Companies who target their efforts see the best results by Jayson DeMers

Every social media manager wonders: what’s the most effective social media marketing platform for businesses to focus their efforts on? Now, thanks to rapidly advancing social media analytics and market research, it’s possible to understand which social networks are driving the most sales. Here are some important takeaways from the latest research about social media success and selling online in 2014.

One overarching theme in recent research is the benefit of properly targeting your social media efforts. If you want a better understanding of how social media influences your customers’ decisions to purchase your products and services, there are a few important questions that you’ve got to ask. In this case, a bit of smart consumer research will go a long way toward directing your social media strategy.

Most importantly, you need to know where your customers are actually spending their time online. Are they using Facebook frequently to engage with businesses and connect with friends and family, or do they spend most of their time on Twitter or Pinterest? The next step is to dig a little deeper into how your customers are using these platforms.

For example, a Pinterest user is going to be looking for different things than a Facebook user. Pinterest users be using the platform to find new recipes or ideas for DIY crafts, while typical Facebook users may be on the lookout for personal updates or current events. The platforms where your customers spend the most time also determines whether you should focus on video, microvideo, visual, or written updates.

A recent whitepaper by VisionCritical outlines how you can most effectively use each network to connect with your customers. They suggest that in order to make the most out of your businesses’ social media presence, you need to first understand which types of content are going to result in maximum engagement on which networks. It’s also important to pay attention to the culture of the network and the audience. To get a better sense of what works for each platform, do research into businesses that have experienced significant success with their social media efforts. This will help you get a better sense of which approaches yield the best results.