I was asked by Jeremy and Dave to write a report on where I thought Social Networking Sites were going, especially in relation to business in South Africa, and what follows is what I came up with..
The future of Social Networking Systems in South Africa remains unclear, what is obvious however is that they are having a profound impact across the world and South Africa will have to adapt and adopt them in order to stay connected and on the ball. Most middle to upper class South Africans view SA as a first world country and many of these individuals would have already have joined a SNS such as Myspace and many are already connected via Facebook.
The problem however arises in the fact that, the majority of South Africans are 3rd World citizens who do not own their own computers and most even if they do, a lot will not have access to the internet. What they do have however is cell phones. The mind boggles that many cannot afford fixed line telecommunication but most of the population have access to and use prepaid cell phones. Because of this Mxit became popular very quickly as it allowed people to instant message their contacts for the fraction of the price of sending an sms. I think that this is where the future of SNS’s in SA and the whole of Africa lie, in cheap and easily affordable connections through cellular devices.
Businesses need to realize that these are money cows, literally waiting to be milked; the marketing that will be available is endless as it allows for instant connections with your direct target market, unlike the old methods of television, radio and print, which were all expensive, time consuming and could never guarantee a particular market of people. The internet affords businesses the luxury of “cheap” marketing, by way of bloggers promoting their goods and services, but now also through SNS’s where a target market can easily be found and the advertising aimed directly at them. Particularly in SA where English is not the first language for the majority of the population a SNS, if it is to reach a large portion of the people, would have to be in either Xhosa or Zulu, and be targeted and marketed correctly. There is no point in trying to sell an Americanized/Westernized product when this is not culturally relevant to them. If a SNS is developed and is easily available to the masses, cheaply and efficiently it could spark some what of a cultural revolution. (Mxit’s slogan is “Join the Evolution”) Those who were once disenfranchised being able to hold the power as together they would be a very powerful tool for businesses to market and sell their goods and services through.
“Like radio, film, and television before it, but to a much greater degree, the Internet has the potential to absorb the fringes of culture and translate and package them for the masses. MySpace does that better and faster than any Web site yet concocted, better and faster than anyone could have imagined even five years ago. MySpace is like a direct conduit to future trends, a high-speed connection to the next big thing.” (Vanity Fair- “Will success spoil Myspace?”) I think this is true of all SNS that are currently available and for all future ones that are yet to be invented I think this will have to remain true for them to succeed and have any sort of relevance in our everyday lives. The possibilities for the future are simply endless!
