Tag Archives: social media

How Many Canadians Are On Twitter?

Posted on April 20, 2010 by Danielle| 6 Comments

Twitter is a social communication tool – while it is useful for brands in communicating to their customers and for allowing consumers to share the brand to their followers, in Canada the use of Twitter in this respect does have some limitations (for some) and opportunities (for others). While this should not discount anyone getting a Twitter account, the level of investment should vary based on the suitability of the brand for social media marketing via Twitter.

Twitter In Canada: The Numbers

So how many people are there  using Twitter in Canada anyways? Is it worth it? At the end of the day, is it a numbers things? Getting a clear answer on how many users there are in Canada is not easy. There are no good estimates – I found one indicating 40% of Canadians use Twitter which clearly is wrong.

First some facts about Twitter and Canada:

  1. There are 75 million users on Twitter
  2. 80% of users tweet have fewer than 10 tweets, 40% have never tweeted
  3. 4.36% of Twitter users are from Canada
  4. The population of Canada is 34,074,000

The facts armed with some basic percentages math and here is what I come up with:

  • 9.59% of Canadians have a Twitter account – 3 270 000 Canadians
  • 1.9% more than 10 tweets – 654 000 Canadians

I am guessing that a vast majority of Twitter users in Canada are either from the early adopters/tech segment or corporate/business accounts interested in social media marketing for their products and services. This being said, the potential of Twitter must not be overhyped but on the other hand, should not be underestimated.

Twitter In Canada: The Users

I will leave the corporate/business accounts aside, those being more relevant to a discussion on B2B marketing – here I want to focus on B2C marketing with regards to the “early adopters” that are currently using Twitter in Canada.

Most Twitter users in Canada are between the age of 15-24 – you have a younger, with-the-times group that enjoys technology. They are savvy about how technology works and likely have been marketed to online in many ways throughout the years and are more likely to “learn for themselves” than just trust the word of a stranger. They spend a great deal of time “connected”. There are subgroups within this as well, but generally these qualities are common among personal Twitter users in Canada. This group wants consumer electronics and gadgets, software, gaming, music, news, events, technology updates, interesting products. They want innovation, creativity, sincerity. And if this group likes your product they will recommend it and people will be more likely to listen to their recommendations.

Twitter In Canada: The Bottom Line

Sure, 654 000 Canadians sounds like small peanuts, especially when you consider not all accounts are personal accounts. But when you consider that Twitter accounts are integrated to Facebook and other social media platforms and that tweets spread via word of mouth as well, the power of Twitter cannot be discounted. Especially when you consider the power of the group wielding the accounts.

Update: Follow-up post about Canadian Twitterers in May 2011 with new statistics and sources, accompanied by results from Twitter in Canada survey

Popularity: 60% [?]

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Social Media Marketing, Not the Same as Social Responsibility

Posted on April 15, 2010 by Danielle| Leave a comment

I have seen a trend of companies social contests that empower ideas that will benefit communities and people in need – there are a lot of positive elements to these contests, the main being an influx of funds from outside, non-typical sources. This not a new idea, but definitely these projects are more open and are getting more attention than ever before because of digital channels.

The competitors in these cases often do most of the promotion in an effort to win: word of mouth; local media outlets such as television, radio and print; local organizations and social networks. The goal here is to rally offline as much as online, as most of those seeking funding have local, real-life applications.

Recently, I assisted a school in setting up social media accounts and promoting their cause in the Aviva Community Fund competition: organizations could suggest their ideas, and through several rounds of voting by users, then a judging round, the winners would be selected. Aviva wanted to spread the word about their philanthropy and they wanted the participants to do this for them. The school reached out to the community as a whole and was featured in many news items about the competition locally, but despite this it was very difficult to surpass programmatic votes for other ideas. Many competitors employed bots that would vote for people; some might say this is fair, others might not. Also, Aviva promoted a few select ideas themselves on their own social media accounts, providing preferential treatment to some. Ultimately, I felt like I was watching a mass of starving people fighting for the same of loaf of bread and then only to see the person with the bread throw it to the person who was standing on the shoulders of others.

