How Many Canadians Are On Twitter?

Twitter is a social communication tool – while it is useful for brands in communicating to their customers and for allowing consumers to share the brand to their followers, in Canada the use of Twitter in this respect does have some limitations (for some) and opportunities (for others). While this should not discount anyone getting a Twitter account, the level of investment should vary based on the suitability of the brand for social media marketing via Twitter.

Twitter In Canada: The Numbers

So how many people are there  using Twitter in Canada anyways? Is it worth it? At the end of the day, is it a numbers things? Getting a clear answer on how many users there are in Canada is not easy. There are no good estimates – I found one indicating 40% of Canadians use Twitter which clearly is wrong.

First some facts about Twitter and Canada:

1. There are 75 million users on Twitter
2. 80% of users tweet have fewer than 10 tweets, 40% have never tweeted
3. 4.36% of Twitter users are from Canada
4. The population of Canada is 34,074,000

The facts armed with some basic percentages math and here is what I come up with:

• 9.59% of Canadians have a Twitter account – 3 270 000 Canadians
• 1.9% more than 10 tweets – 654 000 Canadians

I am guessing that a vast majority of Twitter users in Canada are either from the early adopters/tech segment or corporate/business accounts interested in social media marketing for their products and services. This being said, the potential of Twitter must not be overhyped but on the other hand, should not be underestimated.

Twitter In Canada: The Users

I will leave the corporate/business accounts aside, those being more relevant to a discussion on B2B marketing – here I want to focus on B2C marketing with regards to the “early adopters” that are currently using Twitter in Canada.

Most Twitter users in Canada are between the age of 15-24 – you have a younger, with-the-times group that enjoys technology. They are savvy about how technology works and likely have been marketed to online in many ways throughout the years and are more likely to “learn for themselves” than just trust the word of a stranger. They spend a great deal of time “connected”. There are subgroups within this as well, but generally these qualities are common among personal Twitter users in Canada. This group wants consumer electronics and gadgets, software, gaming, music, news, events, technology updates, interesting products. They want innovation, creativity, sincerity. And if this group likes your product they will recommend it and people will be more likely to listen to their recommendations.

Twitter In Canada: The Bottom Line

Sure, 654 000 Canadians sounds like small peanuts, especially when you consider not all accounts are personal accounts. But when you consider that Twitter accounts are integrated to Facebook and other social media platforms and that tweets spread via word of mouth as well, the power of Twitter cannot be discounted. Especially when you consider the power of the group wielding the accounts.

Update: Follow-up post about Canadian Twitterers in May 2011 with new statistics and sources, accompanied by results from Twitter in Canada survey

Popularity: 60% [?]