Introduction The 28.

5 million internet user population represented 83% of the population of Canada in 2012 as per the data provided by internet world stats.

Internet Penetration in Canada

17%

Online Population Offline Population

83%

While in terms of internet population Canada may not seem very attractive, but when other factors are considered, the internet savvy nature of Canadian Population can be seen through the figures given below.
Average Hours Per visitor on Internet

43 24.6

41.3 27.9 27.9 24.7

World-Wide

United States

Canada

Brazil

France

Germany

In terms of average hours spent on internet Canada is second only to USA. The 41.6 hours per visitor average is more than 150% of the world average.

Average Pages Per visitor on Internet

3,731 3,709 3,432 2,278 2,835 2,681

Average Visits Per visitor on Internet

101 60 97

88

75

64

In terms of pages per visitor and in terms of average visits per visitor Canada again leads the world with 4,014 page views per visitor and 101.7 being the average number of visits. Ontario, the largest province of Canada contributes the major number of visitors with its 12.9 million residents. Following Ontario are french section of Canada Quebec at 24% and Priaries at 18%. The regional breakup of internet users is shown through the figure below.
Internet Users by Region
7% 14% 39%

Ontario Quebec Priaries

18%

British Columbia Atlantic

22%

It is not just the number of residents but also the high internet penetration in Ontario which gives it the major share of Canadian internet users. The internet penetration in major regions of Canada is represented through the figure below.
Internet Penetration in different regions in Canada

86.0% 84.0% 81.0% 76.0%

British Columbia

Alberta

Ontario

Quebec

As we can see, British Columbia leads the pack registering 86% internet penetration, followed by Alberta at 84%, Ontario at 81% and Quebec at 76%. When looking at the demographical breakup in terms of age categories, an interesting read comes up. Major users of the internet fall in the 34-55 age categories while under 18 age category as well as 18-34 age category represents 18% and 27% of the internet users respectively. The figure below is based on the study of comScore done in 2012 in Canada.

Age demographics of Internet Users

55+ 19% Under 18 22%

34-55 32%

18-34 27%

What is also interesting is that the increase in the number of internet users in the 55+ age category between 2010 and 2011 was 6% while in 2011 to 2012 period it has come down by 1%. Similarly the age group 35-54 which experienced 2% growth in 2010-11 experienced a decline by 4% in 2011-12. Most growth was registered by under 18 age category which after going down by 4% has leveled the score with a 4% growth. Almost 100% of the online population in Canada is a daily user of internet when comparing monthly averages of Total unique visitors (25,497) with Average daily users (25,387). The use of smartphone has increased and it now claims 17% more market share which it gained from feature phones.

Use of Smartphone vs. Feature Phone

55%

38%

Feature Phone Smartphone

62%

45%

2011

2012

Similar growth is also observed in the percentage of video viewership in Smartphones which grew from 16% in 2011 to 37% in 2012. It is also observed that a smartphone owner is 15% more likely to have another connected device (tablets, e-readers etc.) with him as compared to feature phone.

Social Media Social media penetration in Canada is almost 60% of the online users. This represents half of the Canadian population. The increase in number of users in social media from 2009 to 2011 was only 4%, but what was significant was the rise in participation.

Participation in social networks

45% 35% 30% 25% 19% 46%

2010 2011

Daily Users

Weekly users

Less frequent users

The daily participation which was at 30% in 2011 as can be seen through the figure above was only 19% in 2010 and similarly weekly participation grew from 35% in 2010 to 45% in 2011. Majority of the daily users (60%) were Canadian women. Given below are the demographics of the social networking population of Canada. Like most countries the young Canadians are the most active group on social networks. While participation for women

Demographics of Social Networking

55+ 45-54 35-44 25-34 15-24 85.5% 91.5% 95.8% 96.2% 97.2% 97.8% 99.1% 99.2%

90.7% 90.7%

Female Male

remains above 95% for most categories and above 90% for all age categories, it is the older men, the ones above 35 years of age which are less involved in the social networking sites. Not surprisingly, the average time spent on social networking sites, further demonstrates the lead of young Canadians in social networking and the lag of participation as we move up the age categories. This is illustrated in the figure below.

