The Nendo 2014/2015 Social Media Trend Report says that Social TV, The Rise of WhatsApp and Social Me-Devolution will be trends that one cannot afford to ignore in 2014 and 2015.
The report, published by Mark Kaigwa, Founder of Nendo Ventures in partnership with OdipoDev, builds on the lessons from East Africa’s most active Twitter city, Nairobi, and the social media landscape in 2013 to present predictions for the next two years. It specifically cites events such as the March 2013 General Elections, The Westgate Mall Attack and Kenya at 50celebrations as key highlights.
The report illustrated Social Me-Devolution trend for 2014 where governors, senators and municipal public servants will take to Twitter among other social networks to engage citizens as well as the Kenyan Diaspora, whose numbers currently stand at 3 million, to encourage local, hyper-local and regional investment.
Another Kenyan trend is WhatsApp instant-messaging application; this application will set the pace for more interactive communication in customer service, business and traditional media.
“Whatsapp changes everything for the region. Mainstream media is finding ways to engage viewers through encouraging submission of rich media such as images, text, audio and user-submitted video,”said Samer Ahmed of Odipo Dev.
On Device Research, Whatsapp became the leading social messaging app and overtook Facebook Messenger globally in 2013. It is also expected that newsrooms would continually ask their audiences for images and videos and perhaps in 2014 for audio submissions after its inclusion in the app.
Samer added: “Although it still doesn’t fully solve the problem of service delivery, Whatsapp can be the difference in giving consumers a straightforward way to express the quality of service they receive.”
Further, the Age of the “Second Screen” or Social TV is where experts agree that the public will no longer watch television without a second screen such as a phone, a tablet, a laptop, or a desktop computer nearby.
The total number of Internet users in Kenya as at the CCK’s last report is 11.6 million Internet subscribers. Kenyans on Facebook, according to the Facebook Ad Planner, remain at 3.8 million. Twitter, though growing in popularity, is still behind Facebook with approximately 500,000 users.