In a bid to enhance the work of the media using technology in Africa, Penplusbytes has released its latest social media ratings on Ghana’s Radio, Television and Print media; reviewing the performance of traditional media by gauging how they use Social media, Facebook and Twitter, to engage the ever growing numbers of online audiences looking to consume news faster and on the go.
With collected data remaining valid as at the 31st March, 2017 snap shot, this study measured how media entities utilize and manage their online platforms by employing a quantitative research module which provides relevant numerical figures – the number of ‘Likes’ and ‘Followers’ – which informed the rankings.
Providing an update on the performance of Ghana’s electronic and print media brands on social media as captured in previous indexes, this study was conducted on over 60 newspapers, over 350 registered radio stations and 34 TV stations guaranteed operations in Ghana and on air; from which a rank of the best 10 performing media brands in each category is highlighted.
Focusing on the extent to which media firms are harnessing social media as a news generation and dissemination tool, the report endorses the Facebook’s status as the more popular social media tool in Ghana with greater patronage and use than Twitter. There are, indeed, more Ghanaian radio, TV and newspaper presence on Facebook than there are on Twitter.
Highlights of the report’s findings places Joy FM as the most followed Ghanaian radio station on Facebook and Twitter; crossing the one million mark with 1,008,733 Facebook ‘Likes’ and above Citi FM who lie a competitive 2nd with nearly a million Facebook ‘Likes’ as well (999,388 ‘Likes’).
The Social Media Index (SMI) report also provides detail on indices for TV and Print categories as well, and draws up a rank of the best 10 performing media brands in each category. It reveals notably impressive performances by media entities such as Joy FM, Citi FM and Starr FM who, without any surprise, have their Twitter accounts verified. They represent a small percentage of best managed pages that are easily identified as official on social media with up-to-the-minute post updates and interaction with audience.
This report indicates that many media houses do not exist on social media or exist but have failed in efficiently and effectively managing their accounts with most pages left without updates for many months and even years in some cases; thereby defeating their purpose.
Kwami Ahiabenu II, Executive Director of Penplusbytes, said the SMI, among other objectives is aimed at providing a regular scorecard on the performance Ghana’s media. “We expect that we would, by this quarterly report, be encouraging more media houses and newsrooms to commit a lot more to building quality online presence to engage their online audience via social media,” he added.
Source: Penplusbytes
