Social media is more prevalent than you might think in Africa – it is, after all, the world’s second-largest continent.

New research by strategic communication agency Cerebra examines the social media and social business practices of Africa’s top 200 companies, ranked according to revenue.

Cerebra, along with Fuseware, conducted a quantitative and qualitative review of each company, based on data from January 1-June 30, 2013. A Social Engagement Index (SEI), created specifically to benchmark companies by their social influence, measured external engagement.

The report, whose findings are displayed in the infographic below, also examined these companies’ internal social media policies.

Key insights:

- Companies of the top 200 deemed “social” (having at least one social profile on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube) correlated with 63.38% more revenue than non-social companies.

- More than two thirds of these companies have an internal social media usage policy.

- 26% of the surveyed companies blocked employee access to Twitter and Facebook, 20% LinkedIn, and 34% YouTube.

- Just four of the top performing YouTube videos were in English; the rest of the top 25 were in Arabic or French.

(Source: Cerebra. Zimbabwe image via Shutterstock.)