The short answer to whether 2011 will be a big social media marketing year for South Africa is "yes." That is my humble opinion based upon an immersive week of working with some very smart people in the region. What's more, while South Africa has it's own unique trajectory as a country, other countries like it - those that are not in the top 10 list of social media marketing adoption countries - may benefit from the same advantages held by South Africa. You don't have to be the UK, Spain, China or even the US (to pick a few of my top social media countries) to be really using social media effectively this year.
I presented my 2011 edition of The CMO's Dilemma to a room of about 120 brands. More of a conversation than linear presentation, I got to hear from big brands in the market like South African Airways, BP, KFC, Castle, Cell C and others about their approach and attitude towards social media marketing and communications. Many identified with the issues raised in the CMO's Dilemma which are all of the year 2 or 3 challenges faced by an experienced marketer. No one doubts that social media will change marketing but there remains healthy debate about how much and effective ways to apply it to business.
We spoke about the conditions of the South African marketplace and culture. Some felt that South African people online were natural conversationalists ready to post their POVs on issues and brands. Others claimed new technologies were growing faster there than in many markets around the world.
Favorable conditions
Here are some key stats thanks to Chris Rawlinson, one of the smart folks I met there. Chris now works for Ogilvy and previously engineered a great success story with Stormhoek Wines (which others like Hugh Macleod share great responsibility for). This remains a great global case study of how to do things right (more on it here). I have added a bit of my own commentary on why I feel these stats are significant.
The 8 key social media spaces in SA: MXit , Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Linkedin, Blogger, Wordpress, Posterous, Tumblr - While MXit is specific to the region (mobile chat platform), the other platforms are common across many regions which will make it easier for multinationals to roll out programs here using key learnings from other markets.
There are approx 6 million unique internet users in South Africa - With a population of 45-49mm this represents only 13% of the overall population and points out a well known condition in South Africa - a majority of the population is economically disadvantaged. Still, by 2014, 20% of the country will have computer access to the Internet and more importantly....
There are more mobile phones in SA than Taxis+TV’s+Radios combined and more active sim cards than citizens (Different operators sim cards are used at different times of the day depending on call/text/data cost)- Many markets around the world will see greater access of the Web via mobile devices. This means a brand's social strategy in South Africa (and many other countries) ought to revolve around mobile access.
Mobile internet access breaks down into 3 tiers locally: 3mm have full web access, 11mm through apps (Mxit, email etc), 13mm through WAP - Creating any internet site-based marketing program without a fully realized mobile Web interface seems just plain worng. This goes for the US and other established markets.
3,861,240 million South Africans on Facebook (approx.80% of SA internet users use Facebook) and they average 50 minutes a day on the platform - For brands working on Facebook-centric social media strategies in other parts of the world, the ability to apply those in South Africa reduces the effort to customize strategies for that market (of course it doesn't reduce the need to customize content and approach)
Twitter has approx 1 million local users (up from 90,000 in Jan 2010) - That's 10x-plus growth in one year. That rapid growth rivals other fast growth markets like Brazil. If you argue that social media usage lags in South Africa can you really be confident that will be true in 6 months?
Three Limiting Factors
Broadband rate structure - Apparently, consumers must pay additional fees past a certain megabyte threshold which puts a ceiling on widespread video usage. This seems to be true on wired and wireless access. Since video is one of the natural places for traditional marketing agencies and marketers to transition to social strategies, these limits may have curtailed more robust adoption of social media marketing
A stage scenery approach to social media - Launching a Facebook page with no conversation or content strategy does not make a great success.There seems to be plenty of examples of brands who put the right scenery in place but with no real substance behind the interface. This will put off some marketers as pages don't pay off. But that will pass. I would argue that the market is hungry for unequivocal local success stories with the proper analysis of the rigor that made them successful. When marketers embrace the "conversation management" model they will see appreciable gains.
A limited blogging community - Unlike the US, the blogger community is small. Chris' research reports that there are approx 5,000 active (blogs updated at least once a month) in SA with 30,000 in total in SA. Like many of the markets we work in, social media is less defined by high influence individuals (bloggers, Twitter-users) than social network groups. Don't get me wrong, influencers abound in South Africa. They just aren't all top bloggers neatly identified via a simple Google search. While our public relations teams have recognized this and developed effective influencer strategies, the lack of deep or broad communities of bloggers have likely limited PR pros use of social media to date.
A Leadership Example
The conditions will outweigh the limiting factors. While in South Africa, I was interviewed by a leading business publication, FIN Week. Coincidentally, they ran a cover story that week on Michael Jordaan, CEO of FNB (First National Bank) largely focused on his use of Twitter.
This is not a simple example of a C-suite executive indulging in ego-gratification. I see this as a strong leader of a conservative category - finance- telegraphing a leadership message to his troops. That message? Social media is key to growing our direct relationship with our customers and key to our future. If a CEO of a bank can make this call, other South African business will take notice.
This will be a big year for social media marketing in South Africa. Conditions are right. Marketers are hungry. Can they leapfrog forward learning from other global lessons rather than slog through a few years of ineffective use? I think so.
Thanks for the kind words and the inspiring talk at Ogilvy Cape Town. Was Wonderful to finally meet up finally and look forward to learning more from you in the future.
All the best,
Chris
Posted by: Chris | March 29, 2011 at 02:47 AM
I too believe that 2011 will be a big year for social media in South Africa. It's already happening.
The one challenge I find is the lack of engagement, especially in the business arena. I have started following anyone I can find on Twitter based in South Africa and gosh to get that conversation started is like trying to get take a horse to the water who doesn't want to drink. So I'll bide my time and continue as I've been doing. I also understand that a lot of this is to do with people now knowing that there are Twitter tools to use.
Thanks for the stats, looks like I have to go and get myself on Tumblr.
Internet is way too expensive in South Africa and I honestly hope there comes a time when this will reduce in price. It will only benefit South Africa as a whole.
I've been focussing on launching my business in South Africa following the same principles as I do in the UK which is doing no offline marketing and it has been successful to tdate. Social media does work, you just have to have patience.
Posted by: Romany Thresher | March 30, 2011 at 08:39 PM