The newest report from Delvinia Group of Companies shows that there is a significant difference between the number of times Canadians visit social networking sites and the number of times that they actually post content. According to Julianne Smola, Director of Strategic Development with Delvina, this means that companies need to ensure that they are providing ongoing content to their online communities.

“The difference between the frequency of visits verses posts to social networks should be of interest to advertisers and brands who decide to go the online community route,” she says. “It is important for them to create communities that are providing ongoing content of interest to visitors, and to not necessarily rely on visitors contributing their own content in order to make the experience meaningful and engaging.”

The report, Online Communities and Information Sharing INSIGHT, also found that the most valuable purpose digital technologies seem to serve are social rather than work-related.

“Years ago it was thought that laptops, cell phones and eventually the BlackBerry were supposed to make our workplaces more ‘virtual’, eliminating the need to commute and increase family time,” says Smola. “Instead it is features like texting and BlackBerry Messenger that have changed the way we socialize. Some might say that socializing has become less personal, while the workplace has remained more or less the same.”

Other report findings include:

• 83 per cent of female Canadians aged 18-30 feel digital technology allows for easier social connections, compared to their male counterparts at 76 per cent
• Only six per cent of NGeners and four per cent of Gen X report visiting Twitter in the past month
• NGen feels safest about sharing any type of personal information online but more comfortable sharing credit card (79 per cent) rather than address and phone number (50 per cent)