So we have an estimate of how many Canadians are on Twitter but what we all want to know is who are the Canadians on Twitter and why are they using it.
I have put together a short survey to learn more about how Canadians are using Twitter – so if you have a Twitter account and currently reside in Canada please respond to the following survey and definitely tweet the link.
Popularity: 17% [?]
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:
The facts armed with some basic percentages math and here is what I come up with:
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% [?]
Posted in Marketing
Tagged canada, social media, social media marketing, twitter, twitter in canada
Social media was invented for communication between people – those looking to market their products were not the end user these tools are designed for. Mark Zuckerberg and his associates did not come up with Facebook thinking “Gee, how can we assist big brands in selling their wares?” and Twitter was not conceived to allow brands to blast their products in real time to potential customers. Yes, it is clearly the assumption that where people will go, marketers will follow, but to what end? This continuous chase has some coming earlier, some coming later to the table – each saying “Me too! Me Too!” often forgetting the element that brings sustainability to a brand – are you really connecting with your consumers?
Retail brands, for example, could potentially create accounts, populate them with tools to help shoppers browse products and announce deals and yes, they might come into the store and buy some products. But do they feel better about having engaged with your brand online? Was it really more efficient than other ways of pre-shopping and have you enhanced your customers’ experiential satisfaction? And here is the big question: Will they follow you, fan you, or friend you again? Will they seek you out because you are a brand that they want to be associated with? Or will they allow you to engage them once and engage only if marketing dollars are spent getting their attention?
Your audience must be at the center of your interactions within social media networks – connect with them, engage with them. And make sure they leave with that fuzzy feeling that will have them coming back again based on previous positive experiences. And, as opposed to many other channels, social media could leave marketers with a fuzzy feeling too. Do not require social media users to imagine spending money on your products and services and focus instead on your relationships, you could inadvertently have customers who will loyally return again and again, turning their noses up at other brands.
Here is a simple illustration of what I mean using retail brands on Twitter. Now, as a disclaimer, these brands have come to the table at different times, which does account for some of the difference. On the other hand they are all using different approaches and as a result are seeing entirely different effects.
Safeway http://twitter.com/Safeway
Future Shop Canada http://twitter.com/fs_connect
Best Buy Twelpforce http://twitter.com/twelpforce
Zappos http://twitter.com/zappos
A few lessons about social media from these examples:
Popularity: 4% [?]
Posted in Marketing
Tagged best buy, brand engagement, future shop, safeway, social media, twitter
Canadians are participating on Twitter. In 2007 a According to Twitter stats in 2008 Canadians accounted for 7% of traffic. Checking Alexa.com today reveals their figure of 2.5% – Alexa ratings however are known to be flawed, but we do know that Twitter usage in Canada is not near close to that of our American brethren despite similar technologies and technological interest. And a Sysomos study released in June 2009 indicates that Twitter usage by country indicates 5.69% of Twitter accounts belong to Canadians. This data was compiled by indexing 11.5 million Twitter accounts and recording country of origin.
The question begs however – how many of these accounts are actively being used…?
Mobile Provider & “The Green Monster”
Twitter adoption in Canada has been largely stunted by mobile provider reluctance to allow users to participate at a reasonable cost – and while there is the possibility of communications via Twitter on the web, believe it or not real life experiences are much more inspiring. Data plans in Canada are not within the price range of the average mobile user, and SMS can get very expensive as well. Bell higher ups have stated that a Twitter update is not the same as personal message – it’s just not the same thing. I don’t see the difference – the networks have grown but if you offer an unlimited plan it appears that you cannot distinguish between what it is used for. Hmm… doesn’t this sound familiar (p2p throttling).
My solution: There are lots of Canadian companies (retailers especially) that want to make use of social media but they either find too few Canadians or too few Canadians find them. Why not work out a deal with mobile providers – you receive Tweets from Retailer A you get Twitter credits, get Tweets from retailers A & B get even more mobile credits. Mobile companies make money, retailers market, and consumer gets Twitter with daily updates from the retailers they are following. Everyone is happy! Je rêve en couleur…
Twitter Frustration
While this is not restricted to Canadians alone, many first-time Twitter users feel frustrated when they join Twitter because they do not understand how it works or what it is for. In my discussions with people about Twitter (non-Twitter users or users with non-active accounts) there are some misunderstandings about the real value of participation there. Here are some of the opinions from people in the marketing industry as well as those would use Twitter primarily for personal communication:
While these have their time and their place, the real value of Twitter is the real-time communication that is made possible for the organization of communities in spreading knowledge. The valuable local content on Twitter in Canada is not as pronounced. If I tweet about an accident in the city I live in as I drove by, people would hear about it but the news would not spread quickly enough to be of help to more than a handful of people (this is a random guess). While the tech community in London Ontario has long embraced Twitter it seems that the supply of local “early adopters” will have to run out and my mom won’t be using Twitter anytime soon without some real incentive. This local, pertinent content is one of the real powers of Twitter – averting hazards, finding great local sales, hearing about a great rock show – and until mobile providers make this more accessible, Canadians will likely be slow to adopt Twitter as a tool for every day living and communication quickly with friends, families and people within and without their networks. The more people on Twitter in your region, the more valuable it becomes as a tool and this is where our frustration with the mundane will be relieved.
