Proving the power of social business in Africa

14 August 2013

The MediaOnLine

Companies that use social media for business correlate with 63.38% more revenue than non-social companies. This, and other insights into 'social' businesses, will be unearthed by Cerebra in its presentation of its 2013 Social Business Africa Report, a comprehensive study of the internal collaboration and external social engagement of Africa's top 200 companies.

"Too many brands focus on likes and followers without thinking about the impact of social technologies and trends on their entire organisation," says Mike Stopforth, CEO of Cerebra. "Our report is the first piece of research that interrogates the African market to deliver the type of social business insights that policy and decision makers previously had little to no access."

Researchers Fuseware discovered when ranking brand social engagement in Africa, telecoms companies lead the way, occupying four of the top five positions. In no particular order, they are: Safaricom (@Safaricomltd), MTN Nigeria (@MTNNg), Mobinil (@Mobinil), Maroc Telecom (@Maroc_Telecom).

Data was generated from an analysis of the social profiles of Africa's top 200 companies by revenue from 1 January 2013 to 30 June 2013. A Social Engagement Index (SEI), created specifically to benchmark companies by their social influence, measured the external engagement. The report also includes a qualitative survey of the internal social collaboration of these same 200 companies.

"This report provides insights into exactly what a large corporation needs to do to differentiate itself as a social brand. It is an indispensable tool for marketers, executives, and captains of industry with an eye on Africa", said Mike Wronski, managing director of Fuseware.

Correlating data provided some of the following highlights:

Insights for CEOs/CFOs
Examining the top 200 list, 'social' companies (companies with at least one social profile on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube), on average, correlate with 63.38% more revenue than non-social companies.

Insights for Marketers/Communicators

• Top performing Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube content is seldom brand-centric (i.e. not product, sales, or service related), but rather focused on shared interest topics, lifestyle related content, and sponsorships.

• 100% of the top performing Facebook posts were pictures with captions.

• Only four of the top performing YouTube videos are English; the rest of the top 25 videos were Arabic or French.

Insights for Human Resources


• More than two thirds of these companies have an internal social media usage policy.

• Most companies allow staff access to external social media platforms, but this is often limited by department.

• 26% of the surveyed companies blocked access to Twitter and Facebook, 20% LinkedIn and 34% YouTube.

The report will be launched on 20 August at the 2013 Social Business Africa conference in Johannesburg. Delegates will receive an executive summary at the event. International guest speaker Dion Hinchcliffe, author of Social Business By Design, will keynote the conference.

Category: ICT