147 Vol 15, No 2, June 2025, PP. 147-166 International Journal of Management Research and Emerging Sciences Leveraging Social Media for Sales Performance: Evidence from SMEs Selling Electrical Devices in Dodoma City Geofrey Richard Kanyosa Ministry of Industry and Trade, Dodoma, Tanzania geofrey.kanyossa@mit.go.tz Chacha Magasi Marketing Department, College of Business Education, Mwanza, Tanzania Corresponding: magasitza@gmail.com ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article History: Received: 01 Mar 2025 Revised: 30 Apr 2025 Accepted: 15 May 2025 Available Online: 26 Jun 2025 DOI: https://doi.org/10.56536/ijmres.v15i2.771 This study investigated the impact of Instagram marketing, Twitter (X) engagement, and WhatsApp communication on sales performance among SMEs selling electrical devices in Dodoma City. This research used structured questionnaires and a simple random sampling technique to collect fresh quantitative data at once from 220 respondents. The collected quantitative data was analyzed using multiple linear regression. The results signify that WhatsApp communication was revealed as the most extensively used platform and with strongest impact (β3= 0.486; p = 0.000) in enhancing sales performance. Its aspects, namely, multimedia sharing, Document sharing, and voice messages exhibiting the strongest impact. Instagram marketing followed WhatsApp communication in showing a profound positive significant impact (β1= 0.404; p = 0.000) on sales performance. Its aspects, namely, Comments and Follower Growth, contributed the most to sales performance. Twitter (X) engagement had the smallest but with positive significant effect (β2= 0.351; p = 0.000) on sales performance. Its aspects, namely, like (favorites), click- throughs, and follows were the most influential factors in driving sales growth. The findings emphasize the importance of synchronizing social media marketing strategies with platform-specific strengths to maximize business performance. Additionally, policymakers and business leaders should invest in digital literacy training and infrastructure improvements to foster SME growth in the digital marketplace. This study significantly enhances digital marketing literature by empirically demonstrating platform-specific marketing effectiveness within the underexplored electrical device sector in Dodoma City. It provides empirical insights into how SMEs can leverage digital platforms to improve sales performance. Keywords: Social media marketing, SME sales performance, Instagram marketing, Twitter (X) engagement, WhatsApp Communication marketing, JEL Classification: L81, M30 © 2025 The authors, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0. INTRODUCTION The exponential growth of global internet connectivity infrastructure and internet services has resulted in the mushrooming of social media and online search engines. Social media has remarkably revolutionized the way individuals communicate, interact, and consume information in both personal and professional spheres (Ndekwa, 2025; Serhat & Mehmet, 2025). Currently there is evolution of advanced digital time, social media simply means the AI-driven platforms which enable high-quality content creation, seamless multimedia sharing, and interactive engagement, fostering global