1.3 South Africans and Social Media Marketing

In a study conducted by The South African Social Media Landscape, it was reported in 2021 that more than 25-million consumers utilising social media in South Africa revealed that established platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and YouTube experience a surge in usage.

Two-thirds of brands believe Facebook to be an effective marketing tool, with 40% viewing the platform as “very effective”. Facebook has a user base of about 27 million and every quarter a million more people can be reached via advertising.

Instagram has surged ahead, growing its user base to over 10 million, with a highly active user base now at 7,1 million (an increase from 4,7 million in 2020) – and brands are driving that high user engagement.

Twitter is deemed half as effective: As the platform evolves, so does the audience, which forces brands to shift strategy. Only four in ten believe it to be effective.

New contender, Clubhouse has a low score as 38% of respondents say it is not effective and 5% say it has little effect. It still has a small audience and brands have not yet figured out how to use it.

Snapchat and TikTok are also a challenge for brands, with about 2% deeming it to be effective.

More than 60% of companies now rely on agency, PR and marketing teams to manage their social media accounts, rather than individuals. Brands are becoming also more engaged, by allocating more resources to it.

And yet only 12% of companies have the optimal skill sets to leverage and manage social media effectively in 2021, while 1/10 are ill-equipped. To improve those skills, 2/3 plan to invest in training staff while 20% plan to use specialist agencies.