Average Hours Per visitor on Social Networking Sites

10.6 8.6 7.4 6.2 5.2

15-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55+

There are different versions to which are the major social networking sites in Canada. The report from comScore tells us that the top five social networking sites are Facebook, twitter, windows live profile, LinkedIn and Tumblr as can be seen from the figure below.

Top 5 Social Networking Sites in Canada,

85.4%

20.8%

19.9%

17.5%

10.6%

Facebook

Twitter

Windows Live Profile

LinkedIn

Tumblr

However another study reveals slightly different results. This is a study done by askingcanadians.com and the second place in social networking sites is given to YouTube. The figure below displays a slightly different top 5 social networking sites in Canada.

Top 5 Social Networking Sites in Canada,

73%

35% 20% 20% 19%

Facebook

YouTube

Twitter

LinkedIn

Google+

While Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are at similar positions, YouTube springs up as the second most popular social networking site and Google+ enters the top 5. According to a study from comScore, Canadians spending 17.3 hours by watching 332 videos per month per viewer on average. Similarly the ranks given by branding personality also puts YouTube on the second spot based on Alexa rankings. Their top 5 has Wikipedia at number 3 pushing Google+ out of the picture. One thing is for sure that YouTube does have a lot of Canadian users. An article on Techvibes says that in the past seven years (from 2005 to 2012) more content has been uploaded on YouTube than CBC and CTV have managed in past 50 years. Some of the major activities on social media have been very straight forward as can be seen from the figure below.

Major Activities on social media

61% 39%

55%

Status Updates

Photo Sharing

Video Sharing

In terms of time spent on social networking sites Canada makes it to the top 10 at 10th position with 7.7 hours as average time spent per visitor. Social networkings popularity can also be seen when websites with most traffic are measured using Alexa. Top 5 websites in Canada with most traffic are listed below. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Google.ca Google Facebook YouTube Yahoo!

The top 5 have 2 social networking sites as the most visited sites among the search engines. Although, YouTube has now become the second largest search engine in the world, so the count can also be seen as 1. The top social networking site in Canada is as the giant from the neighbor, Facebook.

Facebook The undisputed leader of Social networking sites in Canada, Facebook leads other social networking sites by a fair margin in every aspect. In terms of time spent or in terms of penetration of online population, Facebook leads them all as can be seen from the figure below, where it is compared with only the next in line of social networking sites in Canada.

In terms of Penetration
85.4%

In terms Time Spent (in minutes)

470

424 20.8%

Facebook

Twitter

Facebook

YouTube

With more than 18 million users in Canada, every 2nd person in Canada has a facebook profile. Although the past 6 months (September 2012 to March 2013) have seen some cliffs and pits, the huge margin that Facebook carries over other social networking sites will not be affected so quickly. The progress of Facebook can be seen through the figure below provided by social bakers.

The age demographics of Canada are displayed through the figure below. The users under 35 years of age form almost 60% of the total Facebook users. The age group 25-34 accounts for majority of users at 31% followed by 18-24 at 21%. The fall of number of users 35 years of age and above is in line with the lower participation in social networks in general as was shown earlier.

Age demographics of Facebook Users

55+ 12% Under 18 7%

45-54 12%

18-24 21%

35-44 17%

25-34 31%

Lastly, there are more women in Facebook than male, accounting for 56% of the total facebook users in Canada. LinkedIn Canada is one of the largest markets of LinkedIn. LinkedIn has a 17.5% penetration in Canada. A comparison with the best markets of LinkedIn in the world is given below as per the data from comScores study in 2011.

Top countries of LinkedIn in terms of Market Penetration

Netherlands Ireland U.S.A. Canada Denmark 20.4% 18.7% 17.5% 17.4% 27.2%

As of 2012, there were more than 6 million users of LinkedIn in Canada, and the market penetration has risen to 22.93% as per the data provided by Social bakers. A summary of LinkedIn in Canada is given in the table below. Total Unique Visitors (in mn) 4.12 Average minutes per visitor 16.3

LinkedIn

% Reach 17.50%

YouTube In the past 7 years since YouTube came into picture, Canadians have posted more videos in it than the CTW and CBC have put together in the last 50 years. An average Canadian user on an average spends 4.4 hours on YouTube. The website is not only ranked the 2nd most visited social networking site in Canada, but also ranks 4th among the top 5 websites in Canada in terms of traffic. This traffic is calculated as per Alexa rankings. In terms of time spent on social networking sites in Canada, YouTube is beaten by Facebook by a mere margin of 46 minutes (470 minutes in Facebook vs. 424 minutes in YouTube).

