Naturally as an online media strategist, the first thing I would want to do is to gain some insight and perspective for tactical definition. As Twitter is an international channel, pulling data for just local users is an extremely difficult task. Not being stopped by this fact, I went through just over two hundred local twitter accounts. Either through their location specified or twitter stream – I was able to ensure the local user. Two hundred may same as to short of a total to want to audit, however all that was needed was perspective to be guided by and insight to project on.

I then went on to collect my findings and presented the “State of the South African Twittersphere”. I received a number of questions relating to the publication. In it, I have found some not so surprising things (to me at least). Namely, that many South African users show no real interest in it or show knowledge about the micro-blogging platform.

• 65.5% failed to provide a homepage URL / web link
• 75.5% of users have not entered a bio in their profile
• 58.0% have not specified a location
• 74.5% have not updated within a 24 hour period
• 87.8% of users show high following numbers, as oppose to a level following‐to‐follower ratio

Top 5 questions I received about this report…

1) Who is really using Twitter in South Africa then?
a. Twitter is very much dominated by our techno-guy or geeks. These kinds of people all run blogs or websites and use the service to promote themselves. Also, people with agenda’s – these are your guys at your South African websites, be it from web affiliated business, photographic/graphic to media etc. Of course there are those odds that use Twitter as a “civilian” – But sadly they are out-numbered by SA’s real Twitter users.

2) Is there a point in including Twitter as part of a Social Media campaign?
a. In terms of ROI, there’s no point. I’ve always said, look at your JSE 100 then tell me why you think they haven’t really come on-board like the Fortune 100 has came on-board with this channel. However, when the time is right, be sure to see them in full action! Right now, I think it’s just a novelty to be on Twitter (For companies) –“like teens being cool at a brand new mall, the place be”.

3) What do I mean by the “right time”
a. Right now, we lack a vital component to social media in general i.e. your “e-citizen”, then we lack “e-citizens” because of an almost non-existing “broadband culture”. Once time spurs a broadband culture which in-turn produces “e-citizens” then let the ROI begin.

4) What does it mean for brands already on twitter i.e is there a competitive advantage to this?
a. I don’t believe so. The problem is that due to the current reality of the South African Twittersphere, content will not travel as effectively, also the time spent trying to maintain a corporate account for about 2000 followers, could of been time spent working on other things serving larger audiences. Once the quality in adoption of Twitter in South Africa improves (dependent on your social media strategy) companies will be able to easily catchup with those who have had a presence for a longer period.

5) If I had to write a Twitter strategy, against this backdrop, what would it look like?
a. I’ve always used liked the analogy of Oxytocin (The hormone which induces labor). If medical technology has advanced to the point where we can induce labor  – why can’t we take social media technology and use it to induce an audience. To answer your question, my strategy will be very inducing