Why are Canadian businesses taking so long to adopt social media practices, while Canadians themselves spend more time online than anyone else on Earth?
While our neighbours to the south may have us beat in adoption rates, who’s leading the next wave of social innovation in Canada—and what we need to do to compete on a global scale. Participants will also enjoy a short learning session that demonstrates how they can maximize their business profits through the next wave of social commerce.
2. • Why are Canadian businesses taking so long
to adopt social media while Canadian
consumers are some of the most engaged
online users on the planet?
3. • 60% of Canadians are on social networks = 17MM
• 35% visited at least one social network per day
• women rule!
4. • 86% of all Canadians using social media are
on Facebook
• 20% are on Twitter
• Canadians spend more time online than
anyone else @43.5 hrs every month
5. • 95% of Canadians live in communities served by broadband access.
• Canada first to establish nationwide 3G network at 90% penetration
• 22 MM cellphone
subscribers in 2009
• 50% of phone
connections are wireless
• 75% of Canadian
households have mobile
phone
6. • Web use increasing
with older
population but
declining among
teens.
• Email is declining.
• IM is back on the
rise - Skype, FB,
Mobile, Google
Chat
9. But Canadian Business Continues to Lag.... Why?
Canadians are polite and respectful.
Canadians are passive and boring.
10. But Canadian Business Continues to Lag.... Why?
Canadians are polite and respectful.
Canadians are passive and boring.
Canadians are law-abiding and
have an orderly society.
11. But Canadian Business Continues to Lag.... Why?
Canadians are polite and respectful.
Canadians are passive and boring.
Canadians are law-abiding and
have an orderly society.
Canadians are naive and too trusting and not
critical of their laws and authority figures.
12. But Canadian Business Continues to Lag.... Why?
Canadians are polite and respectful.
Canadians are passive and boring.
Canadians are law-abiding and
have an orderly society.
Canadians are naive and too trusting and not
critical of their laws and authority figures.
Canadians are conservative.
13. But Canadian Business Continues to Lag.... Why?
Canadians are polite and respectful.
Canadians are passive and boring.
Canadians are law-abiding and
have an orderly society.
Canadians are naive and too trusting and not
critical of their laws and authority figures.
Canadians are conservative.
Canadians are afraid to express controversial
opinions. Why take risks?
14. But Canadian Business Continues to Lag.... Why?
Canadians are polite and respectful.
Canadians are passive and boring.
Canadians are law-abiding and
have an orderly society.
Canadians are naive and too trusting and not
critical of their laws and authority figures.
Canadians are conservative.
Canadians are afraid to express controversial
opinions. Why take risks?
Canadians don’t engage in hero/
celebrity worship.
15. But Canadian Business Continues to Lag.... Why?
Canadians are polite and respectful.
Canadians are passive and boring.
Canadians are law-abiding and
have an orderly society.
Canadians are naive and too trusting and not
critical of their laws and authority figures.
Canadians are conservative.
Canadians are afraid to express controversial
opinions. Why take risks?
Canadians don’t engage in hero/
celebrity worship.
Canadians are resentful of successful people.
18. Canadian Business still assumes it has control.
A radical change has occurred in
the World of advertising and
marketing
Consumers are listening less and
less…Interruptive Marketing has
seen its day.
The Audience is Creating…The Audience is Selecting…. The
Audience is Changing…and as a result the audience is telling
brands……
“You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention. ”
“ The Internet has become a place where people could talk to
other people without constraint. Without filters or censorship or
official sanction — and perhaps most significantly, without
advertising ”
“Don't talk to us as if you've forgotten how to speak.
Don't make us feel small. Remind us to be larger. Get a
little of that human touch. ”
25. CANADIAN SMALL BUSINESS AND SOCIAL
MEDIA..... WHAT IS THE POTENTIAL?
