Twitter continues to be a hot topic and many social media marketing specialist are trying to drive/sell Twitter services to their clients.
A 2010 study published by Fuseware, a Parow based Social Media Research company, provides fascinating insights into the importance of Twitter to the South African market.
We are currently in the process of having our Homepage redesigned by well known developer Foxinni to better align our web presence with our evolving business model. With the current proposed redesign draft we debated the issue on whether or not to include the “Follow us on Twitter” Social Media sharing button on our Homepage.
Lightspeed does not use Twitter as much as Facebook as our social media platform of choice. and we had to ask, are we maybe missing something? Having “ReTweet” and Twitter sharing buttons activated on your blog is important to help drive exposure of your blog and contribute to SEO, but the value of these sharing buttons on one’s Homepage is debatable if the social media platform is not being maintained in earnest.
The truth is that engaging in Social Media requires attention and effort and it is often better to focus on one channel and maintain it to the best of your ability than to spread your message across multiple platforms without dedicating the resources to maintaining and actively engaging on the platform.
Twitter in South Africa: The Hard Facts
The Fuseware report sheds some light on the true value of Twitter for the South African market, and dispels a bit of the myth that “Everyone is getting onto Twitter”.
An estimated 55000 South African are active* Twitter users. With the South African population estimated to be at about 50 million (49, 380 000), that’s 1% of the South African population. Now 1% is a very small market, but if the average profile of the South African Twitter user fits within the target demographic of your business it is worth utilizing the platform to engage with your customers.
When comparing these statistics with the recently published data by Socialbackers estimating South African Facebook users at just under 3.8 million, Facebook seems to be the stronger platform with deeper market penetration and a wider audience. This justifies making Facebook the focus area for our social media marketing efforts.
Some more interesting statistics:
- 4.5% of South African sites reference Twitter
- In April 2010 Twitter was the 7th most visited site in South Africa
- 12.96% of SA Twitter accounts have geo-location enabled
- 35-40% of Tweets originate from a Mobile Device
What are they Tweeting about?
- 23% are retweets
- 17.3% are Questions
- 24.5% of Tweets contain links
- 47% of Tweets address another user – showing that the users that do actually Tweet are actively engaging in conversation with fellow Twitterati
Take a look at the follow up post for a deeper look at the profile of the average South African Twitter user here.
*Active Twitter users as defined by the 2010 Fuseware report was measured by having tweeted at least once in the period of the report – March to April 2010.
This is a lovely write up. Very relevant & informative. Excellently done
Thank you
I think it’s a bit narrow-minded to just focus on the local market. You’re ignoring the rest of the world.
I see you also dont have StumbleUpon which is one of the biggest traffic sources for websites.
Oh and I found this site via Twitter… so… yeah, you’re missing out.
The 1% of the population on Twitter are active link sharers, and spend an active amount of time online. These are the people that browse the web and the people you need to reach.
Hi Ani
Thanks for you feedback.
To clarify, Active Twitter users as defined by the 2010 Fuseware report was measured by having tweeted at least once in the period of the report – March to April 2010.
As Walter rightly points out in his comment below, the 1% of active Tweeters are in large part thought leaders in some regard and there are many South Africans on Twitter who do not tweet themselves but use Twitter as a filtering tool for the internet, allowing a chosen group of influencers to filter the mass of information on the internet for them.
This blogpost originated from our need to put a value to the social media sharing buttons placed on our website. Earlier iterations included sharing buttons for Digg, Reddit and LinkedIn. We decided to take a less is more approach. We still have the Twitter sharing buttons on all our posts and use Twitter to publish links to our blogposts.
Still, the value of the Fuseware report is that it does put some hard numbers onto the use of Twitter – in a social media landscape where statistics aren’t readily available to the public – and provides a perspective to view the Twitter phenomenon from.
Twitter certainly has value, but it remains up to individuals and the businesses to choose to what extent they want to engage with the platform. Where there are budget and time constraints involved, companies might find it in their best interest to focus on one social media platform and manage it well, than spread their message across too many platforms.
Thanks for the article. WWWorx believes closer to a million, which may explain the dichotomy with the other stats if its only 1% and the 7th most visited site for example.
But really its not about numbers its about influence and the stats show influence, keep in mind that the spread of ideas is between people regardless of the platform and is almost always multiplatform.
So twitter becomes not a media choice but a place to hang out instead.
Thanks for the comment Walter.
WWWorx does excellent work and we are big fans here at LightSpeed.
As I pointed out to Anita, active Twitter users as defined by the 2010 Fuseware report was measured by having tweeted at least once in the period of the report – March to April 2010. No doubt this number has increased over the last few months, and this does not include users who do not Teet themselves.
I do however think there is a danger to say that you ‘must’ have a presence on Twitter or on Facebook. These platforms complement each other, but also compete to a lesser extent with one another for a slice of the marketing money spent by companies on social media. If a smaller company is responsible for their own social media marketing, it could be to their benefit to focus on one platform or a mixture of platforms that works for them.
Interesting article as I have been doing a bit of (internet) research on the usefullness of twitter in SA. I don’t think comparing raw Facebook and Twitter users are 100% relevant. My personal facebook account I use purely to communicate with friends and no advertisements would ever reach me on facebook. I certainly have not seen anything in the last few years that I have been using facebook. As it is very personal I would not ever click on links that are not to do with my direct friends.
Twitter on the other hand I follow people I do not know and often see advertisements that interest me and would respond accordingly. That said twitter relies on people using their mobile phones to access data and I am not sure how affordable data plans currently are in South Africa.