Summary of Atlantic Conversations 3 – Social Media in Atlantic Canada

On Sunday, 23 January, I provided some of our key findings in our ongoing monitoring of social media usage in Atlantic Canada. We also monitor the New England states and Southern UK on an ongoing basis.

Here’s the summary points from Atlantic Conversations III:

- Facebook average age edged up from 53 to 55

- We found a 18% increase in Social Media use by Silver Surfers (those above 55)

- LinkedIn is the most popular business network online and we saw a 72% increase in use in 2011

- We noted Twitter is becoming a localized news source/feed

- New Brunswick saw the largest increase overall in citizens using social media

- Nova Scotia saw the largest increase in business blogs over other Atlantic Canadian provinces

- Urban growth issues featured heavily in all major Atlantic Canadian cities; mostly in St. John’s & Halifax

- Political and discussions over societal issues increased 32% over 2009

- Online petitions increased by 28% in 2010 over 2009

- Surprisingly, we found most newspaper site commenters on average, had an undergraduate degree

What Struck Us Most?

Atlantic Canadians, in fact Canadians as a whole, are starting to leverage social technologies for societal change. Moving from “slacktivism” to more that just signing petitions but driving change by physically taking ideas and concepts and moving those agendas forward in civil society. Our view is that governments at all levels should be listening more closely. We anticipate an increase in this direction of social media in 2011.

While the majority of social media use is still entertainment focused and basic familial and social communications, that is changing. This is a pivotal year of a shift in that direction. What may present a challenge is moving from the keyboard to the street and the volume of “noise” may preclude any viable change as the “signal” will be lost in the clutter.