black eye friday

I’ve never needed a flat-screen television bad enough to sit outside a Best Buy at 3am preparing to run like heck and beat up some strangers.  In other words, I have never been shopping the day after Thanksgiving for what are known as “Black Friday” deals. Part of me is proud of this, that my family’s tradition is to spend the day eating leftovers, watching movies, napping, and getting into the holiday spirit, instead of waiting in ridiculous lines, trampling over other people and fighting to buy things I don’t need just because they are on sale.

I'm gonna cut a b**** for that blender.

This year was no different. I stayed in working on homework and watching movies like “Elf” rather than going out into the cold to spend money I really don’t have. But there was something different about this year – this was the first year that retailers called the deals offered today “Black Friday” deals in advertising.  The popular phrase has been around for as long as I can remember (coming from the fact that the day after Thanksgiving is the first day that retailers move from the red to the black accounting-wise), but it has never before been seen in advertisement copy for major retail chains.

This year is also the start of another holiday shopping season trend: the use and reliance upon social media. Major retailers have started including plugs for their social media profiles in their advertisements. Sears ads offering deals and discounts on large home appliances show small icons for the Sears Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts. And it’s not just retailers using social media to advertise and reach consumers. Consumers are also turning to applications on Facebook and “tweets” from those they follow on Twitter to find the best deals and discuss specific products.

So, will social media make a difference in revenue today for major retailing chains? Only time will tell. It will be interesting to see if Facebook and Twitter use will make a noticable difference in store traffic, or whether consumers will really be as reliant on social media this holiday shopping season as retailers are hoping. No matter the results, anyone in public relations or advertising should be looking forward to the returns, because this new trend may become a holiday shopping staple, and a case study for further uses of social media.

(here are some articles I read related to this topic: “Black Friday shoppers tweet…“, “Black Friday may be first…“, “Black Friday Sales Ads…”)

[Via http://claireistheword.wordpress.com]