Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management ISSN: 2766-824X | Vol. 20, No. 2, 2025 79 Innovation in Interior Design Brand Marketing: The Integration Path of Social Media and Immersive Experience Beixin Lin School of Design, Pratt Institute, New York, USA Abstract: Driven by digital technology, social media and immersive experiences (such as VR/AR and Metaverse) are reshaping the marketing model of interior design brands. Based on the theories of interactive marketing and sensory marketing , this paper constructs a "social + immersive" fusion framework and proposes a three-dimensional collaborative path: through dynamic interactive content (such as panoramic videos, AR real-time annotation), virtual and real fusion scenes (such as AR filters, Metaverse exhibition halls) and user co-creation mechanisms (such as gamification challenges and data-driven recommendations), it solves the high cost and static pain points of traditional marketing, and optimizes the low conversion r ate of social media and the threshold of immersive technology. The study provides brands with a full-link strategy from traffic acquisition to user conversion, and points out that in the future, it is necessary to balance technological innovation and et hical risks and explore cutting-edge directions such as AI-generated content. Keywords: Social media marketing; Immersive experience; Virtual-real integration; User co-creation; Brand marketing innovation. 1. Introduction With the rapid development of digital technology, social media and immersive experience technologies (such as VR/AR and Metaverse) are reshaping brand marketing models. As of April 2025, the number of social media users worldwide has exceeded 5.31 billion (Data Reportal, 2025) [1], users prefer to obtain information through short videos, live broadcasts and virtual interactions. Motivations such as sense of belonging, entertainment, convenience, social interaction and creative content planning have prompted people to use AR technology more on social media (Javornik et al., 2022) [2]. At the same time, the interior design industry faces the challenge of consumption upgrading: consumers are no longer satisfied with traditional graphic displays, but pursue scene-based, personalized and instant interactive experiences (Van et al., 2017) [3]. In this context, brands urgently need to improve marketing effectiveness through innovative technological means. However, existing research focuses on a single technology or platform, and lacks discussion on the collaborative path between social media and immersive experience, which provides research space for this article. This paper integrates interactive marketing theory and sensory marketing theory, constructs a "social + immersion" integration framework, and uses literature research and case analysis to make up for the existing research's neglect of multi-technology collaboration in the field of marketing. In addition, this paper also helps to provide interior design brands with feasible digital marketing strategies, such as improving conversion rates through virtual showrooms or using UGC (user-generated content) to enhance brand stickiness. 2. Literature Review and Theoretical Basis 2.1. Current Status of Social Media Marketing Research Social media has reconstructed the logic of brand communication through immediacy, interactivity and user co- creation. Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) [4] defined social media as "a content platform based on the ideology and technical foundation of Web 2.0 technology that allows users to produce and exchange creative content." Its core lies in achieving fission communication through algorithm recommendation and community interaction. In the field of interior design, brands attract users through visual content (such as Instagram's home inspiration pictures and Xiaohongshu's "decoration diary"), but there are pain points such as content homogeneity and low conversion rate. Recent studies have emphasized that emotional resonance and scenario-based narratives are the key to improving the effectiveness of social media marketing. For example, Tiktok uses short videos to show the entire process of “from rough housing to ideal home”, triggering users’ yearning for an ideal life and thus increasing their willingness to buy (Zhang et al., 2023) [5]. 2.2. The Marketing Value of Immersive Experience Immersive experience enhances user participation through multi-sensory stimulation and virtual-real interaction. According to the experience economy theory of Pine and Gilmore (1998) [6], consumers are more willing to pay for "unforgettable experiences". For example, IKEA uses the AR application "IKEA Place" to allow users to virtually place furniture, combined with social media sharing functions, to achieve seamless online and offline connections. 80 2.3. Theoretical Basis of The Fusion Path Interactive Marketing Theory: Hoffman and Novak (1996) [7] proposed that "machine interaction" and "interpersonal interaction" in hypermedia environments (such as social media) jointly drive user behavior. For example, a virtual exhibition hall in the metaverse can simultaneously support real-time interaction between users and interfaces, and between users. Sensory marketing theory: Krishna (2012) [8] pointed out that multi-sensory stimulation such as vision and touch can strengthen brand memory. AR filters in social media (such as simulating different lighting effects) combined with immersive scenes can stimulate users' emotional resonance. 