How many people are using Facebook & Twitter in Winnipeg?

A recent eMarketer survey says 59% of Canadians are using social sites in 2010. What about here in the Peg? The numbers may surprise you / affect your marketing strategy.

Facebook use in Winnipeg

Here’s the demographic breakdown of Winnipeggers on Facebook, gathered from Facebook’s advertising platform. I’ve highlighted where I think the data is suspect [mainly due to teenage creativity]. Click the image to biggie-size.

What percentage of Winnipeg is that? A hefty 70%. You can make a pretty good case for your local business having a Facebook page at this point, especially with Facebook Places allowing people to broadcast the fact that they’re hanging out with you. Incentivize their endorsement with a nice coupon—Winnipeggers love that.

Twitter use in Winnipeg

And how ’bout microblogging platform Twitter? In Winnipeg, it’s not so much how many people are on Twitter as how many people aren’t.

This data is gathered from people self-identifying their location in their bios, so is subject to bullshit, but still. 6759 Winnipeggers, or 1.1% of our population, claim to be from the Peg. This is actually higher than the overall Canadian average (determined the same way) of 0.88%. [I've heard wildly different numbers for Canadian use, but this is an algorithm talking].

That said, I’ve met—virtually and IRL—lots of very cool Winnipeggers because of Twitter, and Biz Stone promised on Larry King a few weeks ago that he’s adding 300k users/day (American use is higher than Canadian at 8%). Watch for Twitter use to blow up here in the next 1-2 years, and get started buildin’ those relationships now.