Trend Monitors Atrribute Muvhango's Success To Social Media | I Beg To Slightly Differ ...

I was working on another project when I came across a report by Brand Youth conducted in December and early-January 2015. The report outlines the habits and trends of South African youth over the past year and going into 2015. The bit on Muvhango benefiting from the woes of Generations caught my attention.  

Just to prefix this whole thing, I am always weary of taking these "studies" of trends seriously mainly because as someone who grew up in rural South Africa, I am aware that these monitors tend to look at urban culture and areas as an indication of national trends when in reality only about 30 person of the country's youth live in urban areas.

The other reality is that, while the marketing and media industry has put so much emphasis on social media to try and keep up with the first world nations, the truth is that platforms like Twitter are only used by a minute number of South Africans. Last I checked only about 8 million South Africans were active on Twitter. Of that only about 45% is black and majority is living in developed cities like Johannesburg, Capetown, Durban, etc. 

To this day, Mxit is still the most widely used social media platform followed by Facebook. Twitter is right at the bottom but it is amazing how in Mzansi we laud people on Twitter as being influential because they have 500 000 followers. Who are they influencing when a huge majority of South Africans are not even on Twitter?

That said, according to the Brand Youth report , in 2015 there is going to be a continued rise in the number of people driven to tune into traditional media platforms such as radio and television, based on what's trending or being discussed on social media.

Apparently, SABC2 soap Muvhango has benefited greatly from the social media pull. After the demise of Generations, most young people reportedly admitted to crossing over to Muvhango after noticing it trending continuously on social media, as they were eager to be part of the discussion and hence started to actively watch it.

Ok, that seems plausible. It is a fact that conversations on social media do have an impact on our interests. It is important however, to note that Muvhango has been doing very well since they introduced other languages on the show.

I can agree that social media has been part of the reasons for Muvhango's rise in ratings but it is only a small part. The main part has been languages and the introduction of young fresh talent on the show. Muvhango is no longer seen as a TshiVenda show but a multi-lingual show with cool actors.

 BUT that is just my opinion... ONE GUY'S OPINION... even though ratings numbers over the time of language changes will indicate that I am right ... #LOL!

 Catch Muvhango, Weekdays on SABC2 at 21h00