Average Time spent Per visitor on Social Networking Sites (in mn)
470.1 424

105 19.9 Facebook YouTube Tumblr Twitter 16.3 LinkedIn

As we can see from here, the engagement generated by YouTube is only matched by Facebook, and the social networking site next in line uses almost 1/4th of the time when compared to YouTube. Other Social Networking Sites Other social networking sites such as Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram also showed significant growth in 2012. While Tumblr grew by 96% in 2012, Pinterest grew by 792%. The growth of these sites is illustrated in the figure below from the comScore study.

Social Media Monitoring Tools Some of the social media monitoring tools that can be used in Canada are listed in the table below. Company name Sysomos DNA13 RepuMetrix MyFrontSteps White Noise Inc. MediaMiser Syncapse Corp PostRank Inc Needium Salesforce Dishy! AG

Platform MAP, Heartbeat dnaMonitor RepuTrace, RepuTrack Steprep White Noise MediaMiser Enterprise Socialtalk PostRank Needium Radian6 ReputationTool Social Media Monitoring, Reporting & Incident Response Experts Social Media: Understanding & Protecting your Online Reputation for SMBs Variety of off-the-shelf tools and proprietary technologies

Media type All All All All All All Twitter, Facebook, Wordpress, Moveable Type RSS Enabled Content, Blogs, Social Networks & Hubs Twitter All All

Website http://www.sysomos.com http://www.dna13.com/ http://www.repumetrix.com http://steprep.myfrontsteps.com http://www.herdthenoise.com http://www.mediamiser.com http://www.socialtalk.com PostRank http://needium.com/ http://www.radian6.com http://reputationtool.com

BrandProtect

ALL

BrandProtect

Internet911 Lola

ALL All online sources

Internet911 Lola

There are many factors which contribute to the presence of so many social media monitoring tools in Canada. A very active social networking population, the language primarily being English and the close proximity to US which is the originator of most of the biggest social networking platforms, all contribute to the active presence of many social media monitoring tools in Canada. Internet and Social Media in Quebec In terms of internet use, French Canada has lagged when compared to rest of Canada. However, over the past few years this gap is closing. What is most interesting is the increasing participation of the 55+ age group in this category which has risen from 43% in 2005 to 63% in 2011. The figure below displays the growth rate of internet usage among different age categories from 2009 to 2011.

Internal Usage of Francophones

93% 97% 97% 82% 76% 79% 88% 90% 92% 59% 63% 63%

2009 2010 2011

Overall Usage

18-34

34-49

50+

This growth has also been observed in social media, where the age group of 65+ has grown from a participation rate of 39% in 2011 to 53% in 2012 as per CEFRIOs recent data. The top 5 social networking sites in Quebec in terms of percentage penetration of total population of Quebec is given in the figure below.

Top 5 Social Networking Sites in Quebec

62% 51% 25% 15% 11%

Facebook

YouTube

Blogger

Daily Motion

Wordpress

While Facebook and YouTube retain the top spot as in rest of Canada, the rest of the social networking sites are very different from what we see when looking at Canadian average. There is blogger at 25%, followed by Daily Motion at 15% and then wordpress at 11%. Twitter and LinkedIn are way down at 5% and 6% respectively. However the real picture is revealed when the growth rates are taken into account. Some of the growth and decline rates of various social networking sites in Quebec are represented in the figure below.

Growth/Decline of Social Networking Sites in Quebec

507% 455%

283% 241%

84% -57% Twitter LinkedIn Vimeo Daily Motion Facebook MySpace -57% Hi5 -38% SkyRock Blogues -17% Flickr

The decline in sites such as SkyRock Blogues (the most popular blogging platform in Quebec) and Flickr is in line with decline in activities in social media. Blogging is down by 57%, 40% in online gaming, 19% in photo sharing and 16% with instant messaging. As previously stated, though Quebec in general lags behind rest of Canada in internet and differed in social networking habits, the situation is changing. It is expected that the French Canada will soon be in line with the rest of Canada as far as internet and social media are concerned.

