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In a test of whether social media sites can deliver sales for businesses, stores are looking to Twitter, Facebook and other tools to get the word out this holiday shopping season.
Black Friday, in particular, is shaping up to be a major proving ground for social media. Retailers have unleashed a tsunami of “tweets” and Facebook updates announcing their best bargains.
CheapTweet, a site that aggregates Twitter-based deals, is picking up more than 13,500 new deals a day — or more than 800 deals each hour — and expects that figure to rise as Black Friday approaches.
“This is the first ‘Twitter holiday,’ ” said Hayes Davis, Founder and CEO of Appozite, the parent of CheapTweet. “This is the time where people are going to leverage this tool and the real-time nature of it.”
Retailers are taking the concept of “real time” seriously. One trend among vendors is offering deals “for a limited time” — in some cases, as little as an hour — to get consumers to jump at the offers.
A study for retailers by Shop.org, a division of the National Retail Federation, found that 47.1 percent planned to increase their use of social media this holiday season.
More than half of retailers participating in the survey said they had added or improved their Facebook and Twitter pages this year.
Companies ranging from Amazon and Old Navy to Toys “R” Us and Sears are looking to spread news about their specials in 140 characters or less. One example: “ToysRUs: Be one of the first to see huge Black Friday deals at Toys “R” Us!”
“If they determine that social-media efforts are successful with regard to promoting holidays sales, they will definitely look at it as a major promotional channel,” said Adam Kasper, senior vice president and director of digital media for MPG/Media Contacts, a digital marketing firm.
“If it doesn’t work, it won’t kill social media but it may make marketers look at using it differently.”holly.sanders@nypost.com