According to the Toronto Star, new research from network security firmPalo Alto Networks shows that Canadians prefer Twitter to Facebook, at least in the workplace. This fact, and other interesting statistics about Canadian Web surfing and social networking at work, was determined following six months of network data collection at thirty-four big Canadian companies.
According to TheStar.com, “The rampant use of Twitter came as a surprise. “We have not found a single enterprise in Canada where Twitter is not being used,” René Bonvanie, vice president of worldwide marketing at Palo Alto Networks said in an interview. “If it were just one or two marketing people using Twitter, the traffic would be in megabytes. The traffic is in gigabytes. It’s hundreds of people.”
Facebook and YouTube are also pretty popular with Canadians, even in the workplace. YouTube took up about 6 percent of the available bandwidth of the companies surveyed. However, according to the statistics Canadians still may not be surfing the Web at work quite as much as U.S. American citizens. In addition to the 34 Canadian companies studied, 351 U.S. companies were studied. The following results were determined:
- 88% of Canadian companies have employees using IM at work while 97% of U.S. companies have employees using IM
- 91% of Canadian companies use web-based email while 100% of U.S. companies do
The statistics showing the rampant use of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube among employees at Canadian companies is causing a little bit of an outcry about time-wasting and social networking. An interesting fact that the Star brought up was the fact that even government agencies were using social networking sites at work, and that many companies thought Facebook was blocked, but it actually isn’t. “We cannot comment on any specific organization, however I can say that our global research shows that 53 percent of organizations ‘believed’ they had Facebook blocked while our hard data reveals that Facebook usage within those same networks is above 90 percent,” Mike Haro, director of corporate communications at Palo Alto Networks, said.
However, after seeing that the data also showed that Meebo came out on top for IM clients, above Facebook chat, I may be inclined to believe that Twitter is more popular amongst Canadians because Facebook is either banned or frowned down upon in their workplaces. It’s a lot more inconspicuous to tweet than to check your Facebook and look at pictures, videos and wall posts while you are at work. But that’s just my hypothesis.
Canadians! Let us know whether you prefer Twitter over Facebook in the workplace and whether you think the Palo Alto Networks data is accurate.
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