Facebook users hit back after Inverness is branded unfriendly

IS Inverness really one of the unfriendliest cities in Scotland?

Well believe it or not, that’s the surprise finding of research into our national social media habits which show Invernessians liking, commenting on and sharing fewer Facebook posts than almost anywhere else in the country.

The survey by Holyrood PR reveals the average Inverness resident ‘likes’ an average of 11 posts a month, comments on just nine and shares only two of them with their online friends.

This places it well behind the likes of Aberdeen, Stirling and Dundee, with Lerwick in Shetland emerging as the "friendliest" place in Scotland.

Only Glasgow and Edin-burgh performed worse.

However the survey’s findings were roundly rubbished when the Highland News and its sister paper The Inverness Courier took to its own Facebook accounts to ask readers what they thought about it.

Louise Elizabeth Smith said: "Not true. Inverness people are one of the friendliest I know."

And Bonzo Sime responded: "We are happy folk up here and because we don’t choose to put our complete life story on Facebook every day doesn’t mean we are unfriendly.

"We are just more discerning folk."

A visitor to the city, Yvonne van Lith-Hendriks, also added that her very first trip to Inverness had left her feeling "very good because of the friendly people."

Sian Jamieson, marketing and social media manager with Highland News publisher Scottish Provincial Press, also questioned the study’s reliability.

She said: "There has been a behaviour shift in social media usage patterns over the last few years, and while Facebook is the world leader in social media networking, people are sharing less personal information on the site through status updates, choosing instead to have more private conversations with their friends on sites such as Instagram, SnapChat and What’s App, where perhaps they feel less exposed to advertisers.

"I have seen people rally around a cause shared on social media in ways they might not in real life – when a child is missing, people in their thousands will share the appeal; we will take part in divisive political, social and economic debates sparked by an article or blog post; our community will show their support to the terrorised citizens of places like Paris and Syria.

"I would argue that it is the type of content that prompts interaction, not whether we are friendly or not."

Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click here to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.