Opticks Social Powered by AskingCanadians

Opticks Social is comprehensive data that allows businesses and not-for-profits to determine the social media behaviour of all segments of Canadian society. It is derived from an online survey of 12,962 respondents from AskingCanadians™. The data provides 961 variables on who is visiting the leading social media websites, what they are doing, and how much time they spend blogging, tweeting, posting photos, and sharing links.

From Facebook to X to LinkedIn, social media websites are used by millions of Canadians for updating their profiles and sharing links, reading, and publishing blogs, posting photos and news items, and playing online games. The Opticks Social data helps companies and not-for-profits determine their customers’ usage of online social media for a range of media and marketing applications.

What’s New

The 2026 Opticks Social (Powered by AskingCanadians™) update delivers expanded insight into social media attitudes, behaviours, and platform engagement, helping organizations better understand how Canadians interact with content, creators, and brands. New attitudinal variables explore emerging themes such as the influence of social media on purchase decisions, concerns around AI-generated content, and the role of social platforms in monitoring family usage.Platform coverage has been significantly enhanced with deeper behavioural metrics across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, WeChat, and Threads, including detailed frequency of content creation, sharing, engagement, and ad interaction. The release also introduces richer measurement of social commerce and influencer ecosystems, capturing how often users follow, engage with, and purchase based on influencer recommendations, as well as the key factors that drive trust and credibility.