By Oscar Habeenzu | For Moakanyi Magazine

Social Media has shaped many economies, as it is the frontier of technology at present, and the Botswana economy is no exception, whether or not it has little over a million internet users.

Whilst Botswana’s population is 2.3 million and internet users are just over one million, this actually means just a little under 50% of the population is using the internet, and that in itself is reason to celebrate as a country, making the digital economy easier to forge than most nations in the world.

Your Batswana business or brand can no longer afford to ignore Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, the most popular social media networks used in the country according to a Global Digital Report published in January 2019. Even so, neither can service providers and specialist businesses in Botswana ignore Pinterest, that is used as much as Facebook in the country. Pinterest is covered in another article.

Note that WhatsApp, Messenger, Skype, and WeChat are social media messaging applications, not included in this article as it is focusing on networks, with a drive to provide insight for business and brands.

Many businesses in Botswana and the continent at large, are not well informed of the benefits of Social Media, as they are of the scandals publicized thereof, bringing a fear and hesitation for business use.

Be that as it may, there are one million Batswana using Social Media, making that at least 42% of the population of the country, and of these 920,000 are using social media on mobile phones, that being 39% of the population.

Facebook for Business

There are 990,000 Facebook users in Botswana. Interestingly, 58% of this audience are those over 13 years, and 42% are those under 13 years. This would explain the high rate of internet users per capita of 42% of the population. The gender of users on Facebook is Botswana is 49% female and 51% male. Generally, Botswana’s Facebook user growth rate is 3% per annuum.

As you assess Facebook as a potential platform, carefully consider your business goals. If you’re trying to acquire new business, Facebook might not be your best option, but if you’re building a dedicated following of clients and you need a way to keep in touch with them, this is a great option for your business.

The largest Botswana group on Facebook is “Botswana Advertiser+” with over 677,000 people in it. The group was created for “advertising any business, services, or whatever you are selling”. It is safe to say that over 80% of the 690,000 Facebook Batswana are in this group. The most followed Media or News page is The Voice Newspaper Botswana, that has 697,000 followers.

Instagram for Business

There are 110,000 Batswana on Instagram, with an annual growth rate of 10%. The demographics are equal, 50/50 male and female users.

One of the most followed, if not overall the most, is Charity Baaitse, with over 157,000 followers on Instagram. She is a multiple business owner, economics and accounting graduate. A travel enthusiast, she is a fusion of beauty, brains, and boldness that Batswana are following on Instagram in the thousands. Her posts are liked by an average 1,000 people, as she chronicles her daily and weekly social and business life. Charity runs a popular High-End fashion store called “Material GirlZ Botswana”, a brand also followed by over 49,000 people.

Instagram is one of the fastest growing platforms, especially among a young audience. Instagram relies on photos for conversation. As a result, this platform works really well for visual based businesses, like art, food, retail, and beauty. Because it’s a growing platform, there’s less noise than Facebook. This means the platform is useful for generating leads because your reach is wider.

Twitter for Business

There are 49,000+ Twitter users in Botswana, 77% of them male, and 23% female.

The number of local users however does not reflect in the total number of followers for famous twitter accounts, as many that follow local twitter pages are actually not in Botswana. This is a plus for businesses and brands that do not necessarily rely on local audiences.

The most followed Batswana twitter accounts/pages are the Botswana Government (@BWGovernment) with 203,000+ followers, TheRealYaronaFM#YaronaFM20 (@TheRealYaronaFM) with 154,000+ followers, and Kaone Kario (@kaonekario) with 102,000+ followers.

Twitter is an excellent platform to build awareness for your brand. Twitter utilizes the hashtag, which organizes conversations around a word or phrase. By searching hashtags, you can learn what people are talking about so you can craft your tweets to take part in popular conversations. Why would you do this? Because Twitter can offer insight into what topics are trending, Twitter is often used by news outlets to find stories.

Since Twitter is often used to provide real time updates to an audience, many brands combine Twitter with offline engagement, such as events.

LinkedIn for Business

Interestingly, there are 230,000 LinkedIn users in Botswana, 59% being male, and 41% being female.

LinkedIn is purely a business networking platform, that believes “relationships matter”, and Batswana are a very enterprising people. LinkedIn has the distinction of being the most utilized platform for older audiences. It boasts the largest users among ages 30-49. LinkedIn is also unique because it has a narrow focus.

People use LinkedIn to search for jobs and to network professionally. As a result, the platform is useful for B2B lead generation, general networking, as well as recruiting employees.

Your business and/or brand in Botswana, cannot longer ignore the evident possibilities of these platforms for not only marketing purposes but for literal survival in the New Normal of the Global Digital Economy.