About this post
In this post, our analysis shows that City of Joburg’s @CityofJoburgZA Twitter marketing ticks the right boxes in comparison with City of Cape Town’s @CityofCT. Results of our analysis lead us to conclude that it is only a matter of time before the former takes the crown for being the best-performing metropolitan municipality on social media.
Source of inspiration
Source: FollowerWonk
@CityofCT (COCT) has more Twitter followers than @CityofJoburgZA (COJ). Notice that the 2 Twitter handles share just under 7 000 followers between them. In our experience, this indicates that the two accounts have (or are perceived to have) little in common, hence they share such a small number of followers. Accounts that have something in common – e.g. South African low-cost airlines Kulula and Mango, share a higher number of followers between them.
City of Joburg's Twitter follower growth target
On the 18th of March 2015 we had a Hangout on eNitiate Visual Radio – our weekly Internet radio show that is currently hosted on Radio Junto – with COJ Group Communications Social Media Manager Tumelo Komape about Africa’s world class city’s social media performance. Tumelo indicated that COJ’s Twitter account is growing at 8 000 Twitter followers monthly, and that he is targeting 100 0000 followers by June 2015. Our back-of-match-box calculation indicates that this is arguably a soft target at current performance levels. Let us show you why we hold this view, using a few analytics tools with complementary findings.
Forecasted comparative Twitter follower growths
If an assumption is made that both COJ and COCT are going to grow at the same average daily rate for the period to 20 June 2015, then COJ will grow its Twitter followers to 101837. Thus, Tumelo’s target is a soft one.
Source: Twittaholic
While COCT will still be ahead in forecasted number Twitter followers, this may not last forever if if the 2 metros maintain  their current Twitter content strategies. We explain what we mean in the rest of this post.
Social influence
The COJ and COCT are doing well on Twitter as indicated by their healthy Klout scores.
Source: Klout
In simple terms, Klout score is a measure of a Twitter handle’s level of social influence. A score that is close to the maximum of 100 is highly desirable.
Comparison of Twitter followers
Compare Twitter followers of COCT and COJ in this slider.
@CityofJoburgZA – Twitter Follower Growth | 2015
@CityofCT – Twitter Follower Growth | 2015
Source: Twitter Counter
Twitter Counter indicates that current daily Twitter follower growths average 283 for COJ and 210 followers for COCT. Based on the growth trend above, COJ’s average daily growth is 35% higher than COCT.
Comparison of Twitter activities
City of Cape Town joined Twitter in April 2010 and COJ joined in March 2012, according to the 2 Metros’ Twitter profiles. However, COJ has published more than 33 000 posts and COCT just under 18 000, to date. Here is an analysis of the tweeting behaviour of the 2 Metros, presented in a slider:
@CityofJoburgZA – Tweeting Behaviour | Mar 2015
@CityofCT – Tweeting Behaviour | Mar 2015
Source: Xefer
As the 2 tweeting behaviour graphs above show, COCT engages 1,3 times (REPLIES + RT) for every 1 tweet, while COJ engages 0,67 times for every 1 tweet. Put differently, COCT engages more, while COJ broadcasts more. On the surface, COCT is doing well by being a chatty Twitterer than COJ. However, a deeper analysis indicates that COJ’s social content has higher potential of being more engaging than COCT.
@CityofJoburgZA – Published Twitter Content Types | Mar 2015
@CityofCT – Published Twitter Content Types | Mar 2015
Source: Twrland
Notice the following from the 2 pie charts above:
- Compared to COCT, COJ’s tweets have a higher percentage of mentions – indicating that social conversations are initiated with inclusion of selected Twitter handles in them. Comparative demographic analysis of the 2 accounts’ follower demographics indicates that COJ’s base has close 40% of them being power users – that is, Twitterers who have high social influence.
@CityofJoburgZA – Twitter-Follower Profiles | Mar 2015
@CityofCT – Twitter-Follower Profiles | Mar 2015
Source: Twrland
- If COJ’s mentions include the power users, then this will increase reach for its content, which in turn has a positive correlation with increase in new followers.  Thus, COJ’s social content strategy that incorporates tweet mentions can bear desired results.
- COJ’s tweet content has higher percentage of pictures than COCT’s. According to Socialbakers‘ recent finding, pictures get most engagement of all types of content on Twitter.
- Clearly COJ’s twitter content strategy is on the money.
Our conclusion
Using current social media marketing initiatives by @CityofJoburgZA and @Cityof CT as a predictor, our conclusion is that City of Joburg’s Twitter follower base is going to surpass City of Cape Town’s base in not too distant future.
