The effect of social media content marketing on engagement and conversion in sales

: the case of Mercadão

Abstract

Social networking services have become an essential tool that connects companies and consumers. For this reason, brands strive to enhance consumer engagement and subsequently conversion in sales. However, it is challenging to identify what type of content serves better companies’ goals. Hence, this research aims to deepen the knowledge regarding “what type of Instagram and Facebook content marketing generates more consumer engagement?” and “what social network generates more sales conversion to the website through social media content?”. To answer the questions raised, it was necessary to develop a social media strategy. For the first research question three different types of content - Informative, Entertaining and Relational - were created to analyse the level of engagement. To answer the second research question, two posts were developed for both platforms, appealing customers to use the coupon, which was valid for 24 hours. Findings suggest that it is relevant to create more relational content to obtain more consumer engagement, and that Instagram may be a good social network to bet on, when it comes to conversion. In short, for future research, after collecting the engagement data, it becomes crucial to develop a conversion post, based on the content that had the most interaction, in order to ascertain whether conversion would increase. In general, future research should continue to explore the relationship between media content in social networks, engagement and conversion.

Date of Award	11 Jul 2022
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ana Lourenço (Supervisor)