Canadians grow social networking habits

Advertisers should not forget about social marketing in Canada. According to a new study about 37% of Canadians with Internet connections have a visited a social networking website.

by Kristina Knight

The study was conducted by Ipsos Reid.

The study, called Online Socialization, Social Networking and Communities, also found that about 29% have created a profile with at least one social networking hub. Socially-savvy online adults are likely to be more active online than users who aren't on social networks according to the study. Researchers also found that Canadians who are on social platforms spend about 5.4 hours each week on social networking sites.

Scott Patton, Senior Research Manager for Ipsos-Reid in Western Canada said, “This is a staggering result given that these sites didn’t exist four years ago. Facebook launched in early 2004, as did MSN Spaces, two of the largest such sites on the Internet. The growth in use of these sites simply hasn’t been matched by any other Internet activities we’ve ever seen."

Roughly 63% of Canadians 18-34 have visited a social networking hub and about 55% of those have created a social profile. Of users 35-54, about 29% have visited a social site and 21% have created a personal profile. Users over the age of 55 are also active in social networking with 20% having visited a social hub and 9% placing a profile with one network or another.

Tags: social marketing, social networks

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Terrific and intriguing article! As a Career Management Professional I encourage my clients to actively network on and offline. In fact, some senior level Canadian Recruiters won't even call you for an interview unless you have a web presence and are in Google. LinkedIn is by far the best site for a business professional, Facebook is proving to be damaging to a career.

Posted by: Martin Buckland on May 13, 2008 22:11