Tips for Social Marketers Canadian market is a social marketers paradise. A high internet penetration, coupled with high internet and social media time makes this one of the most alluring market in the world today. This composition also makes Canada useful as a test market. Some of the things that a social marketer should keep in mind in Canada are Canadian internet market is not completely dominated by any age category and even the oldest generation (55+) is almost at par with the youngest generation (18+) when internet usage is concerned (19% by 55+ compared to 22% for under 18 years of age). This even distribution of internet is reflected in the social networking category where 90%+ is the average participation rate for all age categories exception being 55+. This represents Canada as a perfect testing ground for social media initiatives. Females dominate the social media in Canada. Also when considering a daily internet user rate of almost 100%, it tells us that a high percentage of population is present on the social networks daily.

The high participation rate of females is also represented by the emergence of a study Canadian Digital Mom by momcentralconsulting.com. For all the marketers looking to promote products and services targeted towards women, Canada would be the place to start. Canadians spend 41.3 hours on internet, almost 100% of them are daily internet users, and the top 5 sites in terms of traffic have two social networks, Facebook and YouTube in it. This is primarily the reason why social media publishers account for the largest display advertising when compared with any other media. In case of Quebec, while it lags the enthusiasm of rest of Canada in terms of social networking and internet usage, the scenario is changing. The growth of 35% by social media in Quebec represents an excellent opportunity for social marketers to target the untapped potential of French Canada. In the particular case of Quebec, one must consider the growth rates before looking at the market share of social networking sites. Since Quebec is undergoing a transformation, previously popular social network platforms such as SkyRock Blogues may not be a better choice when compared to rapidly rising sites such as Pinterest and Instagram. Even though language in French Canada would preferably French, social marketer should not ignore English, considering 65% of the Francophones consume as much English content as they do with French. Also some regulations with regards to the language (French) and its use in the state of Quebec need to be taken into consideration before going into translation mode. Canadians rank second in terms of number of videos and hours spent on videos by an average user. This could mean that video sharing sites such as YouTube may be a better platform to promote the products over member based social networking sites such as Facebook.

References Internet Addiction: Canadians Reportedly Now Spending Less Time Online, http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/03/04/internet-addiction_n_2806235.html?ir=Canada+Living More Content Has Been Uploaded to YouTube from Canada than CTV and CBC Have Produced in 50 Years, http://www.techvibes.com/blog/more-content-has-been-uploaded-to-youtube-from-canadathan-ctv-and-cbc-have-produced-in-50-years-2012-04-27 OH CANADA! How our neighbors to the north feel about Social Media!, http://www.brandingpersonality.com/oh-canada-how-our-neighbors-to-the-north-feel-about-socialmedia/ ITS A SOCIAL WORLD Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where Its headed http://www.slideshare.net/ryangreenme/its-a-social-world-top-10-needtoknows-about-socialnetworking-and-where-its-headed Internet World Stats, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm How are Canadians Using Social Media? http://stryvegroup.com/how-are-canadians-using-socialmedia/?goback=.gde_3754448_member_134197618

2012 Canada Digital Future in Focus, http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers/2012/2012_Canada_Digital_Futur e_in_Focus 2013, Digital Future in Focus, http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Blog/2013_Digital_Future_in_Focus_Series European Travel Commission, New Media Trend Watch

http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/11-long-haul/45-canada
Most Canadians still shy away from social media for shopping: report http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/digital-culture/social-web/most-canadians-still-shyaway-from-social-media-for-shopping-report/article7903948/ Whats so different in Quebec?, http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/02/01/whats-sodifferent-in-quebec/ 62% of ALL Quebecers use Facebook, http://en.titaninteractif.com/index.php/2011/03/01/62-of-allquebecers-use-facebook/ More social. Less networked, http://www.whatquebecwants.com/whatquebecwants/social-media/