Facebook has the largest number of Social Media users in South Africa, and grew by 40% to reach 9,4 million active users in 2013, a survey entitled ‘South African Social Media Landscape 2014’, and conducted by World Wide Worx and Fuseware, has found. It has overtaken Mxit, which has 6 million users, for the first time.
Twitter experienced the fastest growth in the number of users, at 129% in the past year, reaching 5,5 million users. Mxit’s growth has been curtailed by the popularity of instant messaging apps WhatsApp and 2Go, and the growing use of social networking sites on smartphones. Google+ too has been slow to grow, with less than half a million users, but Instagram has grown six-fold in the past year, and is expected to grow even more.
The majority of South African Social Media users is accessing the sites via their smartphones, 87% for Facebook and 85% for Twitter.
The Social Media usage trends of individuals reflect those of companies: 93% of major brands use Facebook, 79% use Twitter, 58% YouTube, 46% LinkedIn, and 28% Pinterest. Fewer than 10% use Mxit, Foursquare, or Instagram. A change is that Social Media is going in-house and is less likely to be farmed out.
The measurement of the effectiveness of Social Media by companies is still likely to be on the basis of Follower numbers, rather than using ‘sentiment analysis‘. Top brands have on average 58000 Facebook fans, 259000 YouTube views per brand, and almost 13000 Twitter followers. The reaction time to Tweets received by Tweeting companies is too slow, write the compilers of the report, at more than four hours on average. We have seen numerous companies, even retailers such as Pick ‘n Pay and Woolworths, who do not Tweet on weekends and outside of corporate office hours, despite their stores being open until early evening!
World Wide Worx: ‘South African Media Landscape 2014‘, Tel (011) 782-7063. www.worldwideworx.com R15960 for the full report.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
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