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BackgroundThe study was prompted by the desire to determine the impact of social media marketing（SMM）on brand performance in small to medium enterprises（SMEs）in the detergent manufacturing industry in Harare,Zimbabwe.The problem behind this study was that SMEs in the detergent industry in Zimbabwe were lacking market driven strategies and were not fully taking advantage of the advent of social media marketing to increase their brand awareness,brand image,brand loyalty and brand performance despite the 50.8% and 109.9%internet and mobile penetration rates in Zimbabwe.The objectives of the study were: to ascertain the influence of consumer digital interaction on brand awareness,to examine the relationship between electronic word of mouth and brand recognition,to assess the impact of brand attributes on brand loyalty and to determine the effect of online brand communities on brand performance.To achieve the study’s objectives,the reviewed literature focused on the following areas amongst others: influence of consumer digital interaction,brand awareness,electronic word of mouth,brand recognition,brand attributes,brand loyalty,online brand communities and brand performance.Process and MethodThe study adopted a positivist philosophy and a quantitative research design.A survey research strategy was employed in which the questionnaires were used as primary data collection research instruments.The questionnaires were administered to a sample of 370 respondents.300 questionnaires were returned and presented for analysis.Collected data was examined through SPSS Version 16.Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in examining the impact of SMM on brand performance.Conclusions and SignificanceThe study findings revealed positive and significant impact of consumer digital interaction,electronic word of mouth,brand attributes and online brand communities on brand awareness,brand recognition,brand loyalty and brand performance respectively.It was concluded that the SMM has a positive and significant impact on brand performance.The management of the SMEs in the detergent industry were recommended to advertise their brands via online shared platforms as this would improve the performance of their brands in the market.Since this study was conducted at a time Zimbabwe was facing severe economic challenges such as the prevailing liquidity crisis and cash shortage,this compromised its findings in that consumers concluded a purchase decision based on the price they found on various brands in the market more than on information that was communicated via online social media platforms.Theoretically,the study closed the literature gaps since no study was carried out in Zimbabwe concerning the influence of SMM on brand performance.Practically,the study depicted how these SMEs could improve the performance of their brands through SMM.Therefore,future studies should also explore SMM impact of consumer digital interaction,electronic word of mouth,brand attributes and online brand communities on brand performance of big organisations in different sectors.