Project Google 10^100 was a similar concept – but instead ideas submitted did not benefit a specific group. The ideas were just that: IDEAS. The ideas would then be organized by a group of Google’s choosing. Yes, this leaves a lot more up to the discretion of our big brother Google, but with no personal stake in the competition, ideas could be voted on by sheer merit rather than popularity of a certain group or network. Another notable example is the recent Pepsi refresh contest which has received many criticisms from participants and social media advisors – from issues with the interface to questions about fairness. With their budget and the importance of the project, a higher level of diligence with regards to planning and development could have been achieved.

Looking back, I realize that there are two important take-aways here:

1. Social media is not social responsibility. These contests, while painting companies in a beautiful rose-coloured light, should not be considered a socially responsible endeavour. While money is being given away here, companies are giving the money to the group who best promoted the contest. Not the group with the best idea, nor the group with the most need.

2. These contests allow for a great illustration of how offline social groups can mobilize for common goals. Using Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social media tools, not for profit organizations can quickly update their offline networks for online or offline action. Social media is not just useful for personal or business – it provides us with tools that can change our lives and change the world.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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How Emerging Technologies Can Change The World Around Me

Posted on April 7, 2010 by Danielle| Leave a comment

For fiduciary reasons, I tend to focus on pre-shopping online, but just as a pastime I do watch other areas of technological development and work these into my dreams of a better, more open world. Then I started thinking: what if the future was now?

I live in Wortley Village in London Ontario Canada – for those who have been there, it is a small community within a city. There is a little “downtown” with basically any type of store you might need (in miniature) and there is a definitely a bond between those living there as can be seen when they mobilize for some cause. Several years ago the grocery store almost closed – residents of Wortley Village rallied together and John’s Valu-Mart is still there. Wortley Village residents tend to have a disposable income, and while there are rental properties majority of the homes in this neighbourhood are single family homes with a few three-story walk-ups here and there.

One big way and one small way that emerging media and tech will change my neighbourhood:

Development & Construction – My ‘hood is very quaint, the houses very old with a lot of great character. This is what makes it such a desirable neighourhood within the city. So when someone wants to make a change, add something, it is of course going to be cause for a great deal of alarm. Imagine the possibilities, where situations such as this arose, if augmented reality to negotiate and resolve differences of opinion on proposed buildings in communities and the future of said structures. Using dynamic overlays (not limited to 3d), created by distributed groups of users, linked to location/place/time, and syndicated to people who wish to engage with the experience by viewing and co-creating elements for their own goals and benefits.

Dog people – There are lots of dogs in Wortley Village, pet owners more than often very devoted and it is not uncommon for many relationships in my ‘hood to be based on the commonality of dog ownership. Imagine if dog owners used a location based social networking mobile app for dog owners – we are walking here, we are at this park, and instant doggie play date. What if this same neighbourhood network could be used to mobilize to find a lost dog… if the shout out is sent soon enough after losing, the geotagging could help in finding our beloved Wortley pups.

Wortley Village 2.0?

This is not a suggestion for Wortley Village community leaders to rush out and spend tons of money on Wortley social networking infrastructure – but these are just some very real, very plausible examples of how emerging technology and media can and will change our lives. The digital revolution is not one made up of marketers, it is made up of real people using real technologies to solve real problems.

Popularity: 4% [?]

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The Social Business: Beyond Marketing

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Danielle| Leave a comment

Social has been a catchword around marketing circles for a while, but now social is being used as a model for all business practices and strategies. The benefits of running a social business are undeniable. Designed consciously around sociological rules and social tools, having many implications for the businesses from within and without. Social customer relationship management, the corporate reaction to catch up with the fleeting customer, while plagued with challenges of scalability, includes brand monitoring and community interaction to listen to clients or customers. But this is not just a marketing or customer service concept, a social business must include an internally open culture based on sharing and collaboration.

This great webinar Social Business: Taking “social” to the core of your organization by Stowe Boyd, Peter Kim, Jeremiah Owyang, Joshua-Michele Ross, is a great introduction to these concepts.

