http://dx.doi.org/10.21622/ILCC.2023.03.1.082 82 ILCC Insights into Language, Culture and Communication - ISSN 2812-491X http://apc.aast.edu Expressing Stance in Brand Posts on Facebook: A Cross-cultural Investigation Iman Hany Omar 1 , Iman Mahfouz 2 , Sameh Al Ansary 3 , Nevine Sarwat 4 1,2 College of Language and Communication, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria, Egypt, 3,4 Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt, E-Mail: imanhanyomar@aast.edu, imahfouz@aast.edu, S.alansary@alexu.edu.eg, nevine.sarwat@alexu.edu.eg The research cross-culturally investigates the expression of stance in the Facebook posts of large multinational automobile corporations in two countries, namely Egypt and the United Kingdom. It seeks to identify the ways stance markers differ from one culture and language to another and interpret the possible influence of culture on these metadiscoursal choices. Accordingly, a contrastive analysis is performed in which the Arabic and English Facebook pages are compared. Data are collected over a period of 5.5 months yielding a corpus of 214 Facebook posts. In order to analyse and interpret the data, the study adopts Hyland’s (2005) interpersonal model of metadiscourse with a particular focus on the stance category and explores the possible influence of each culture on the interpersonal markers employed using the cultural dimensions proposed by Hofstede, Hofstede, and Minkov (2010). The results of the study show that stance markers are significantly more common on the Egyptian pages. However, no striking variations are found in the general distribution of the stance markers across the various categories. While some similarities in the choice of the stance markers can be associated with the promotional genre, the results also reveal some differences dictated by the context and core values of the cultures under investigation. Hence, the findings of the study demonstrate that both culture and genre are two essential aspects that cannot be ignored when studying interactional discourse. The study has profound implications for corporations both nationally and internationally with regard to building solidarity with potential consumers and managing their corporate image in computer-mediated communications since country-specific content enhances usability, accessibility and interactivity. Keywords: language and culture, Facebook posts, interactional metadiscourse, stance, cultural dimensions, Facebook brand pages ABSTRACT 1. INTRODUCTION Social media have led to a revolution in communication. Nowadays, the number of social media users has exceeded 4.26 billion worldwide and the number is projected to increase to almost six billion in 2027 (Statista 2022b). Across cultures, people use social networks for different purposes. As a result, network formats may differ from one culture to another (De Mooij 2022). In fact, “cultures communicate with the Internet and with social media in ways that reflect the values of that culture” (Jandt 2021, 33). Social media have also revolutionised marketing around the globe. Businesses have taken advantage of this popular communication method to reach out to customers globally (Belch and Belch 2021; Dwivedi et al. 2021; Jandt 2021). Social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, allow companies to connect with their customers, provide more information on their products, market for new products and receive their customers’ feedback. This can be easily done by placing brand posts containing videos, messages, quizzes, information, and other media on their pages. With such a global change, the role of culture in communication cannot be neglected since the way people utilise new media today reflects significant aspects of culture (Jandt, 2021). Still, few studies have conducted a cross-cultural investigation Received on: 03 April 2023 Accepted on: 14 April 2023 Published on: 20 April 2023