Africa is an active part of the social media world, this we know. What we don’t know is just how often or how much Africa tweets. Luckily Communications agency Portland has looked at tweets from Africa to determine what languages are used the most and what issues drive the conversation as well as the way countries tweet per day.
Portland analysed geo-located tweets originating from Africa during the final three months of 2013 (October to December).
How Africa Tweets found that, during the final three months of 2013:
*Johannesburg is the most active city in Africa, with 344,215 geo-located tweets, followed by Ekurhuleni (264,172) and Cairo (227,509). Durban (163,019) and Alexandria (159,534) make up the remainder of the top five most active cities
*Nairobi is the most active city in East Africa and the sixth most active on the continent, with 123,078 geo-located tweets
*Accra is the most active city in West Africa and the eight most active on the continent, with 78,575 geo-located tweets
*English, French and Arabic are the most common languages on Twitter in Africa, accounting for 75.5% of the total tweets analysed. Zulu, Swahili, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Portuguese are the next most commonly tweeted languages in Africa
*Tuesdays and Fridays are the most active tweeting days. Twitter activity rises steadily through the afternoon and evening, with peak volumes around 9pm
*The day of Nelson Mandela’s death – 5 December – saw the highest volume of geo-located tweets in Africa
*Portland tracked major hashtag activity from top brands such as Samsung (#SamsungLove), Adidas (#Adidas) and Magnum ice cream (#MagnumAuction)
*Football is the most-discussed topic on Twitter in Africa. Football was discussed more than any other topic, including the death of Nelson Mandela. The most mentioned football team was Johannesburg’s Orlando Pirates (#BlackisBack, #PrayForOrlandoPirates, #OperationFillOrlandoStadium)
*Politically related hashtags were less common than those around other issues, with only four particularly active political hashtags tracked during the time period. This included #KenyaAt50 – celebration of Kenya’s independence – and the competing #SickAt50
Seems all so interesting. Download the infographic here.
They even have an animated map illustration of geo-located tweets in a 24 hour period across the Africa’s 20 largest cities.
Credit: Portland
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