Meltwater launched a new report on Tuesday 17 January comparing local trends with global trends and revealing that the importance of social media is increasing among organizations due to global economic uncertainty. With brand awareness a priority, more than half of survey respondents (52%) said that economic uncertainty has made social media a more important channel for organizations.
While Facebook remains the most used social media platform for organizations, in terms of growth, the use of TikTok is increasing rapidly (30% vs 16% last year). Additionally, 47% of respondents said they plan to use TikTok this year. This statistic remains consistent at 46.98% when looking specifically at respondents in Africa.
“With the current uncertainty in the economic climate, many brands are embracing innovation to get more out of their marketing budgets. A smart social media strategy allows marketers to gain and retain customers’ attention in an efficient, cost-effective and measurable way. We don’t was surprised to see that respondents wanted to increase brand awareness using these tools,” said Enterprise account executive Lays Bammesberger.
Five channels dominate the social landscape in Africa. Facebook (88%), Instagram (76%) and LinkedIn (74%) are at the top, with Twitter (67%) and Whatsapp (58%) close behind. In terms of growth, the use of TikTok is increasing rapidly (28%). Notably, Whatsapp usage in this region is 35% higher than the global average. Of the 170-plus countries surveyed, the report found that African countries rely more on social media as a marketing tool (74%) compared to the overall results of other regions (52%).
While brand perception and brand awareness have always been important, this trend seems to be increasing. Marketing professionals will continue to face familiar challenges, such as lack of time and resources, but social media is an incredible tool to combat this, the report shows. Investing in social media channels, especially TikTok, is an effective way to build a strong brand.
While social media marketing has different goals, the survey results show that increasing brand awareness (81%) and brand engagement (60%) are top agendas across all sectors (B2B, B2C and NGOs). However, while the top two social media goals appear to be brand-related, only 23% of organizations use brand reputation as a key metric.
In short, social media has proven to be an inevitable ingredient in the communication mix for organizations, regardless of the field in which they operate, and it has only become more important in times of turmoil and uncertainty.
Meltwater’s full Global State of Social Media 2023 report can be downloaded for free.
Katherine McInnes is Meltwater’s head of marketing for Africa