Environics Analytics and Delvinia today announced a partnership that connects Delvinia’s AskingCanadians™ social media survey to PRIZM_C2, Environics Analytics’ popular segmentation system. The agreement marks the release of a new database that describes the social media habits of Canadians based on their lifestyle type. Known as the AskingCanadians™ Social Media PRIZM_C2Link, the new database enables marketers to target their products, messages and channels based on their customers’ social media habits and lifestyles.

The social media survey was conducted using Delvinia’s AskingCanadians™ panel, an online research community of 160,000 members across the country. The new annual study, fielded in November 2010, recorded the responses of 23,144 Canadians who were then classified according to the 66 lifestyles types of the widely used PRIZM_C2 segmentation system. Environics Analytics, a marketing and analytical services company, partners with leading providers of media and marketing research, giving PRIZM_C2 users access to over 11,000 variables that can help them match their products and services to those customers most receptive to them.

The launch of the AskingCanadians™ PRIZM_C2Link comes at a time of explosive growth in such popular social media websites as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. With organizations in all sectors and industries seeking ways to better understand how Canadians are connecting online, the Environics Analytics-Delvinia partnership enables companies and not-for-profits to gain detailed insights into their social media behaviour based on the 66 PRIZM_C2 lifestyle types—whether the customers are classified Cosmopolitan Elite (affluent urban families), Rooms with a View, (young, ethnic singles in urban high-rises) or Heartlanders (mature, working-class couples).

“Delvinia is a respected digital strategy and customer experience design firm and we are delighted that our partnership will allow our clients to get deeper insights into the social media behaviour of Canadians,” says Jan Kestle, President and Founder of Environics Analytics. “The AskingCanadians™ PRIZM_C2Link is the first source of information on the social media behaviour of different lifestyle types in Canada. With it, marketers can match their products and services to the customers most receptive to them using the range of social media.”

Offering 340 variables on social media usage, the PRIZM-linked survey provides a comprehensive look at how social websites have infiltrated nearly every corner of Canadian life.

Among the topics that users can examine: influential shoppers who frequently rate products online and have more than 500 friends on their social networks, immigrant groups who use social media to stay connected with families back home, Canadians who like to Tweet, re-Tweet and read Twitter postings, receptive consumers who like to “Like” company pages on Facebook and upwardly mobile (or job-hungry) Canadians who update their LinkedIn status every week.

“As a digital firm, our AskingCanadians™ social media survey is a key asset that helps us to continually understand the changing digital behaviours of Canadians,” says Adam Froman, C.E.O. of Delvinia. “We are very excited about this partnership with Environics Analytics. Linking our survey data with PRIZM_C2 data will enable organizations to significantly enhance their understanding of the social media habits of key consumer groups. We look forward to providing more behavioural insights about the PRIZM_C2 segments and to helping marketers and researchers better connect with their customers using social media.”