The Effect of Customer Usage Motivation on Customer Trust and Product Evaluation under the Role of Social Media Content Marketing - Using Customer Engagement as a Mediating variable

Today, social media is proliferating rapidly and for companies, social media content marketing has become the leading marketing technique in communication. It leverages customers' perspectives to build relationships by creating and sharing engaging content on social media to enhance their daily lives. Unlike previous research, this study used the U&G model as a theoretical framework to explore the relationship between customer motivation, customer engagement, customer trust, and product evaluation in the context of social media content marketing, and the mediating role of customer engagement between motivation and customer trust. Five hundred and forty-seven participants completed a questionnaire to assess their motivation, and the results were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of the study showed that customer motivation had a positive impact on customer engagement and customer trust under the influence of social media content marketing, which in turn had a significant positive impact on the evaluation of the product. In addition, the mediating effect of customer engagement between customer motivation and customer trust is explored. This study adds to the academic literature and has practical implications for companies using social media platforms for content marketing. This study is the first to apply social media content marketing to the study of customer motivation and product evaluation and proposes a theoretical model with customer engagement as a mediating variable. In addition, this study extends the application of the U&G model, which will be useful for future research on customer evaluation of products under the role of social media content marketing.