How brands interact on Facebook in Québec could cause more harm than good.
Half of French Quebeckers who stopped following a brand or company page on Facebook did so because the brand did not respond to their inquiry.
We asked 3,000 Canadians if they followed brand or company pages on Facebook. Over a third of Canadians in the ROC (35%) and 29% in French Québec say they do.
While relatively fewer in French Québec use Facebook to follow brands, they are significantly more likely to pay attention to brand updates on their newsfeed. 69% in French Québec say they read updates as if it they are from one of their friends compared to only 16% in the rest of Canada. Conversely, only 28% in French Québec briefly skim or skip over updates compared to 79% in the rest of Canada.
French Quebeckers might be more engaged with brands on social media but they’re slightly more likely to stop following brands on Facebook (59% in French Québec compared to 55% in the ROC). There are major and very telling differences in the reasons Facebook users give for having stopped following a brand.
In English Canada, the two main reasons are that the content was not relevant and the brand posted too frequently. In French Québec, the two main reasons are that they stopped liking the brand and they did not get a response to their inquiry - presumably because the brand could not answer promptly in French. One in five French Quebeckers (20%) say they stopped following a brand because the page posted little or no content in their preferred language and 7% say they did not get a response to their inquiry in their preferred language.
Marketers have an opportunity to truly engage on social media with French Quebeckers who will chat with them as if they’re friends. But they need to say something and respond in French or their followers will give up on them.
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