Social Media Tools, Regionalization & Youth

As we compiled some of our research from the past year, we wanted to look at possible differences in how social media tools might be used across Canada. This is aggregate data compiled from research we’ve done in all provinces (excluding NWT and Nunavut for which we have insufficient data.)

There are differences. For marketers this means regional preferences for tools are apparent and thus a national campaign means adjustment according to the tools of preference. For public relations firms this means different tools for the audiences. Just when you thought there was enough fragmentation now we’re into regional preferences.

So that begged the question…why? We don’t know. I welcome any thoughts or ideas. One theory we have is that it depends very much on Word of Mouth. Take up of these tools is not as a result of paid marketing efforts, that we do know.

As you’ll notice in the chart below, Facebook remains prevalant across Canada although was much lower in British Columbia than we expected. Flickr stood out as the number one photo sharing site and LinkedIn tops for business networking online. What does stand out is that regional preferences are defined and marketers, PR professionals and others should be aware of these preferences.

This data is compiled to reflect the 20-55 bracket, for which we have the best data and protects the privacy of our clients at the same time. Sample size represents a minimum of 1,500 users per province. The data is compiled in aggregate from various sectoral/industry research carried out from March 2009 to March 2010. The services mentioned are the top Social Media tools we noted by overall usage (there are many others.) Data is “ranked” from 1-10 with 10 being the most popular.

(Author: G. Crouch, MD)