As there is an ever-growing list of social media platforms for publishers to include in their online communities it is hard to decide which ones will be most effective for your brand.

If your website offers some social media elements and is receiving a favourable response from users, maybe you should consider additional ways for visitors to interact by expanding the social features on your site.

What brands must first evaluate are their customers. Forrester Research describes six levels of participation or Social Technographics as reported by 360i, a digital marketing agency, in their newly published Social Marketing Playbook; Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators and Inactives. By monitoring these levels of social media consumption a brand can better identify what type of strategy will get the greatest engagement from its community.

For example a community that is mostly made up of Creators will want a platform that empowers them to develop their own user-generated content (UGC) about your brand, such as a video. While customers who are more likely to consume media will likely be more inspired by something less involved, such as a rating system or a poll.

Another way to judge where your brand can be most effective in the social media space is to do a little competitive research. Information like your competitors’ social marketing footprint, amount of user-generated content versus brand driven content will all give you a better idea of what your demographic is doing, where they are spending their time online and for how long. As well, this research can be helpful in finding new opportunities for your brand.

Finally, listening is key. If you want to know what consumers want just ask. Why not? Engaging users in the social media space is not rocket science. Successful online brands prove that listening is what really counts.

Recently MarketingSherpa posted a case study of a bilingual Latin music and entertainment website called Batanga. Through testing and expanding of its social media elements, the site increased user engagement, registrations and impressions, as well time spent on the site by 33 per cent. Using a platform from Pluck, an integrated social media solution provider, to add new social features, Batanga saw impressive results.