Category: Kate Trgovac

Seems that social media surveys are all the rage these days. Two Canadian organizations have tried recently to find the current pulse of social media in Canada.

The first is 6S Marketing in Vancouver.  They wanted to investigate trends in Canadian social media usage. Their survey results reveal an overwhelming percentage of Canadians who have adopted social media for business and personal use and highlight the most popular forums and mediums for communication.

6S created and distributed the survey to a database of over 10,000 Canadians including members of the Vancouver Board of Trade, although 6S Marketing has not disclosed the specific numbers or demographics of who completed the surveys. The survey polled Canadians on the purpose of their social media use, as well as the popularity of the available sites and the effectiveness of using this medium.

Two weeks ago, they released the highlights from the 6S Marketing Social Media in Canada survey:

• 70% of Canadians say they use social media.
• Facebook is the most popular social networking site with 70% of people surveyed currently having an account.
• 47% of Canadians use Twitter and the majority of users are 19 – 25 years of age.
• Only 20% of people surveyed currently use MySpace.
• YouTube & Flickr are the most popular social media sites with 38% & 29% (respectively) of people surveyed using the sites.
• 42% of Canadians do not blog, while 58% do blog.
• 74% of people who blog, do so for personal purposes, 57% blog for work and 35% blog for both.
• 9% of people surveyed have hired an employee online and 22% have received a job offer online. 69% have done neither.
• 61% of businesses said they track what people are saying about their brand online.

6S Marketing has also created a series of graphs based on the data that they are sharing under a Creative Commons license (so you'll have pretty pictures for your powerpoints).  For example, here's one that shows who manages social media accounts for the organization …

The second social media survey was released just yesterday as a joint partnership between CNW Group and Leger Marketing.  Their "Social Media Reality Check" polled both Canadian consumers as well as Canadian PR practitioners looking for gaps and overlaps in PR practitioner perception and the consumer-reported reality.

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