3. Current Status and Challenges of Interior Design Brand Marketing 3.1. Limitations of Traditional Marketing Models Traditional interior design brands have long relied on marketing models such as offline physical showrooms, paper product catalogs and face-to-face communication, but with the changes in consumer behavior and market environment, their limitations have become increasingly prominent. First, the traditional model is costly and has limited coverage. The rental, decoration and maintenance of physical showrooms require a lot of capital investment, but their coverage is usually limited to local consumers, making it difficult to reach a wider range of potential customers. Secondly, traditional marketing is mainly based on static displays, such as paper catalogs or fixed web pages, which cannot dynamically present the real effect of space design. Consumers can only imagine the layout of the home through two-dimensional pictures or text descriptions, and it is difficult to perceive the details of material texture, light changes and space proportions, resulting in insufficient experience. In addition, the traditional model emphasizes the one-way output of designers or brands, and consumers lack the opportunity to participate in design decisions, making it difficult to meet the current user demand for personalization and customization. This "passive acceptance" marketing logic is gradually out of touch with the trend of consumers pursuing active participation and instant interaction. 3.2. Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media Marketing The development of social media has provided interior design brands with new marketing channels, and its core advantages lie in its high interactivity and user co-creation potential. Through short videos, live broadcasts, and graphic content, brands can quickly reach young consumer groups and achieve precise communication with the help of the platform's algorithm recommendation. For example, designers can show the decoration process through live broadcasts, or present the scenario-based narrative of "ideal home" in short videos, which can stimulate users' emotional resonance and desire to buy. In addition, the rise of user- generated content (UGC) provides brands with low-cost content materials. Consumers share their own home design cases, which not only enhances brand trust, but also forms a word-of-mouth communication effect. However, social media marketing still faces significant challenges in practice. On the one hand, content homogeneity is serious, and a large number of brands use similar "beautiful pictures + promotional copy" templates, which leads to user aesthetic fatigue and makes it difficult to highlight brand differentiation. On the other hand, traffic conversion efficiency is low. After users like or collect content on social platforms, they often lack the motivation to make further purchases, and the link from "interest" to "action" is broken. In addition, social media marketing is more susceptible to the influence of Internet celebrities or designers' personal IP, and users' loyalty to the brand itself may be diluted, forming a dilemma of "traffic dependence" rather than "brand recognition." 3.3. Advantages and Disadvantages of Immersive Experience The introduction of immersive experience technologies (such as VR/AR and virtual exhibition halls) has brought scene-based and personalized marketing breakthroughs to the interior design industry. Its core value lies in allowing consumers to experience design solutions "immersively" through virtual-real interaction and multi-sensory stimulation. For example, users can freely adjust the home layout through VR devices, or project virtual furniture into real space through AR technology, so as to intuitively evaluate style matching and space utilization. This dynamic and interactive display method not only solves the drawbacks of traditional static display, but also gives consumers greater decision-making autonomy, significantly improving purchasing confidence. However, the implementation of immersive experience still faces multiple obstacles. The technical threshold is the primary challenge. The development and maintenance of high-quality virtual scenes requires a professional team and continuous capital investment, which is often difficult for small and medium-sized brands to afford. Secondly, differences in user cognition lead to differentiated experience effects. Young groups have a high acceptance of new technologies and can quickly master the operation logic; while middle-aged and elderly consumers may give up halfway due to complex operations or inconvenient equipment use, resulting in user loss. In addition, over- reliance on technology may weaken the emotional value of the brand. If the immersive experience only stays at the "showmanship" level and fails to deeply integrate with the core concept of the brand, it will weaken the user's perception of the design connotation. 