The impact of social media marketing on perceptions of brand knowledge : The case of the government employees’ pension fund (GEPF)

Abstract

The goal of the research was to examine the effect of social media marketing activities on brand knowledge, defined as brand awareness and brand image (Keller, 1993).The social media activities selected as independent variables for this purpose were firm generated content (FGC) and consumer engagement (CE). The study was conducted within the context of the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF), Africa’s largest pension fund by assets under management.

The population of the research was comprised of GEPF clients defined as members, pensioners and beneficiaries all of whom have a direct interest in the communication activities of the GEPF. The clients were required to have personal accounts on the social media platforms of Facebook and/or Twitter in order to be part of the study. The quantitative research method was used, with research data obtained via an online questionnaire shared on two carefully identified private Facebook groups. A total of 188 followers from the groups fully completed the survey. Multiple regression analysis using SPSS was then used to analyse the collected data. The results of the study confirmed that the social media marketing activities of firm generated content and consumer engagement have a significant and positive effect on the attributes of brand awareness and brand image. Furthermore, the study indicated that consumer engagement has a more significant impact on the variables than firm generated content. The study enhances the gaps in research regarding the impact of social media activities on brand knowledge as articulated by Zahoor and Qureshi (2017) that there is still considerable scope to quantify the relationships between social media marketing and the dimensions that comprise customer-based brand equity.