Is your business fully online?
The Covid-19 pandemic and everything related to it caught many business owners by surprise and, even worse, caused some businesses to fold – but 2021 is a different year and we are amid an uptake in vaccine distribution. In this article, we look at the different social media platforms and their popularity in the South African market.
Staying on your customers’ minds
As we know, Marketing is very crucial for any business. Businesses that survived through 2020 were the ones that remained in their customers’ minds even during lockdown. 2021 is no different in the sense that there are still lockdown restrictions. This should not stop you from marketing however, all marketing strategies may not lead to outright sales, but sales will happen eventually if you’re consistent enough.
Social Media Is Your Best Friend
Studies show that “nearly 50% of the world’s population use social media. That’s over 3 billion users worldwide.” More importantly, South Africans are online living their best lives, so your business should be too.
According to World Wide Worx, there are approximately 38.2 million people online in South Africa, with an explosion in the use of social media platforms being driven by a similar surge in the use of mobile apps.
This is evident in South Africa’s tally of over 100 million mobile connections – translation, there are more mobile connections than people of 169% (population just under 60 million people.)
Which Social Media Platform Best Suits Your Business
Whilst it is important to be front of mind for potential customers, it is also critical to be tactical in knowing your audience and where to find them online. Therefore, finding out which social platform best suits your business’s needs is vital, whilst also looking at the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on South Africans’ social media behaviour and the effects on social media platforms.
Here is a look at the most popular social media platforms:
| Platform | Users |
| 27 million | |
| YouTube | 24 million |
| 10 million | |
| 9.3 million | |
| TikTok | 9 million |
| 8.4 million | |
| SnapChat | 7 million |
Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the country, with an estimated 27 million local users – 18 million of these users are exclusively mobile. However, despite having the largest base, messaging platform WhatsApp and video platform YouTube are the most used*
Around 93% of internet users make use of these platforms each month – though Facebook is also widely used, at 87%.
Over the past year, SnapChat saw significant growth across all age profiles, with the platform’s user base growing as much as 25%. It now has seven million users in South Africa.
Instagram saw its active users climb from 4.3 million to 7.1 million
TikTok, meanwhile, is the fastest growing platform in the country, jumping from five million to nine million users over the last year. This platform has a younger demographic.
Twitter’s growth in South Africa, compared to other platforms, has been relatively stagnant, up only 4% from last year to 9.3 million users.
YouTube has a reported base of 24 million people in South Africa, with World Wide Worx’s data showing around 16 million active viewers.
LinkedIn saw its numbers increase from 7.5 million to 8.4 million users.
To finish off, Social Media will play a big role in marketing your business now especially in a society forever changed by the global pandemic. More and More people are online – get your business online too.
*Source – http://www.worldwideworx.com/