How Africa tweets: New study reveals continent's leading tweeting cities —
So is the reach and role of social media. Whether it is heads of state tweeting about high level visits or kids posting on Facebook about their favorite football teams, social media is now a fact of everyday life for many millions of Africans. But so far, there has been little research into who is making the greatest use of this new medium and why. How Africa Tweets, a new study from Portland analyzing Twitter activity in major African cities, continues to close this knowledge gap.
The research found that cities in South Africa and Egypt are the most active, with Nairobi and Accra making a strong showing. English, French and Arabic are the most common languages, accounting for over 75% of all tweets on the continent. But African languages, notably Zulu, Swahili, Afrikaans and Xhosa, are making an increasingly strong showing. Like it or loathe it, Twitter is now unavoidable whatever language you speak.
How Africa Tweets confirms the growing popularity and importance of social media platforms in Africa, with big news events driving traffic and conversations online. It is still early in the year but it is already clear that the Oscar Pistorius trial is going to be one of the biggest social media events of 2014.