With the rise of technology and Internet access, South African social media trends are not far behind international and US trends in integrating social media into corporate environments.
So said Michal Wronski, business development manager at Ornico Group, presenting the annual Social Landscape report at the ITWeb Social Business Summit in Johannesburg yesterday.
Despite cultural and language issues, there is almost a convergence globally on how people use technology and social media, said Wronski.
In terms of technology development, South Africa often leapfrogs developed countries, specifically in terms of mobile.
"The way people use social media in SA has changed fundamentally - fuelled by cheaper data access, free WiFi around the country and cheaper smartphones."
There has been a massive adoption of visual networks like Instagram, with the picture-sharing social network receiving 100% growth in the last 12 months - now with 2.68 million users in SA, said Wronski.
SA has seen the demise of Mxit, which used to be the biggest platform in Africa in terms of social media. Facebook is now used by a quarter of all South Africans, while Instagram has seen the fastest growth of any social network in SA over the past year.
The biggest Instagram followings are claimed by media personalities, who post photos that give fans a look into both their private and public lives, he said.
The report shows 13 million South Africans are now on Facebook, 10% growth from 2014, with 77% using it on mobile devices.
Smartphones are used by 7.9 million South Africans to access Facebook, while 1.6 million are using basic feature phones to do so.
He pointed out LinkedIn is kind of the rising star in social media, saying "it started with a low base and has almost reached 5 million SA users. It's grown almost 20% since last year."
"Most of this growth has been from the bottom end of the market, not just the CEO, the executive suite and the managers, it's the entry level workers that are joining LinkedIn."
In terms of social business, LinkedIn looks like a double-edged sword, said Wronski. Companies want to showcase the quality of their employees, however this opens employees up to being headhunted.
In terms of branding, in the last four years, there has been the rise of high quality video content, even Twitter is no longer limited to 140 characters, he noted. Most branded content on Twitter is now supplemented by pictures.
According to Wronski, Facebook is by and large the most effective platform for marketers in SA.
He believes instant messaging platforms are the future of CRM - giving an example of how Standard Bank is using WeChat to communicate with its customers 24/7.
As brands become more comfortable with specific social networks, they become far more effective at using them as marketing and positioning platforms, concluded Wronski.
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