual output rose from 8 articles in 2021 to 37 in 2025. Social media (43 occurrences) and customer engagement (39) are the dominant nodes, and customer engagement is connected to 32 of the other 39 keywords, which places it at the structural center of the field. Overlay analysis shows that digital transformation, social media analytics, social media advertising, and influencer marketing are the most recent topics, whereas loyalty and social networks are earlier ones. The density map shows sparse coverage of customer brand engagement, brand awareness, and sustainability. These results suggest that engagement works as a bridging concept in SMM research, and that its terminology and its links to outcomes need clearer conceptual alignment.