#BellLetsTalk was Canada’s most used hashtag of 2016 according to new data released by Twitter.
While Canadians tweeted about major world events like #Rio2016 and #ElectionNight, mental health was the most popular topic of discussion on Twitter for Canadians this year. Bell Media’s mental health initiative, Let’s Talk, and #Mental Health were both among the top 10 most hashtagged conversations on Twitter.
“It’s part of a trend to normalize mental health. Participation has been growing every year,” chair of the Bell Let’s Talk mental health initiative Mary Deacon told CTVNews.ca, suggesting that reduced stigmatization and stronger political interest are contributing factors to the growing conversation online.
“The mental health issue’s time has come. There’s no going back,” she said.
As for the “Bell Let’s Talk” initiative being the most used hashtag, Deacon thinks the charitable programme resonated strongly with Canadians this year because it plays a unique role in the growing conversation.
“It gives a voice to the people of the community who are already talking about it,” she said, adding that Bell’s brand recognition and wide reach also probably helped.
Bell also donated five cents for every tweet and Facebook post that used the hashtag, resulting in nearly $6.3 million being raised for mental health initiatives.
But mental health wasn’t the only thing Canadians were interested in this year, here’s the full list of what Canadians were tweeting about in 2016, according to the data released by Twitter on Tuesday:
Canada’s Most Used Hashtags of 2016
1. #BellLetsTalk
2. #Toronto
3. #Canada
4. #tbt
5. #Rio2016
6. #PokemonGO
7. #MentalHealth
8. #ElectionNight
9. #WeTheNorth
10. #OurMoment
Other honourable mentions from Twitter’s 2016 data included Justin Bieber becoming the second person to reach 90,000,000 followers (Katy Perry was first) and Drake becoming the second Canadian musician with 30,000,000 followers (Bieber was first).
User @lovelyytyler had the most retweeted tweet of 2016 with a post showing Google’s answer to the question who is U.S. president (answer: Barack Obama) and a call for Twitter users to retweet it “while you still can.”
Rt while you still can pic.twitter.com/KPyY8e48lF
— Amal // 72 (@lovelyytylerr) November 7, 2016
Drake had the second most retweeted tweet with a post of his track list for his album Views, which was released April 29, 2016.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the most mentioned political figure in Canada and he was also the first Canadian politician to reach 2,000,000 followers.
The Toronto Blue Jays were the most talked about sports team, while Ryan Reynolds was the most talked about actor.
CTV News is a division of Bell Media.
