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Archive for the ‘research’ Category

Canadians Love Their Social Networks

Posted in research, social media, social networking, tagged , , , on 7 December 2009 | 1 Comment »

Forrester finally does social technographics for Canada and guess what? We are extremely social.

Maybe it’s got something to do with all the time we hunkered down and crouched over our keyboards during the cold winter months, but Canadians are the most active social networkers of any country in the Western world, according to the results of a new survey.

More than half of all Canadians (57%) surveyed said they are active users of social networks such as Facebook and MySpace — primarily Facebook –  compared with 51% of the online population in the United States and just 38% in the United Kingdom, according to the report from market research firm Forrester Research Group.

“We know how popular and successful Facebook is in the U.S. and how popular these networks are in parts of Asia, so to see that a higher percentage of Canadian online users were visiting and using social networks every month than any of the other markets, that’s pretty impressive,” said Forrester principal analyst Nate Elliott, the lead author on the study.

via Financial Post

Kinda surprised that we are bigger social networkers than in the US. Dunno if I should be.

More:

The study also found that 79% of Canadians take part in social media at least once a month, whether they’re checking Facebook, uploading a video to YouTube or posting ratings and comments on a blog.

About 18% of Canadians are described as “creators,” because they write a blog or upload videos, while 28% of Canadians are “critics” who post ratings and reviews on things like newspaper Websites. About 64% described themselves as spectators — they only read and watch social media content — while 21% said they don’t take part in any social media activity at all.

Actually I’m not sure how meaningful it is to say that almost 80% “take part in social media,” since these days, anyone online is reading blog content — whether they realize it or not — and practically everyone online watches video from YouTube. But anyhow.

When I sent this news to my government colleagues, one replied back with another quote from the report’s author:

“I can’t imagine a marketer who would ignore something that this many Canadians are using,” said Nate Elliott, principle analyst [sic] at Forrester and author of the report. “If you are not participating in social media right now as a marketer, then you are late.” [my emphasis]

via Ottawa Citizen

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Mobile Internet Access in Canada Overtakes Dial-Up

Posted in observations, research, tagged , , , , , on 27 October 2009 |

New study from Ipsos pegs home Internet access among Canadians at 82%, a 6% increase from the second quarter of 2008. Frankly I am surprised that it is that low, given the importance of being able to get online. The digital divide lives. I wonder how this compares internationally?

Anyhow, here’s an interesting tidbit on the ways we use to access the Internet:

Dial-up access is in the last stages of use as only 8% of Internet-enabled Canadians access the Internet through this method, while about eight in ten are using some form of high speed access. Interestingly, there has also been a rise in the last 18 months of an ‘other’ category – widely suspected to be Mobile Broadband Sticks, Netbooks and Smartphone users.

via Internet Access in Canada Reaches All Time High.

So if dial-up is at 8% and broadband use at about 80%, this means that access via smartphone/netbook/Internet stick must be over 10%. In Canada, it looks like mobile internet access has surpassed dial-up.

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Where Do We Go From Here?

Posted in government, research, Web 2.0, tagged , , on 5 August 2009 | 3 Comments »

Phew, back from vacation and re-acquainting myself with my office. Came across this as I was tidying up some papers.

It’s a slide from a presentation that I attended back in June. Phoenix SPI was summarizing research it has done for the Government of Canada on opportunities and challenges around Web 2.0.

Slide from presentation by Phoenix SPI

Where Do We Go From Here?

So basically, think first before charging into web 2.0. Ask some basic questions – does it make sense to invest in this? will it lead to better results?

Because that last bullet is a kicker — “web 2.0 should supplement, not replace traditional communications and service delivery channels.” At this point, using web 2.0 means creating more work for ourselves.

For those of you with GCpedia access, the full presentation and report can be had here:

http://www.gcpedia.gc.ca/wiki/Web_2.0_and_Government:_Secondary_Analysis

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File Under Mixed Messages

Posted in research, social media, tagged , on 11 June 2009 |

backlash pic via Josh Spear

backlash pic via Josh Spear

I got an email from Ipsos about a new study on social networking they’ve released. Since Twitter mania and accompanying social media backlash are in full swing, that’s the angle they’ve gone with in their marketing.

What’s all That Twitter – About  A Lot About Nothing?

While 26% of Online Canadians are Aware of Twitter, Only 1.45% of Online Canadians Actually Use the Social Networking Tool

Calgary, AB, June 11, 2009 – A new study shows from Ipsos Reid shows that only 26% of online Canadians are aware of Twitter. Of those, 6% reported using the social networking tool. This only equates to 1.45% of the Internet population, or about one percent of the population as a whole. These are some of the findings from “Social Networking: 2009″, a new study conducted and released by Ipsos Reid. Study author Mark Laver noted that while “Twitter gets a lot of press, and usage figures show impressive growth, when you look at its awareness and use among mainstream online Canadians, you get a completely different picture.”

Interestingly I couldn’t find a landing page for the report on their site, but the here’s the news release.

Paints a radically different picture than what we were seeing a couple of months ago.

Of course there’s the question of whether Twitter even qualifies as a social network.

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Internet as News Source, Updated Research

Posted in observations, research, web communications, tagged , , , , on 13 January 2009 |

Last August, I posted on the growth of the Internet as a key source for news, based on research being undertaken by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in the United States.

This morning, I was pointed to updated research from Pew, released just before Xmas (hat tip eMarketer).

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

This graph vividly demonstrates the dramatic growth of Internet news. That jump from ’07 to ’08 is really stunning.

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I’m a teenager online

Posted in research, social media, social networking on 28 February 2008 |

Ipsos released some research on Tuesday about teens and what they do online. It makes me feel better about being in my 40th year ….

Contrary to popular belief, teens are not online as much as they are stereotyped to be, the time they do spend on the Internet is focused rather narrowly on particular types of websites and activities, and their comfort level with technology is actually much lower than adults.

According to Steve Mossop, president of Market Research for Ipsos Reid in Western Canada, “What is surprising about our research is the extent to which it challenges conventional assumptions adults make about the technological sophistication of teenagers. The reality is they spend far less time online than adults with a very limited number of activities like socializing, gaming and music, and their attitudes are surprisingly unsophisticated in terms of their lack of comfort with the technology, concerns about security and privacy, and importance of the internet in their daily lives.”

Why does this make me feel better? Here’s how I spend a lot of my time online: socializing, gaming and music. I’m young at heart!

Seriously though… this study reconfirms the importance of online social networking.

Online socializing is by far, the overwhelming reason why teens surf the net. The majority of teens surveyed (88%) have participated in an online social activity (compared to 70% of adults) and more than half (59%) visit online social networks or communities a few times a week to daily. Many teens report that the Internet is important to their social life (61%) and, among those who visit online social networks or communities, half (52%) say it is important to their day-to-day life.

Participation rates are extremely high (88% for teens, 70% for adults). And the level of investment that teens put into social networking is pretty stunning – well over half of teens say that the Internet is an important part of their social life. Given that adults spend more time online than teens, I would imagine a similar number for that demographic as well.

So I’d say it’s high time for us government communicators to be moving into this space. It’s where our audiences are.

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