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With the changing times, the role of social media has increased manifold. It acts as one of the platforms for disseminating information to the public faster. Social media enables us to focus on widespread ways of reaching the target audience. The principal motto of this research study is to identify the role of social media in public health development with a systematic review of literature in terms of its practice, assistance and application in future areas of public health measures.

The research adopted a bibliometric analysis method to analyze the data from vast sources. The Scopus database was used to extract papers using appropriate keywords. Thus, the study tries to answer the following research questions: (1) to determine the key journals, authors and keywords in the public health development research; (2) to provide a theme-based cluster based on the keywords’ cooccurrences; and (3) to develop a research framework for the upcoming researchers.

The study's findings provide a path to understanding the present research stream regarding the highest publication in terms of journals and the year and relevance of social media in public health development. Five theme-based clusters have been identified based on keyword cooccurrences. Thus, future researchers can extend the research field using different themes and frameworks, adding value to the present research works.

This research work is helpful to the government, health practitioners, policymakers and researchers in investigating areas where social media can be implemented. Lastly, social media applications will provide health development measures and lucrative results to the public.

The research enumerates the significance of social media in public health development through bibliometric analysis. The research work analyzed, reviewed and measured the importance of social media in health development measures by recognizing its usage, application and potential future research directions. The theme-based clusters have also been identified from the keywords’ cooccurrences.

Social media sites facilitate electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication among consumers of diverse cultures and ethnicities. Based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the present research proposes a conceptual framework for minority consumers' engagement in eWOM associated with the mainstream culture. The model incorporates social capital and social interaction as key factors that affect cross-cultural eWOM communication between minority and mainstream consumers. This research also aims to explore the responses of minority consumers to eWOM communications originating with members of the majority group.

A structural equation modelling (SEM) procedure was applied to data collected from social media (Facebook) users (N = 539) from two minority communities: Israeli Arab and Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Jewish minorities.

The findings show that: (a) minority consumers' engagement with eWOM is indirectly related to social capital, (b) this relationship is mediated by minority consumers' attitudes and their subjective norms regarding eWOM engagement with dominant cultural groups, (c) social interaction of minorities with the dominant culture enhances the influence of social capital on eWOM engagement and (d) behavioural engagement with eWOM varies across cultural minorities, depending on the minority group’s unique cultural characteristics.

The findings have managerial implications for practitioners who use social media in their marketing and business activities, as they demonstrate that the effectiveness of eWOM communication is contingent on the cultural characteristics of the ethnic minority consumer groups being targeted by managers.

The present research contributes to the theory of consumer engagement by demonstrating that engagement is contingent on the intercultural social context in which eWOM is communicated.