Recently, Google published the results of a global survey about smartphone usage and mobile marketing titled “Global Mobile Research: The Smartphone User and The Mobile Marketer,” The results related to South Africa in particular are as follows:

Smartphone user profile

The South African smartphone user is in the age group of 18 to 34, well-educated and employed full time with an average annual income of R40,000. Most of these are first time smartphone users and have owned their device for less than a year.

The usage and role of smartphones

Considered an important accessory, smartphone users carry them everywhere. While BlackBerry was considered to have the highest market share, Nokia followed. Smartphones are mostly used at home, at work and while on the move. The phone is used to access the internet for information, emailing and also as a pastime device. Most smartphone users also listened to music, watched TV or accessed the internet on another device while using the smartphone.

Internet usage

Almost every smartphone user used their device to access the web several times a day, with short sessions on the mobile and longer usage via the personal computer.  Half of these users foresee using their mobile to browse the internet in future while the others expected the current status to continue.

Search usage

Google is the most used search engine and forms a major part of the browsing activity. Approximately 10% use local search, while over 90% expect to take further action based on information, with 36% going on to make a purchase.

Video viewing and social networking

Smartphone users enjoy watching videos on their phones and YouTube tops the list for video viewing with Facebook following close behind.  Facebook is the social networking site visited the most via smartphones on a daily basis and more than 35% of respondents post personal updates regularly.

Mobile advertising

South Africa smartphone users are responsive to mobile advertising and almost 15% users have redeemed their mobile coupons in a store. More than 80% are conscious about mobile advertising via search engines and 70% took action based on a mobile ad.

Mobile commerce

Smartphone users in SA use their phones to compare prices and products before shopping and base their decisions on what they find. One fourth of users also use their smartphones while shopping to shop directly through their device. Although there are fears of security issues with mobile shopping and the preference is for personal computers, the trend for using their mobiles as a digital wallet is on the rise.

The above trends have led to businesses rethinking their mobile marketing campaign so that they can leverage the “always and everywhere” mobile device to drive sales and keep their customers engaged. How would these trends impact your mobile marketing strategy? Please share in the comments.

Social media is the space to watch in the coming years as this is where marketers, their brands and their audience engage and connect. Social media users have generated some very interesting trends that are rapidly redefining the way businesses and their audiences interact. No one thought social gaming such as Farmville and Mafia Wars on Facebook would become so widely addictive, turning the creator of the games, Zygna into a multi-million dollar company just because they caught the attention of the social media users and held it.

The mobile phone has also been a major influence on social media because of its interactivity and web connectivity. Here are five major social media trends to keep track of.

Social mobile

The smart phone, with its high speed internet connectivity has changed lives globally, revolutionising the way we interact. It allows users to carry their social media profiles in their hands wherever they go. Many businesses have an app to engage users who connect with them. Since major social media networks are now embedded at the menu level in these smartphones, texting could well become obsolete in a few years.

Social search

No one can argue about the secrecy and complexity behind Google’s search algorithms. But what everyone knows is the importance placed by Google search on social sharing data. This is also integrated into Google Analytics and now, with the introduction of Google Plus and its +1 button, things are only going to get hotter. The more people vote for content and share it socially, the better it will rank in the search engines. Social search is here to stay as it indicates human assessment, and therefore, worthy of trust. Social networks are given more importance in the search results and this is endorsed by the frequency at which YouTube videos, Facebook pages and LinkedIn profiles appear in the search results.

Location based social media marketing

Location based social media marketing is perhaps one of the best things to happen for local businesses. With the popularity of sites like Foursquare and Google Places, users find it easy to check in and find special deals in the area they live in, using their smartphone.

Social ecommerce

E-commerce is not new and most businesses have an online presence, with some percentage of their sales generated online. But over the last few years, users have acquired the facility to use apps to take their stores to their favorite social media network without leaving the site to shop for their favorite brands. This has become possible because businesses can now create a Facebook page that integrates e-commerce.

Social gaming

The park or field is not the only place where people play games. It is possible to enjoy your favorite games via social media networks with rich multimedia. These games are interesting and easy to use. Gaming companies that are smart enough to develop games that grab the attention of the users are emerging as billion dollar companies.

The power of social media is slowly removing all geographical barriers eliminating restrictions related to the place, time and logistics. Do you notice any other significant social media trends? Please share in the comments section.

At an event in Cape Town in November 2011, Google shared the results of its study about South African smartphone users’ most popular social networking sites. It is a fact that smartphones and mobile devices are the primary means of accessing the internet in South Africa, and social media forms a large part of internet activity with e-mail, news and banking following close behind.

More than 1000 smartphone users were surveyed about their social network usage and asked which social media sites they accessed on their phone and which they accessed via their computer. 95% voted Facebook first as the site most accessed on their smartphone and personal computer, with Twitter and MySpace taking second and third positions.

Another study titled “South African Social Media Landscape 2011” by World Wide Worx, one of South Africa’s technology research companies showed the following:

• MXit is SA’s most popular social network with 10 million users
• Twitter has 1.1 million
• Facebook has 3.2 million
• LinkedIn has 1.1 million

Although many surveys have shown the BlackBerry Messenger as a popular platform in SA, it did not feature conspicuously in either study. A possible reason for this could be that BlackBerry is not seen as a social network service. In any case, Facebook was on top with Twitter second. Both MXit and Facebook have the maximum number of users while Twitter usage has grown significantly during 2011, showing a 20 times growth in a year. In the second half of 2011, BlackBerry Messenger was the fastest growing network.

Twitter and Facebook are the most leveraged social media sites by celebrities to engage their fans and followers. Even though not everyone on Twitter is active, most stand in the sidelines and watch, follow or use it to convey news.

MXit has more than ten million active users, with over seventy percent of the users eighteen years and above. Facebook has 4.2 million users, but, of these, only 3.2 actually visited the website in 2011. This is probably because the shine of a new network wore off, with most teenagers preferring to use BlackBerry Messenger over Facebook. Here is a look at the user profile of SA from Facebook (according to World Wide Worx):

• 2 million males and 2.2 million females
• 1.15 million university graduates
• 68,000 still in university
• Users are in the 23-36 year old age group
• 1.9m users in Johannesburg
• 900,000 users in Cape Town

LinkedIn, with 1.1 million users in South Africa saw over 80% of its growth during 2010 and 2011 of which ten percent are business owners.

The trend shows that younger users tend to be more active on social networks. However, as interaction with social networks becomes the norm and as MXit, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger statistics show, there will be a healthy mix of all age groups accessing these sites to interact with each other.

Naturally, marketers are also taking advantage of the global reach of social media by engaging their users in creative ways. This is economical both for the marketer as well as the social media user since it is significantly cheaper than traditional means of communication.  Social media also makes it easy to receive and share information in real time, encouraging comments, shares and likes, making it easy for the marketer to track the success of any promotional campaign.