VANCOUVER – As social media’s reach and popularity across Canada continues to climb, users are showing an increasing propensity to use platforms to express dissatisfaction with brands, products, and services, says a new report by Canadian marketing research company Insights West.
The 2019 Canadian Social Media Insights report found that brands and businesses have been increasing their share of the social media conversations, with Canadians reporting that 24% of their total time spent on social media is interacting with brands, up from 18% in 2016.
Some 70% of Canadians reported following at least one brand or company on social media, with 87% of Millennials saying that they do so. On a platform basis, 59% follow a brand on Facebook, followed by 27% on Instagram.
But the space has increasingly become a place for expressing “dislikes”, as complaining to or about businesses and brands on social media has increased significantly over the past three years. According to the study, 50% of Canadians have taken to Facebook in 2019 to complain about a company, a notable increase from 2016 when 33% of people reported doing the same, while 23% reported complaint-tweeting about brands this year, up from 17% in 2016.
The top five industries receiving complaints in 2019 – all of which increased since 2016 – are:
– Restaurants at 21%
– Telecommunications with 20%
– Other retail for 16%
– E-commerce or online purchases for 14%
– Airlines with 13%
Of those who complain on social media about a product, service, or brand, one quarter of them (24%) fully expect a response and resolution about the complaint. Smaller numbers are simply hoping for a response (15%), or just want to vent (13%), while about half of social complainers (48%) want people to know they did a bad job. These sentiments and expectations are surprisingly uniform across the generations, continues the report.
Many brands appear to be responsive to negative comments on social: 59% of people expressing a complaint on social media have also reported receiving a follow-up response from the brand.
“Despite the negative press this past year or so experienced by social media companies regarding their treatment of personal privacy, and concerns around ‘black-box algorithms’ that filter news, content, and ads to individuals, social media usage and overall momentum continues to grow in this country,” said Insights West president Steve Mossop, in the report’s news release. “The other interesting trend we’ve noticed is that increasingly so, social media platforms are becoming more ‘corporate’, as the share of voice of brands and companies is increasingly infiltrating the conversation.”
Results are based on an online study conducted from April 22 – May 1, 2019 among a representative sample of 1,023 Canadian adults. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region.