• Focus on local
• Identify optimal buying opportunities
• Allow sellers and buyers to find each other easily
• Relationship is the new norm
• Group-buying
• Social business as an eventuality
Riddle us this: Why are Canadian businesses taking so long to adopt social media practices,\n
There is a correlation between the amount of time it takes to distribute something, and the amount of time it takes for that thing to have an effect, and consequently the amount of time that thing stays relevant and interesting.\n\nThere is a dichotomy between business and consumer adoption \n
60% of Canadians are on social networks - that’s 17 million of us. Frequency of use is growing, too.\nIn 2010, 19% of Canadians visited at least one social network site per day. \nLast year, that number jumped to 35%. \nAnd, women moreso than men - 37% vs. 24%.\n
Facebook is king - 86% of all Canadians using social media were on Facebook, which remains the biggest social network globally with 750 million users. \n- If you were on Twitter in 2009, you were part of the 1% of Canadians who did so. Now, you’re part of the 20%.   \n- 2011 studies showed that Canadians spend more time online than anyone else - in fact, almost twice the global average of 23.1 hours every month. \nhttp://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/03/09/canadians-internet-most-active.html\n
Canada currently ranks 12th in the OECD for broadband penetration, down from second place in 2002. Canada’s broadband markets also continue to rank poorly in terms of prices and speeds.\nhttp://www.budde.com.au/Research/Canada-Broadband-Market-Overview-Statistics-and-Forecasts.html\nCanada was one of the first countries to establish a nationwide 3G network. \nCurrently, the 3G footprint covers more than 90 percent of the population. Continuing investment by carriers means Canada will also have a world-leading 3.5G network.• 22 million cell-phone subscribers (over 66 percent of the Canadian population) at end of 2009, expected to reach 30 million within five years.• 75 percent of all Canadian households have a mobile phone.• 50 percent of phone connections in Canada are wireless.• Canadians send 100 million text messages per day.\nhttp://mobithinking.com/guide-mobile-web-canada\n2012 is the year of the tablet: \nYounger users increasingly are turning to tablets and smartphones as their primary means of computing and access to the internet. \nThis, in turn, will reveal, to a large degree whether the PC can remain relevant to this younger audience, hence forecast its eventual demise.\nHow big is this market expected to be? Shipments of tablets are expected to approach 250 MM units in 2017.\n\n
Web use is on the rise with baby boomers, while teen use is actually declining\n- Even traditional email use is dropping. \nWhy? Social networks are becoming widely adopted and almost all enable instant messaging features. Facebook acquired Skype last year, a great move that brought a whole new set a features to the network, and a whole new user base. \n- Adoption rates continue to rise, and with new networks like Google+ being added to the list, there are numerous ways to interact and engage as consumers.\n\nEven FB rep devised the death of email (imagine meeting someone and finding them in FB)\n\n
In recent years, however, many have started to become critical of the existing flattering stereotypes of Canada. Many conservatives in particular have argued that “Canada's current national myths are excessively political, leftist, and divisive, and have had an overall negative influence on the country's modern development.”\n\nWHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WE WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO TAKE THE RISKS. WE ARE FOLLOWERS. WE IMPEDE OUR OWN DEVELOPMENT\n
In recent years, however, many have started to become critical of the existing flattering stereotypes of Canada. Many conservatives in particular have argued that “Canada's current national myths are excessively political, leftist, and divisive, and have had an overall negative influence on the country's modern development.”\n\nWHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WE WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO TAKE THE RISKS. WE ARE FOLLOWERS. WE IMPEDE OUR OWN DEVELOPMENT\n
In recent years, however, many have started to become critical of the existing flattering stereotypes of Canada. Many conservatives in particular have argued that “Canada's current national myths are excessively political, leftist, and divisive, and have had an overall negative influence on the country's modern development.”\n\nWHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WE WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO TAKE THE RISKS. WE ARE FOLLOWERS. WE IMPEDE OUR OWN DEVELOPMENT\n
In recent years, however, many have started to become critical of the existing flattering stereotypes of Canada. Many conservatives in particular have argued that “Canada's current national myths are excessively political, leftist, and divisive, and have had an overall negative influence on the country's modern development.”\n\nWHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WE WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO TAKE THE RISKS. WE ARE FOLLOWERS. WE IMPEDE OUR OWN DEVELOPMENT\n
In recent years, however, many have started to become critical of the existing flattering stereotypes of Canada. Many conservatives in particular have argued that “Canada's current national myths are excessively political, leftist, and divisive, and have had an overall negative influence on the country's modern development.”\n\nWHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WE WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO TAKE THE RISKS. WE ARE FOLLOWERS. WE IMPEDE OUR OWN DEVELOPMENT\n
In recent years, however, many have started to become critical of the existing flattering stereotypes of Canada. Many conservatives in particular have argued that “Canada's current national myths are excessively political, leftist, and divisive, and have had an overall negative influence on the country's modern development.”\n\nWHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WE WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO TAKE THE RISKS. WE ARE FOLLOWERS. WE IMPEDE OUR OWN DEVELOPMENT\n
