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1% of Canadians on Twitter, suggests poll

Thursday, June 11, 2009 | 11:10 AM ET

By John Bowman, CBCNews.ca

An Ipsos Reid survey suggests 26 per cent of online Canadians are aware of Twitter, but of those, just six per cent reported using the social networking tool. That's just 1.45 per cent of Canada's internet population, or one per cent of all Canadians.

But the quotes from pollster Mark Laver in Ipsos Reid's news release — entitled "What’s all That Twitter About – A Lot About Nothing?" — sound just like the criticisms of Twitter you always hear from people who don't use it.

“Many simply don’t want to know what others had for breakfast or that they are going shopping,” continues Laver.

If you think that's all that's going on on Twitter, you're not on Twitter.

"For businesses, it’s another weapon in the communications toolbox, but at this point it shouldn’t be viewed as a standalone channel,” concludes Laver.

I don't know about you, but I keep my weapons safely locked up in my gun rack, not lying around in my comm toolbox.

UPDATE: Paul Jay adds, "Had Ipsos Reed been around two years after Guttenburg invented the printing press, they would have produced study saying, 'Most Germans are still illiterate.'"

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R

Toronto

Not surprising. I always thought Twitter was useless. We already have email, texting, cell phones etc. There is already too much info overload anyway. Who cares what you ate for breakfast?

Posted June 11, 2009 12:04 PM

Mark Wentzell

Halifax

Most Canadians don't really care what some PR guy has to say about their business or some celeb. In short, we think its stupid and a waste of time.
Its a app better suited for individuals who suffer from ADD.

Posted June 11, 2009 11:03 PM

M

Calgary

@R If you follow some one on Twitter that likes to tweet about what they ate for breakfast then that is your own fault.

Twitter is pretty much who you follow. If you follow bone heads you will end up with a bad feed, should you follow intersting people then your feed becomes interesting.

Posted June 12, 2009 11:55 AM

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