Facebook is now used by 25 percent of South Africans, while Instagram is the fastest growing social network in the country, according to the South African Social Media Landscape 2016 study, released last week by Fuseware and World Wide Worx.

The study is based on a corporate survey of 100-plus leading South African brands and consumer data from seven major social networks, Fuseware said in a prepared statement.

Media analytics company Fuseware conducts online media monitoring. World Wide Worx is an independent technology research and strategy company headed by Arthur Goldstuck.

Of the 13-million South Africans now on Facebook, 10-million, or 77 percent, use it on mobile devices. Of those, 7.9-million use smartphones to access Facebook, while 1.6-million are using basic feature phones to do so. Tablets are being used by 1.4-million people to access Facebook  – many are also using their phones.

“There is a misperception that Facebook numbers are dwindling,” said Gil Sperling, co-founder of Popimedia, Facebook marketing partner in Africa. “Numbers show the opposite. Solid growth of daily active users was recorded even in Facebook’s most mature and saturated markets. Social media applications are maintaining their relevance across all demographics and regions.”

Instagram may not be South Africa’s largest social network but it’s growing at a pace rarely seen in the world of online sharing, Goldstuck said in a guest column in Mail&Guardian. In the past year, Instagram grew from 1.1-million to 2.68-million users — 133-percent growth — according to the Social media Landscape report.

Celebrities dominate Instagram in South Africa. TV personalities Minnie Dlamini and Bonang Matheba each have more than 500,000 followers. In fact the top seven most-followed South African Instagrammers are entertainers, mostly posting images of themselves, Goldstuck reports.

“It is only at No. 8 that we find creative content being posted, and that is where we begin to see the true stars of Instagram emerge,” Goldstuck said. “The eighth most-followed South African on Instagram, Gareth Pon, is also the most followed photographer in the country, with close to a quarter million people on the lookout for his highly creative and original techniques.”

Pon said Instagram has only started being used as a platform for marketing in South Africa in 2015, M&G reports. “Many brands are just playing games around the space and have failed to execute Instagram as a platform for marketing. We all have a long way to go, because it’s such a new space, but if you speak to the right people and use the right perspectives, then you can use it in the most unique ways.”

Pon said he is taken more seriously outside South Africa than inside — partly due to the immaturity of the platform in South Africa and partly because of its fast-growing importance globally.

“South Africa unfortunately carries very little respect for Instagramers,” Pon said, according to M&G. “I’ve worked with some reputable brands on an international level – Nike, Absolut Vodka, Mercedes, CNN, to name a few. To be honest I’ll rarely take on work in South Africa, because it consumes so much time where I could put the same time into gaining more international traction.”

At present, 42 percent of major South African brands that responded to the study said they use Instagram; 24 percent say they plan to do so in the coming year. Mr Price and Mercedes Benz showed the most successful with individual Instagram images, according to the South African Social Media Landscape 2016 study.

“As brands become more comfortable with specific social networks, they become far more effective at using them as marketing and positioning platforms,” said Mike Wronski, managing director of media analytics organisation Fuseware. “Instagram is already the big winner among users. Brands want to tap into that enthusiasm.”