In America, It Trickled Up… In Canada, It Trickles Down
In the United States, Twitter growth was much quicker and it was not until later that offline retailers really took advantage of Twitter. Online only companies have been using it since the beginning. But, in the United States, the companies went to where the people where. In Canada, on the other hand, there is still not a very large user base and the value of Twitter is not as pronounced as in the country to the south. Retailers are encouraging Canadians to join Twitter in exchange for valuable savings – many retailers such as Future Shop, Sears, Sobeys and Safeway, among others, are using contests and other incentives to compel people to join and follow their brands.
Will Twitter Move Forward in Canada?
While I think the Twitter model is bound to change, it could become a very valuable tool for disseminating local content and real-time communication to our larger networks. As well, it could become a very valuable tool for marketers. Many companies will find their niche audiences here – Canadian retailers like Future Shop are poised to speak to the early adopters of Canada – those most apt to buy the new phone, the newest netbook and the latest in gaming technology. Herein lies the power of Twitter and social networking – you can connect with your tribe and your tribe can connect with you. Labelled and mapped into the social graph, these tribes are to identifiable and social media marketers can find their audience in those most apt to be interested in what they have to offer, connecting with their customers and increasing brand engagement.
What do you think the future holds for Twitter in Canada?
Popularity: 12% [?]
Posted in Marketing
Tagged canada, engagement, London-ON, social media, social media marketing, social networking, tribes, twitter, twitter in canada
Digital channels offer more than the opportunity to sell products – turning customers into loyal customers, ones that will refer business, are more profitable than the one time buyer. Managing customer relationships and offering customer service in the channels preferred by the user offers some insights that cannot be obtained in traditional customer support situations. For example, shifting primary forms of customer service to a digital sphere indicates weaknesses in your company even if the commentary is not directed at your support staff.
Shoppers don’t want to wait on hold on the phone, they do not want to have to go into the store to be frustrated in person and clearly they do not want to send a letter via snail mail. If you can even still buy stamps. This is all common sense, right? Making a shift to digital channels is a logical and potentially very effective solution to the customer support dilemma.
Customer Support and Social Media
Here are some social media statistics to illustrate my point:
Community users remain customers 50% longer than non-community users. (AT&T, 2002)
Community users spend 54% more than non-community users (EBay, 2006)
In customer support, live interaction costs 87% more per transaction on average than forums and other web self-service options. (ASP, 2002)
Cost per interaction in customers support averages $12 via the contact center versus $0.25 via self-service options. (Forrester, 2006)
Customers report good experiences in forums more than twice as often as they do via calls or mail. (Jupiter, 2006)
Answer Questions to Boost Sales – Best Buy USA and @Twelpforce
Best Buy USA is using Twitter to help boost sales and increase interaction with consumers:
Best Buy’s “Twelpforce” will search Twitter posts to find people seeking information about flat- panel televisions and other electronics, Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge said in a telephone interview today. More than 500 employees at stores and at the company’s Richfield, Minnesota headquarters are signed up to participate, he said.
In addition, shoppers and customers can Twitter TwelpForce with their questions. It is important here that Best Buy makes a real effort to focus on the customer relationship building as opposed to spam marketing. There are some criticisms to the “service”, but I think that this is a good move in the right direction. Best Buy is making a real effort to participate within the digital space, and it is clear they are looking to increase the one to one contact consumers can have with Best Buy associates.
Pitney Bowes and the User Help Forum
What I find interesting about Pitney Bowes is not necessarily the use of the user forum. This is not an innovative or new idea, but it how the value of the forum was quantified that caught my eye. The Pitney Bowes example illustrates how companies can cut back on support costs by providing self-serve online options, as opposed to a call center format where the cost of each call can range from $5 to $10. They reported that:
the main question “How do I update rates on my machine?” was viewed upwards of 37K times, which would equate, according to the industry benchmark, of about a $70K support cost savings just for that question alone.
In addition, they have a Think Tank where customers can submit ideas or suggestions for products and services. These ideas are reviewed monthly by an executive steering committee.
Online Support Not Just For Online Retailers
Once again, it is time for brick and mortar retailers to take their cue from internet retailers and take advantage of the lower cost alternative available through digital channels. Interactions can occur quicker, and in some cases, no interaction is required and answers can be obtained quickly through self-service user-powered solutions. Either way, offering these alternatives increases a company’s ability to turn potential or one-time customers into loyal, referring brand fans.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Posted in Marketing
Tagged branded communities, communities, customer support, digital marketing, forums, pitney bowes, social media, twitter, user forums