Social Media Marketing and Commercial Performance of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: The Beauty Sector in Cameroon
Njih Beri Nkini
Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Yaounde II, Soa, Centre Region, Cameroon and Research Initiative in Tropical and Community Health (RITCH), Yaounde, Cameroon.
Earnest Njih Tabah
*
Research Initiative in Tropical and Community Health (RITCH), Yaounde, Cameroon and Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon.
Nga Ndongo Winnie
Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Yaounde II, Soa, Centre Region, Cameroon.
Djam Chefor Alain
Research Initiative in Tropical and Community Health (RITCH), Yaounde, Cameroon and Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Dschang, Dschang, Cameroon.
Youmbi Zidenie Afanya
Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Yaounde II, Soa, Centre Region, Cameroon.
Nkene Ndeme Richard
Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Yaounde II, Soa, Centre Region, Cameroon.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Aim: To investigate the relationship between social media marketing (SMM) and commercial performance (CP) of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the beauty sector of Cameroon.
Study Design: A cross-sectional descriptive and analytical design, adopting quantitative and hypothetico-deductive approaches were used.
Place and Duration: Beauty salons in four major towns of Cameroon (Yaounde, Douala, Bafoussam and Limbe) from May to June 2025.
Methodology: A convenience sampling method was used to select beauty SMEs, who responded to a self-administered questionnaire, designed to collect data on their use of social media platforms and influencers for marketing, and commercial performance of their businesses.
Results: Some 185 beauty business owners including 140(75.7%) female and 45(24.5%) males participated in the study. About 63% and 19.5% of participants agreed or strongly agreed to using social media platforms, meanwhile 58.4% and 12.4% agreed or strongly agreed with engaging social influencers for marketing. There were significant associations between commercial performance and the usage of social media platforms (mean scores = 4.05±0.57; t = 97.07; P = 0.000), and engagement with social media influencers (mean score = 3.80±0.66; t = 78.84; P = 0.000) respectively. Social media platforms predictors of improved commercial performance were found to be daily promotional posting which alone explained 22.4% of variance in CP (F=89.29; P<0.001). When associated with competitive advantage, customer community building, and social media analytics, the variance increased to 30.70 (F=36.695; P < 0.001). Equally, social media influencers predictors were found to be: influencer-driven community building accounting alone for 18.43% of variance in CP (F=67.56; P<0.001), and together with website traffic growth, explained 19.88% of variance in CP (F = 37.336; P < 0.001).
Conclusion: Both social media platform use and social media influencer engagement are significant and complementary drivers of commercial success. We therefore recommend to the beauty sector SMEs to develop a comprehensive social media marketing strategy, including daily posting of promotional information, and building customer communities with the support of social media influencers, to boost their commercial performances.
Keywords: Social media marketing, commercial performance, SMEs, beauty sector