Social Media Marketing in South Africa is key to growing your business in this day-in-age. It helps you reach a large number of people with extraordinarily little budget. These people can also be anywhere which allows you to explore and expand into markets you wouldn’t have previously considered.
How is Social Media Marketing in South Africa different to the rest of the world?
South Africa’s social media is rapidly expanding with more of our population accessing it year after year. Facebook is still the most popular, believe it or not. Then LinkedIn and then Instagram. And with only 53% penetration, we still have a way to go! (These are the biggest social media and chat platforms in 2019 (businesstech.co.za))
Compare that to the UK, with YouTube, Facebook then Instagram, with a penetration rate of 78%. We are both similar and different to us. (• UK: most active social networks 2019 | Statista)
What makes us unique is that we have fewer platforms being used which means stiffer competition on the platforms that are being used. So when you do social media marketing, you need to do it well! As doing it badly can be worse than not doing it at all!
Dominating Facebook in South Africa
How do you grow your page and get sales on Facebook in South Africa? How do you get constant new followers?
First off you need to ask people to like your Facebook page! This is much easier than it seems as you can literally invite your personal Facebook friends to like your page! This sends them a notification saying that you are asking them to like your page. And this means 8/10 times they will look at your page. So, set up your page properly, with a professional cover photo and catching page photo. This makes it more likely that they will like your page.
Secondly, you need to be consistently posting high-value content that intrigues and interests your users! This will help keep your users engaged and seeing your page updates.
Lastly, promote your posts. Promoting your posts can help you reach a larger audience. This translates into more post views and more potential customers if done right. The key is to ensure you are targeting your correct audience. This allows you to find users who actually want your product!
Image by Erik Lucatero from Pixabay
Should my business be on Instagram?
That really depends on your budget and type of business. Instagram is a photo/ video platform. This means that Instagram Marketing in South Africa takes a lot of time from a planning and design process when comparing that to Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook.
But the extra time/ cost can be worth it! It is hard for pure B2B companies to thrive on Instagram as they often struggle to get traction. But it is vital as a B2C customer to be on the platform. As the visual aspect allows you to reach more of your followers in a specific way.
What about LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is the premium business platform for professionals. It cuts out the viral stuff and keeps a truly informative experience for its users. It also allows you to reach people who you are not connected to. (Connections are friends on LinkedIn)
This allows you to reach more people for free just by having good quality content!
Creating content on LinkedIn does take some more research and thought as it needs to be highly informative. But by sharing articles and business journey’s you can grow on LinkedIn.
A Tip for LinkedIn! Create thought leaders! These are staff members that act as brand ambassadors on LinkedIn. You help them with content creation and work on a joint strategy to benefit your both. This helps grow your brand better and faster!
Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay
How do I manage all of this?
You can do it! By setting aside the right amount of time and using some great tools you can manage your own social media! It will take some time and dedication from your side.
What apps or software should I use? There are so many out there that it is impossible to name them all. Here are our favourites:
- Sendible – We use Sendible to manage ours and our clients Social Media. It allows you to track, monitor and schedule across multiple platforms all in one place!
- Canva – Canva is an amazing design software that allows your to create artistic posts for your accounts! It’s are also free!
- Excel – A simple excel spreadsheet can help you manage and plan your social media campaigns. You can setup a calendar and plan out your campaign for the next while!
The alternative is to hire a company to manage your social media. The benefits of this is that you have the time to focus on what you do best while the social media guys get busy with what they do best. A social media manager can be the better option, depending on your situation.
With so many ways to market your business, Social Media is still our top choice! So now that you see it is a great option in South Africa, you can plan your social media marketing efforts for 2021! Whether you are hiring in a company or doing it yourself, you can succeed!
