LinkedIn Africa Stats: Zimbabwe sitting in 11th position

According to statistics published by zoomsphere, a social media analytics platform ,Africa has 5 772 194 registered users on Linkedin. The information is as of February 27 2012 and digs into each African country’s most active companies by members and activity. Zimbabwe is understood to have 103 400 registered members, making it the 11^th biggest LinkedIn user base in Africa. The top twenty countries on the continent are as follows:

Deeper analytics concerning Zimbabwe are as follows:

Based on the above statistics, it is apparent that the younger generation has caught onto the benefits of having a LinkedIn profile, something that could be helpful in an era of high unemployment. The bulk of Zimbabwean businesses registered on LinkedIn are SMEs (63%) . Due to high levels of bureaucracy and slow adoption of technology, it comes as no surprise that many big companies (including listed ones) are conspicuous by their absence.

Kudos goes to the University of Zimbabwe, Telone and Zimra for making it as State controlled organisations. The conclusive take away from the stats is that local companies are still failing to leverage on the FREE benefits social media has brought. Some would rather cry endlessly about liquidity issues than implement seemingly insignificant strategies such as online marketing and having a social media presence. How then can prospective partners and financiers discover them, this is after all the information age.