Bridging Social Media Authenticity Gaps: Trust-Commitment Pathways to Brand Loyalty

Indonesian K-12 private Islamic schools depend primarily on parental enrollment to remain viable. In cities where schools compete to attract and retain students, schools' ability to build strong relationships with parents has become increasingly important. Nevertheless, many schools still struggle to use social media to convey their educational and religious values. This study investigates how social media marketing actions affect parents' brand loyalty to Islamic schools by considering brand authenticity, customer-based brand equity, and brand trust through the lens of Trust-Commitment Theory. The study employs a quantitative explanatory methodology. This study examined parents of children attending private Islamic K-12 schools in Greater Jakarta. This study collected 280 valid responses through an online survey and used purposive sampling. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling with the Partial Least Squares method. The results show that social media marketing makes parents see the brand as more authentic. This authenticity builds brand trust and customer-based brand equity, leading to greater parental loyalty to Islamic schools. The paper also draws on the Trust-Commitment Theory to examine Islamic K-12 education and highlights how honest digital communication helps build lasting relationships between schools and parents.