Social Media Marketing and Commercial Performance of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: The Beauty Sector in Cameroon

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.