The Most Popular Mobile Apps in South Africa & What They Can Mean For Your Business
by Colleen Mustard on July 7th, 2020
Today’s blog is all about apps. Love them or hate them, they are here to stay. The graph below shows the top 15 most popular apps in South Africa in 2020. I’d like to concentrate on just 3 of them and how we can best utilise each one in business today.
An app, or application is a type of software that allows users to perform specific tasks. It’s an invention that many people cannot live without these days. We will give you a few obvious (and not so obvious) reasons why Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter can be of enormous benefit to your business.
According to Statista, “The most popular app in South Africa was WhatsApp Messenger, with 58 percent of South African mobile phone owners using the app as of February 2020. Taxi-hailing app Uber was ranked second with a 50 percent reach among mobile audiences”
Let Your Business Get The most out of Whatsapp
This free text and voice messaging app is to say the least, astoundingly popular. It holds the number 1 spot as the most used app in South Africa at the beginning of 2020. It’s a platform that allows users to communicate via text messages and phone calls on mobile devices and desktops.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years you will know that Whatsapp also allows you to send and receive images, videos and documents. Best of all, you can do this with people worldwide.
Whatsapp business was launched in early 2018 and aimed at small companies. It enables them to better connect with customers, build loyalty and establish an official presence. Getting consumers to safely and securely interact with your business has never been easier.
The app shows clients your branded business profile as opposed to a line of numbers. You will also enjoy a verifiable business profile as opposed to a personal one. Much like Instagram stories, whatsapp business has the same feature that vanishes after 24 hours.
Business owners can take advantage of this by posting updates, advertising specials or introducing new products. The broadcast list can be used in much the same way. You can send out a message to multiple contacts all at the same time. It’s a simple, convenient and effective marketing tool that you should be using. Best of all, it won’t cost you a thing
Get Facebook Working For Your Business By Simply Boosting A Post
If you own a business but don’t have a Facebook business profile, then why the hell not? Let’s fix that here. Getting your business profile and posts noticed on Facebook is not always easy. For those who don’t know much about how to utilise Facebook to promote your business posts, here is a brief explanation and quick run-down of the basics.
Hoping the right target audience sees your posts is something that is not guaranteed unless your post or page is boosted. Enter Facebook Ads. They’ve been around for more than 10 years but you’d be surprised at the amount of business owners that don’t utilise it. For those who don’t, read on.
It’s a platform that allows users to choose their target audience based on age, interests and demographics. So if you own, let’s say a music store and you need to promote your latest CD simply send out your post and the click “boost post” button.
You will be prompted to enter the audience you want to target: their age, interests and the area they live in. For your post you will most probably enter “music” as an interest and target millenials or Gen-Z. So you will input ages from around 15-40.
If you want to target just your local area, then type in the name of it and your ad will be shown in the news feeds of Facebook users within that demographic.
If your budget is tight, spending a mere R280 p/m, or even every second month, can garner your post or business page a huge amount of views and interactions. You are in control of how much you want to spend per day and how long you want your boosted post to run. It’s a low-cost and effective way to get those much needed sales and leads.
Market Yourself on Twitter
A colossal 500 million tweets are sent out each day and 75% of B2B businesses market on Twitter. Mind-boggling figures wouldn’t you agree? Much like other social media platforms, Twitter can be strategically leveraged to grow your brand.
Generating quality leads, engaging with clients and having the ability to reach millions of potential customers is what Twitter can offer your business. Here are a few quick tips and tricks on using Twitter for business.
- Build a following. People will normally follow you if you follow them.
- Be selective with the people you choose to follow. You can’t be in the restaurant business and start following sports personalities. That can be left to your peronal profile. Instead, follow people in the business community.
- Follow competitors, customers and people relevant to your business that can add value to your brand.
- Stay in the game by tweeting and re-tweeting regularly.
- Get creative with videos, gifs and animations but keep in mind that your tweets need to be short and sweet to increase engagement.
- Lastly, harness the power of hashtags. They create engagement that extends beyond your followers. They also tend to get more likes and re-tweets
Till next time……Be good, or be good at it.
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