We data mined the Pinterest network and scanned for South African profiles, which produced the following leaderboard – a list of the top 100 most followed Pinterest accounts in South Africa.

Some interesting points:

• The most followed person on Pinterest in South Africa has more followers than the most followed person on Twitter in SA – which is incredible, but is a bit of an outlier. Aimee Sawyer, you have certainly done something right
• The demographic representation is almost entirely 25-35 year old women
• The primary interests of these top accounts are design, travel, cooking, arts and crafts, weddings and personal development
• There still remains a small presence of brands on this list, which we hope will change soon as brands see the value of this platform.
• The only well known SA brand to make this list is Pick n Pay – congratulations on your social media success

Without further ado, click here to see the 2013 Top SA Pinterest Users list.

The Social Media & SA Retail Report, the first of its kind in South Africa, is being released in early December. This report contains insights into how retailers are using social media, and which retailers are most successful on the major social networks:

1. Top retailers on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Youtube, including which content is working most for their audiences
2. The top social ads of all retailers in South Africa, including which ads are receiving the most traction on Facebook
3. An analysis of the consumer influencers in online retail, including noteable blogs and Twitter presences
4. A drill down of the top retailers’ social presences, analyzing their profiles, content & communities
5. Subjective analysis and insights into the retail segment and how social media has affected it, as well as what’s happening around the corner

To receive the report as soon as its released, as well as a full 25% discount on the purchase price, make sure to pre-order within the next 7 days. To pre-order, contact the reporting department at reports@fuseware.net.

• The report retails at R8000 – pre-order within 7 days to save R2000 and pay only R6000

For more information and to purchase the full report, go to http://www.worldwideworx.com/corporate-social-2012/.

1. You want to be one of the first to know when new social media statistics and research are released
2. You are a marketer or work in the marketing, PR or communications departments of any brand and want to stay on top of industry trends
3. You are a CXX level executive and need to be informed on how social media ties into your company, products and overall industry

The South African Social Media Landscape 2012 study, released today by technology market researchers World Wide Worx and information analysts Fuseware, reveals that 95% of major brands surveyed have some form of social media strategy aimed at consumers. However, only 51% rate their efforts on Facebook as effective – and only 33% believe they are effective on Twitter.

“The survey shows that corporate South Africa has woken up to social media, but it hasn’t yet figured out how to dress for the role,” says World Wide Worx managing director Arthur Goldstuck. “Most large companies are still neutral on the impact of social media, and are still feeling their way.”

The report includes analysis of South African consumers’ use of Facebook, Twitter, Mxit, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Foursquare, as well as a survey conducted among corporate brand owners. The headline findings of the consumer study were released at industry events in Johannesburg and Cape Town at the beginning of September, while the corporate findings are contained in the final report released today, along with detailed analysis of consumer trends.

“We interviewed representatives of 61 major brands, and found that corporate use of social networks tended to be a case of responding to media hype,” says Fuseware managing director Mike Wronski. “The most popular social media platform in South Africa, Mxit, is used as a marketing tool by only one out of five large brands. This compares to Facebook, with nine out 10 using it, and Youtube, with two out of three.”

Other key findings announced today include:

• 49% of South African corporations surveyed leave social media in the hands of a marketing team, while 18% allocate it to public relations and a further 18% outsource it;
• The most commonly cited reason for using social media is as an effective PR channel, with 70% of brands using it for this purpose, while 62% use it as a core part of their marketing campaigns;
• Sales represent a key element of social media for corporations, with 43% using it for customer lead generation;
• Only 13% of companies are using social media specifically because their competitors are using it;
• Most companies intend to make investments in training their current people in social media best practices. A full 36% intend to use specialist social media agencies to assist in their social media PR and marketing. Only 15% say their skills are optimal.

The survey shows that that corporate brands are also still getting to grips with how to measure their social media effectiveness. While 74% use number of followers as a key measure on Twitter, only 24% measure the number of their own customers who are followers. Similarly, while 72% measure effectiveness according to comments and mentions, only 40% consider Sentiment analysis, i.e. evaluating the positive or negative tone of the comments.

An even bigger gap is seen on Facebook, where 83% of brands live by comments and mentions, but only 37% use Sentiment analysis.

“The survey shows that companies haven’t quite figured out what is more important,” says Goldstuck. “It comes down to separating volume from value, and that takes time and energy, rather than just a dashboard of numbers.”

Wronski adds: “When we asked companies what barriers were preventing marketers from getting more value out of social media, the most commonly cited was, ‘Time to properly manage these channels’. This is the largest bottleneck to social media success. Brands are struggling to allocate resources and time to manage social channels.”

Download the executive summary of the SA Social Media Landscape 2012 report, including the above information as well as a full contents list, by clicking here.

The South African Social Media Landscape 2012 study, produced by technology market researchers World Wide Worx and information analysts Fuseware, shows that the fastest growing age group among Facebook users in South Africa is the over-60s. From August 2011 to August 2012, the number of over-60s on Facebook grew by 44%, compared to less than 30% for those aged 30-60, less than 20% for those aged 19-30, and less than 10% for teenagers.

“This is a reflection of Facebook going mainstream in South Africa,” says World Wide Worx managing director Arthur Goldstuck. “The younger segments are still far from saturation, but we’re not seeing the same heady pace of growth among the youth as before.”

At the end of August, 5.33-million South Africans were using Facebook on the Web, 2,43-million were on Twitter and 9,35-million on Mxit. Because Facebook does not measure mobile-only usage among those who have registered via their cellphones, however, the full extent of its penetration is significantly understated: primary research by World Wide Worx shows that 6.8-million people access Facebook on their phones.

