[ITWeb Social Business Summit] We are social

According to Mike Wronski of the Orinoco group, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook have stagnated, but they are all still growing. The star when it comes to growth has been LinkedIn. He was addressing delegates at the recent ITWeb Social Business Summit that took place in Johannesburg on the status of some of some of the channels.

Facebook

From a marketing perspective, he says Facebook is still the most effective platform for brands in South Africa. With one billion users globally, this cash cow is not going anywhere any time soon. In South Africa one in five South Africans log into Facebook every day."

©Marcel de Grijs via 123RF

In the past months there has been a growth of paid media. "This shows that the budgets are there but also a laziness on the part of brands who are opting for paid media on the channel." While Facebook fans are up from last year it is no longer a metric. No one cares. Conversations are what counts.

Twitter

While Twitter in this country has seen some modest growth of 12%, people are tweeting less. If you miss a tweet and it is five minutes old then you do not see it. Brands are posting more content on Twitter and using it more as a CRM tool as it is a channel that allows a quick response to a customer

Instagram

Instagram is a big success story, but while many brands have registered on Instagram, most are not using the platform properly yet. Instagram has leapfrogged other platforms and the mass market is consuming the content there. For celebrities it is the number one platform they want to be seen on.

LinkedIn

The golden child despite the fact that most people know about it but do not know how to use it. Worldwide 40% of people pay for it. Many South Africans are included in this figure. Despite this the network is transforming as influencers create content on portals.

YouTube

From noting to almost one billion users globally YouTube has 8.2 million users locally. Unfortunately South African videos do not get as much engagement as their overseas counterparts. There are some successes such as the Kruger sightings. A brand that has done well is DHL Africa. Suzette has done well for herself. Shoprite branding brought her in and created a roundabout way of brand awareness. Die Antwoord also does well. People follow content that resonates with them so focus on communities of people that are passionate about a topic and do not focus on cheap reach.

He says the role of video content will be fundamental in the future. "Content can be expensive to produce in the future unless brands are smart about it, for example utilising influencers and employees to get reach at a low cost." A challenge is that South Africa does not have as many bloggers and influencers, with only around 30 to 40 with tremendous reach. The most followed people this year in South Africa are more or less the same people followed last year. There has not been a lot of growth. "However this will change as brands become their own publishers and the number of influencers in the market grow."

"Social media has changed the world and social media channels are the drivers of traffic. They will shift the way business is done in the future."