Social media's slippery slope: challenges, opportunities and future research directions

Academics and the business community are interested in learning how social media can benefit (or harm) consumer‐brand engagement. As more branding activity goes social, marketers are not always welcome in all social media spaces. In this invited commentary, the authors aim to lay out the challenges that social media faces for enhancing consumer‐brand engagement. In doing so, they seek to turn social media challenges into future research directions.

The paper reviews prior literature on social media and brand engagement.

The majority of social media marketing initiatives take the form of communicating sales promotions to already engaged consumers.

Marketers need to find ways to use social media to create lasting brand engagement rather than to merely utilize this communication technology to enhance short‐term revenue.

This critical review provides marketing academics and practitioners avenues for future research and applied considerations. It is an adaptation and extension of Schultz's 2013 paper.