Twitter use measured in this primary research indicates that its user base had grown to 2,2-million by the end of June, or 100 000 new users a month since August last year. Fuseware data, collected directly from Twitter through an API (application programme interface), shows that the number reached 2,4-million at the end of August, exactly matching the growth rate measured by World Wide Worx, and validating the earlier data.

“The integrity of data, and its interpretation, is vital for business decision-makers and marketers who are investing in social media,” says Fuseware managing director Mike Wronski. “Different methodologies allow us to gain deeper insights, as well as providing cross-validation for our data.”

Other key findings announced today include:

• Both Facebook and Twitter have grown at a similar rate, at around 100 000 new users a month, for the past year.
• LinkedIn has grown substantially, but at a slightly lower rate, to reach 1,93-million South Africans.
• Pinterest is the fledgling among the major social networks, with only 150 000 users in South Africa.
• *WhatsApp has become the leading instant messaging tool among South Africans aged 16 and over, living in cities and towns, with a user base of 4,6-million.
• The youngest mobile instant messaging tool to emerge on the measurement radar in South Africa, 2Go, has close to a million adult users.
• The most common “Check In” sites for Facebook in South Africa are airports and shopping malls.
• The biggest tweeting day of the week is a Monday, with an average of 9,6-million tweets sent by South Africans on the first working day of the week. Friday is next, with 9.6-million, while Saturday is the slowest Twitter day, with 8,4-million tweets.
• Both Facebook and Twitter have crossed the urban/rural divide. The proportion of urban adults using Facebook is a little less than double rural users – but rural users are now at the level where urban users were 18 months ago. Twitter’s urban penetration is a little more than double its rural penetration, but the rural proportion has also caught up to where the urban proportion was 18 months ago.

One of the most fascinating findings reported today is that the number of single users has grown faster than any other relationship group, by almost 25%, to reach 957 000. The number of married and engaged users has each grown by 16%, while the category of those “in a relationship” has increased by 9%.

“Clearly, Facebook is filling a relationship gap in the lives of many South Africans,” says Goldstuck. “But social networks are also so much more – we see them playing the roles of communication, information and entertainment networks.”

Wronski adds: “Social media fatigue has set in for the more over-active users, who follow too much, communicate too much, and vent too much. But most users are arriving in this world for the first time, and new users are going to keep coming. It’s mainstream today but, tomorrow, it will be pervasive.”

The Fuseware team has been hard at work to bring you the South African Brandometer, an online influence benchmark for the most popular social networks. It categorizes online influence in each social network, by category and industry.

An extensive categorized influence benchmark of this kind has not been conducted before, so this is a first for South Africa and most probably the world. As social media grows and matures, it is important to be able to discern the valuable brands that are succeeding with their social campaigns. This facilitates knowledge, integrity, and provides a great scorecard for which to measure the success of companies in their respective industries on social media.

The Brandometer can be considered a beta product for now, as we may have not yet categorized every possible influential brand across all major networks. However, we hope that the free to use portal will provide a useful basis and point of reference for brands and marketers in the future.

According to Fuseware’s analysis, the event generated an online brand exposure of a massive 875,000 people. This was due to the number of highly influential people talking about the event, and how quickly the event was shared on Twitter.

The event had a massive spike of conversations in the days leading up to the event, and on its first day. With a demographic hinting slightly towards a male audience from Cape Town, the conversations revolved around the inspirational and often mindblowing items on show during the expo.

The most mentioned user was the official design indaba Twitter account – @designindaba, with over 1500 mentions. @grolschza posted over 560 tweets relating to the event – the most active brand on social media.

The conversations revolved around the fascinating things on exhibition, the sponsors and key influencers talking about the event, such as Khaya Dlanga. Take a look at the top words in the conversations below:

With over 200 retweets and shares, the top tweet about the conference came from user @core77:

@core77: “Do not ask a designer to design a bridge, but ask him to design a way to cross the river.”
#MathieuLehanneur #designindaba

The top 3 links shared in all conversations were

http://www.strussbob.blogspot.com – 47 shares
http://www.designindaba.com/expo/home – 28 shares
http://senseable.mit.edu/copenhagenwheel/ - 28 shares

For the full report with more details, download the full report here: Design Indaba social media report.

Today, we are proud to announce that we are opening up our systems to be used completely free of charge for all smaller companies that wish to monitor their brands – basically companies that get less than 1000 mentions per month. All features will be enabled for these companies, such as unlimited monitored profiles, unlimited reports and real-time monitoring of the social web.

We are also introducing a new concept – pay as you go monitoring. No more worrying about recurring payments – you have the power to pay for mention credits in advance for your account. For larger companies that receive more than 1000 mentions per month, you can purchase “mention bundles”, which are like prepaid credits for monitoring mentions on your account. If you purchase 5000 credits, you will be able to monitor 5000 more mentions of your brands. We give every user a free 5000 mentions when signing up, and 1000 credits every month afterwards.

We have also streamlined our sign up process – take a look by signing up in under 60 seconds on the Social Insights platform.

If you have any questions or comments, you can contact Fuseware directly at info@fuseware.net.

RoR, Computer Science, AWS, EC2 – R170,000 – R220,000 + possible stock options

Responsibilities:
-Help build and maintain our social media monitoring backend used by some of the largest companies in the country
-Work with large data-sets to help make influential decisions that will drive future products
-Pitch-in with new projects, ad-hoc work, and whatever is needed in this high-growth phase

Required skills:

-Strong engineering foundation with a degree in Computer Science advantageous
-At least 2 years experience contributing to production-level code bases
-In-depth knowledge of the Ruby on Rails framework
-Familiarity with Amazon’s Web Services advantageous
-Familiarity with Jquery and Javascript required

For more information please contact Mike Wronski or forward your CV to mike@fuseware.net

If you have not had any response in two weeks please consider your application unsuccessful.