Social media trends

By: Irene Basson

With the speed of change and technological innovation, society is experiencing a fundamental shift in culture. Everything is up for review: our political and economic systems, religion, gender, family structure, culture and society. Now is a time to renew, refresh beliefs and change the way we interact.

The extent to which social media has become mainstream is undeniable. How do we connect with our audience and use social media in a meaningful way? Here are 5 social media trends to keep in mind in 2015.

Facebook bridges the SA gender divide

Facebook is the only platform in South Africa that has seen exactly equal take-up by males and females: 5,6-million males and 5,6-females use the platform. This is one of the fascinating findings of the SA Social Media Landscape 2015 report, released by World Wide Worx and Fuseware. * The headline findings showed that Facebook remained the most popular social network in South Africa, followed by YouTube and Twitter.

Although there has been much talk about young people abandoning Facebook for other social media platforms, this is not case in South Africa. The 13-18 age group remains the biggest on Facebook, with 2,5-million users. It was also found that of a total of 11,8-million South African Facebook users (22% of the population) 8,8-million access it on their mobile phones.

Visual content is key

South Africa’s fastest rising social networks are visual platforms namely YouTube and Instagram. The number of YouTube users in South Africa increased by 53% and the number of Instagram users increased by 65% over the past year, according to the findings of the SA Social Media Landscape 2015 study. There seems to be a visual revolution in online usage in South Africa. As the cost of mobile data comes down for the emerging smartphone market, video and visual media will become a dominant medium.

Mobile friendly is a must
In South Africa there are more SIM cards than there are people. More South Africans access the Internet via mobile than via any other computer or device. Given the clear trend towards mobile usage in South Africa it is essential for companies to create content that is accessible to mobile users. Mobile users require a different experience to desktop users, and businesses that don’t take this into account, could soon face losing loyal customers to competitors who are providing that experience.

The rise and fall of networks

Twitter’s previously dramatic rise has slowed down, although still growing healthily by 20% in the past year – to 6,6-million users. It is the third largest platform in South Africa, just behind Facebook and YouTube. The professional network LinkedIn has lincreased by 40% to 3,8-million users in South Africa. Two networks have seen their numbers fall, namely the homegrown Mxit and the pinning network Pinterest.

Content is king

Content is the most important factor in social marketing, including the quality, volume and speed at which content is produced. The trick is to produce content that people want to engage with, share, and which will generate leads.

A survey of 65 of South Africa’s biggest brands revealed that most of the major brands are using Twitter and Facebook –and just over half of these brands intend increasing their social media budgets in 2016. The biggest focus of social spend will be on content marketing.

Consumers are seeing a massive amount of brand messaging on social media which means that quality standout content is essential to cut through all the noise. Create content that informs, catch onto a trending issue or create videos that will engage your audience. Social media is here to stay, and creative innovative companies who meet and entertain their audiences on the platforms they frequent, will see success.

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* http://www.fuseware.net/reports/social-landscape-report-2015/