4. The Integration Path of Social Media and Immersive Experience 4.1. Content Innovation: From Static Display to Dynamic Interaction Traditional graphic and text displays can no longer meet users' needs for scenario-based experience, and content innovation needs to shift from static one-way communication to dynamic interactive design. 1) Immersive transformation of short videos and live broadcasts With the help of 360° panoramic video technology, users can freely switch perspectives by sliding the screen. For example, the "virtual house viewing" function launched by Douyin not only breaks the plane limitation of traditional videos, but also significantly improves user interaction rate (TikTok, 2023). Furthermore, embedding AR real-time annotation functions in designer live tours, such as 81 dynamically displaying the color changes of wall paint under different lights, can enhance users' perception of product details through multi-sensory stimulation (Krishna, 2012) [8]. 2) Combining UGC with virtual experience, brands can encourage users to design home furnishing plans and share them on social platforms by developing lightweight AR tools. For example, under the topic of "My Ideal Home" on Xiaohongshu, user-generated AR design content forms a closed loop of "creation-sharing-fission", which not only reduces the cost of brand content production, but also expands influence through social communication. 4.2. Technology-Driven: Building A Social Scene That Integrates the Virtual and The Real Technology is the core bridge connecting social media and immersive experience, and it is necessary to build interactive scenarios of virtual and real symbiosis based on user needs. 1) In-depth application of AR filters on social platforms Brands can develop exclusive AR filters, such as simulating lighting effects or furniture combinations of different decoration styles. After users try taking pictures, they can directly jump to the product page to complete the purchase. Meta research shows that such functions can effectively increase users ' willingness to buy by reducing decision-making costs. 2) Brand virtual space in the metaverse establishes virtual exhibition halls on metaverse platforms such as Decentraland, where users participate in design salons or product launches with virtual images, breaking the limitations of physical space. For example, the Italian brand Natuzzi attracted more than 50,000 users to participate through the metaverse design exhibition. Its core value lies in enhancing the deep interaction between brands and users through virtual social interaction (Flavián et al., 2023) [9]. 4.3. User Participation: From One-Way Communication to Co-Creation of Experience The user role needs to change from passive recipient to active participant, and experience co-creation can be achieved through gamification and data-driven. In terms of gamification and interactive design, you can try to launch an "online design challenge" where users use the 3D tools provided by the brand to complete the design task, and the winning works can be included in the brand product library. For example, the "Design Your Space" campaign of the American brand West Elm greatly improved the user conversion rate by giving users the identity of "designer". In terms of data-driven personalized matching, we can integrate the user's behavior data such as likes and collections on social platforms to accurately recommend immersive experience scenes. For example, after the algorithm recognizes that the user prefers "retro style", it automatically pushes the VR retro home exhibition hall, shortening the decision-making path from interest to action. 5. Conclusion The integration of social media and immersive experience has opened up a new paradigm of scenario-based marketing for interior design brands through dynamic interactive content, virtual and real scene construction, and user co-creation mechanisms. Driven by technology, AR and metaverse applications reduce user decision-making costs, while UGC and gamification design strengthen brand stickiness. However, technical thresholds, user stratification, and data privacy issues still need attention. In the future, brands need to balance personalized experience and ethical norms in technological innovations such as AI-generated content and brain-computer interfaces, and continue to promote consumption upgrades with virtual and real symbiotic scenarios. The theoretical value of this article lies in the integration of a multi-technology collaborative framework, and the practical level provides brands with low-cost and high-dissemination digital tools. References [1] Data Reportal. (2025). Global social media statistics. Retrieved from https://datareportal.com/social-media-users [2] Javornik A, Marder B, Barhorst JB, et al. 'What lies behind the filter?' Uncovering the motivations for using augmented reality (AR) face filters on social media and their effect on well-being [J]. Computers in Human Behavior, 2022, 128: 107126. [3] Van Kerrebroeck H, Brengman M, Willems K. 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