In the video, they go on to say that 2010 is the Year of Social Business Policy, and they just might be right considering the Department of Defense has recently release their social media policy.

The social business, then, should exist within all sectors of the business:

  1. Internal – employees of the company, lower level staff to management
  2. External – customer and client relationship management

Internal Culture of Openness and Innovation

It is sad that not more managers are eager to encourage and maintain this model for their businesses. No employee should be too low to speak to the highest employee in the company, no idea should be considered based on the rank of an employee on the corporate ladder, and a frank and open environment should allow for opportunities for all employees to share their creative and innovative ideas.

There are obstacles to overcome – management might be resistant or on the other employees might not see the value in participating. But if the heads of the business can embrace the open culture of the social business, it should not be hard to rally the troops. One thing people want more than money is a dream and social business is about people.

External Candour and Responsiveness

Customer relationship management within a social model is a newer idea, and while the concepts of brand monitoring and community participation seem relatively easy to understand, the issue of scale is where most companies will find their greatest challenges. The addition of new tools and new areas of consumer behavior to monitor, while extremely exciting, must be integrated into a new social customer relationship management policy and process to ensure that it all does not become just noise.

But besides the challenges, adding social to your customer relationship management program allows for much deepened loyalties and consumer trust. One to one dialogue stimulates a solid business relationship if the proper best use practices are understood.

Any plans to take a look at your business model given the technological changes that allow for more social discourse? Do you know of any companies doing this admirably?

Popularity: 2% [?]

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Finding The Value In Google Buzz

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Danielle| 1 Comment

When Google Wave came out I did not post anything because I really had nothing to say – like everyone I was excited to get my invite, but after signing up and feeling like I was part of a super exclusive club. Like most everyone else, I was disappointed at how few people there were on Google Wave and did not like the interface – it was pointless and really nothing very innovative. It was like a forum about anything that you could not browse. I just did not get it.

But now they have unleashed upon the world Google Buzz – integrated with Gmail and available via mobile, it allows for threaded discussions with no word or character limit, following other users and linking to other accounts such as Twitter.

Already, Google Buzz has been the source of some criticism. From the discussions on Google Buzz about Google Buzz these appear to be the main criticisms of the platform:

  • There were major privacy concerns at the beginning – anyone could follow anyone to view anything, which were alleged to cause some real life problems.
  • Do we need another way to dialog with people online or is this just another way for web geeks to talk to other web geeks?
  • Not everyone uses Gmail so adoption rates will be slow – is Google Buzz compelling enough to get yet another email address?
  • The threads get too long and there is character limit – you have to read through hundreds of sometimes long comments just to make sure you are not repeating something.

Google Buzz did not get the usual long testing and beta phase – it was tested internally by Google employees and individuals brought in to test at the Google offices. Likely Google wanted to move quickly to make up for the anti-climax that was Google Wave, but some say they were not ready.

Despite this, according to Google as of a few days ago they have already had 9 million posts and comments. I would wonder if that figure includes the tweets from Twitter integration, not to mention the other platforms that can be added to Buzz. Twitter is getting more than 25 million tweets daily last I heard, so 9 million in about a week is nominal if tweets are included. It figures that there will be a lot of traffic at the outset as well, as early adopters will spend a great deal of time testing out the new platform.

The big questions are: do we need another way to communicate online and does Google Buzz serve a purpose that other platforms such as Twitter and Facebook cannot. Pete Cashmore put it really way in his post for CNN.com: where Twitter is the town square and Facebook is the local bar, Google Buzz is the campus.

Built for inquiry, learning and collaboration, if Google refines the ability to form private groups this could become a valuable tool for small companies and academic circles – I can see how Google Buzz could mean easy dialog on problems to find solutions with a few more additions the offering. While Google might want it to be so much more than that, which I can tell from their video, nonetheless there is a need that is met with Google Buzz that cannot be found on Twitter or Facebook, or even in email.

How are you using Google Buzz, if at all, and do you think Google Buzz has any enduring qualities? If so, how do you see the value of Google Buzz?

Popularity: 7% [?]

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