The pandemic has changed our behaviour patterns from the way we shop, pay, work, meet, and how we watch videos, an activity that has skyrocketed in lockdown. People have depended on technology to stay connected, including catching up on news and using social media.
Early in the pandemic the World Health Organisation suggested that people "find opportunities to amplify positive and hopeful stories" as a way to protect their mental health.
It was no surprise, then, that by January 2021 there were more than 25-million South Africans actively using social media, an increase of 14% between 2020 and 2021. This is according to We Are Social and Hootsuite’s Digital 2021: SA report.
Among the most visited websites in SA last year were YouTube at 101-million visits, Facebook 75.9-million, Instagram 17.2-million and Twitter 11.4-million.
Online content activities indicate that 98.4% of internet users between 16 and 64 watch videos online, while 47.2% watch vlogs and 76.3% stream music.
Tumi Rabanye, an independent marketing communications strategist, says video is powerful for its virality, as demonstrated by TikTok, whose penetration is driven by videos being easy to download and to distribute further.
"I think written content has its place. It is no longer in direct competition with video content but rather as an important complement to it," she says.
Rabanye says video is important as an accompaniment to other forms of content such as radio, which is a great way to enhance the "theatre of the mind" experience.
When it comes to print journalism, video is an effective way to summarise and distribute the highlights of a story, she says.
YouTube, in particular, has a highly engaged audience, with more than 1-billion hours of content consumed daily, according to the company’s blog. It is also the second-most visited website globally after Google (source: Alexa) and has more than 2-billion monthly logged-in users, more than a quarter of the world’s population.
"YouTube is not an overnight success," says Rabanye. "It took years of investment in analytics and platform development to understand what works for various consumer segments and how to serve them.
"As connectivity has become more ubiquitous, the environment has become perfect for YouTube to grow. It is positioned to give consumers choice and its creators ‘creative licence’ that makes for greater personalisation," she says.
Creators and consumers alike are empowered to deliver and receive what feels "most relevant" to them. The research indicates that today’s consumers are more responsive to what feels personalised, says Rabanye.
Snikiwe Mhlongo, a 23-year-old YouTuber with about 100,000 subscribers, uses fashion to attract attention as an "influencer". She tells the FM that this was not being looked at when she started in August 2016. Brand sponsorship deals followed, both locally and internationally.
"Technology has made everything so instant that as consumers we want the fastest way to receive information. In addition to being the fastest, I should also be able to do something else while getting the information because it seems like there aren’t enough hours in the day."
In a world of beauty-focused content, Mhlongo says she went with fashion because it’s easier for the audience to be inspired by what someone is wearing and they are able to recreate it without practising before getting it right.
Mhlongo does not have a production team and does everything herself: setting up the equipment, shooting, editing and publishing.
"The [trick] is obviously how long it takes, especially with my content as it includes many outfit changes and different views of the clothing.
"More than 90% of my viewers are watching from a mobile and I think video reviews are doing better than articles," she says. "All leading social media platforms right now are focused on video content and how to make their version of sharing videos better."
About a month ago, Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, said the popular photo-sharing app was "no longer a photo-sharing app" and would focus more on creators, video, shopping and messaging.
"Let’s be honest, there’s some really serious competition right now. TikTok is huge, YouTube is even bigger and there’s lots of other upstarts as well." He said that because of stiff competition, the company had to embrace it all.
Rabanye says that with the benefit of data and analytics that track consumer preferences and behaviour, social media is well positioned to accelerate video content consumption. "We see it all the time where our preferred viewing is served back to us in social media ads."
As for the future of video taking over written articles in the creator and influencer space, if not the news, Rabanye says it’s not binary. "I don’t think one will necessarily replace the other. Each has its own market, and it depends on the offering that is relevant and how the audience consumes media."
They will find a comfortable way to complement each other, if it’s not evolving in that direction already, because both are necessary, she says.
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