As consumers, we are blinded by advertisements from the moment we wake up. Not surprisingly, marketers have jumped onto the bandwagon to blind us with more marketing messages on the digital front. Social sites are a gold mine for marketers to engage potential customers early on in the discovery phase, and track their journey to a conversion or purchase. So, how do companies pick which social sites drive the most revenue? Well, the answer is: it totally depends. Each social channel is unique and caters to a different audience.

Should companies use Facebook advertisements or Google adwords?

• Facebook: provides companies with super, hyper targeted ads whether it be through age, interests, language, etc
• Google: doesn’t have that data, but allows companies to target by location.

Recently, Pinterest has begun to dial in the commerce equation: pin, click, buy. For Pinterest, it’s critical for companies to focus on providing high-quality content in their social commerce posts to ensure their “product Pins” gets discovered by highly engaged consumers. Let’s look at another alternative: Snapchat. After wide-spread controversy of Snapchat CEO rejecting a $3 billion offer from Facebook, the company has added new forms of snaps. For instance, Victoria’s Secret can be added as a friend giving consumers the choice of whether or not they want to be included in the snaps taken by the Angels (see picture below) along with the occasional promotional material.

With so many different avenues to target consumers it’s no surprise that companies will do their best to monetize social channels.