In recent years, however, many have started to become critical of the existing flattering stereotypes of Canada. Many conservatives in particular have argued that “Canada's current national myths are excessively political, leftist, and divisive, and have had an overall negative influence on the country's modern development.”\n\nWHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WE WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO TAKE THE RISKS. WE ARE FOLLOWERS. WE IMPEDE OUR OWN DEVELOPMENT\n
In recent years, however, many have started to become critical of the existing flattering stereotypes of Canada. Many conservatives in particular have argued that “Canada's current national myths are excessively political, leftist, and divisive, and have had an overall negative influence on the country's modern development.”\n\nWHAT DOES THIS MEAN? WE WANT OTHER PEOPLE TO TAKE THE RISKS. WE ARE FOLLOWERS. WE IMPEDE OUR OWN DEVELOPMENT\n
Canada stance was instrumental on FTC ruling on Facebook Privacy. in fact Canada is much more conservative and has strong opinion about user data. Canadian gov’t and PIPEDA tend to be more vigilent when it comes to misuse of people’s data. We’re also leading the charge because our partner to the south doesn’t have the same adherence to our standards.  \n
Overall, it’s a NEW medium. What social is going through now is similar to what search went through 10 years ago. In Canada, because of the conservative nature of business we are less prone to want to learn, to adopt, therefore challenge the powers at be to change. If we look at industry as a whole, while there are signs of offline dying (newspapers downsizing, less demand for print) companies are fooling themselves in thinking that what they’ve believed in for years is now becoming obsolete.\n
The Cluetrain Manifesto recently celebrated its 10th Anniversary. Defined (source Wikipedia), Cluetrain “ is a set of 95 theses organized and put forward as a manifesto[…]for all businesses operating within what is suggested to be a newly-connected marketplace. The authors assert that the Internet is unlike the ordinary media used in mass marketing as it enables people to have "human to human" conversations, which have the potential to transform traditional business practices radically. The ideas put forward within the manifesto aim to examine the impact of the internet on both markets (consumers) and organizations. In addition, … the manifesto suggests that changes will be required from organizations as they respond to the new connected marketplace ”\n\n\n
What about revenue? Social media is still a fairly Wild West terrain. We’ve quantified some things but there still isn’t complete universal standardization. Companies set their own ROI goals based on the way they use social media. It’s not too different from other marketing avenues, but social media has been proven to drive revenue (Examples: JetBlue, Dell, Starbucks). Many of the success stories are with big businesses, smaller businesses don’t necessarily have the resources to man social media accounts full-time. Most small businesses use social media to drive awareness, make connections, and learn from their customer bases. \n
Small businesses can also get hurt - look at social buying apps like Groupon. Groupon is great for larger companies that can afford to offer discounts on their products. For smaller companies and mom-and-pop shops, these kinds of offers can drive them into debt and do not guarantee repeat business.\n
Hootsuite is one of the most popular social media engagement dashboards around, based out on Vancouver\nSysomos, and Syncapse are some of the top social monitoring programs available on the market\nLocalmind – Location-based marketing ties in with Foursquare. Also check out My City Lives – social, location-based video. Other great companies that work with social technology like ScribbleLive, Vanilla Forums. \nStill others that are community content focused, like Sprouter and OpenFile.\n
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Silicon Valley North – shifting from Ottawa to Toronto. We need to establish our own identity instead of just being “copycats” to Silicon Valley. We need to claim our own identity to emerge as strong leaders in the web space globally. (Julie)\nWhere does the support for small businesses come from? What’s out there for people to get started? Does Canada need to be more competitive socially? UNDERSTAND THAT OVER 90% OF BUSINESS IN CANADA IS CLASSIFIED AS SMALL TO MEDIUM, WE NEED TO APPEAL TO THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR(Hessie)\nBest place to start: Local. Scale up. We have incredibly supportive communities and hubs (also events like Podcamp) to help Candian companies succeed. ---- SOHO, BizLaunch, StartUp Weekend, Democamp, MaRS, incubators. \n\n\n\n
Focus on local vs. global reach. Find customers anywhere, or target your exact demographic.  \nAbility to sell in real time – we need to be able to find customers while they’re in buying mode. The traditional mode of determination has been through the search method – keywords, research, etc. It’s time-intensive, can cost money if you do PPC advertising, and it’s always a gamble. Search results do not guarantee business success. There has to be a way to make this process more feasible for the average business owner.\nIn the future, the social web needs to be accessible for all businesses, no matter how savvy they are with regards to marketing. Finding customers online needs to be a simple, inherently social process. Example: You don’t just walk up to someone in a room and start shouting offers at them. You find out through conversation and relationship-building. Technology needs to move quickly to help businesses find customers in real time when they are looking to buy. They can come find our web sites through keyword searches, why can’t we find them outside of social networks?\nWhat might social commerce look like if the web was inherently social and the silos of social networks were broken down? Consumers can find companies that offer what they want, when they want it. Companies can find the consumers they’re looking for and can increase their ROI. \nWhat kind of power would consumers have if they could band together in real-time and shop collectively? They could find what they want, when they want, and speak to a company representative regarding a group buying discount. It’s like Groupon, but for anything you want, anywhere in the world, at any time. \nThe social web is increasingly friendly to small businesses, who need to adopt social technologies. It shouldn’t be hard to be a social business. \n\n\n