Everyone’s getting all jazzed up about Black Friday – especially brands. There are many different online lists and weekly ads that give consumers the run down on who has the best deals on what. Mashable published a piece a few days ago on the Top 10 Black Friday Deals on Social Media; but I’d like to take it a step further and see how, exactly, these Top 10 brands are engaging potential customers on Twitter, specifically. Sound good? Let’s do this.
According to Mashable, Amazon is doing great things on their Facebook page for Black Friday. According to my eyeballs and general math skills, Amazon isn’t doing much on Twitter for the once-a-year shopping extravaganza. They’ve only tweeted 12 times in the past month, and only one was Black Friday-specific.
Again, Walmart’s Facebook page is the main focus in their Black Friday efforts. They also published a couple of news story videos about the retail giant’s upcoming deals on YouTube. Like Amazon, however, their Twitter page lacked Black Friday enthusiasm. They tweeted about it a couple of times, but didn’t seem to really engage any of its potential early-morning shoppers.
Toys “R” Us does a great job across multiple social media channels. The Mashable article refers to their Facebook page, specifically, but their Twitter account is equally impressive. When initially searching for “toys r us” in Twitter, the following promoted tweet comes up as the first result:
As you can see, they make use of the popular #BlackFriday hashtag and also link to their Facebook page. This post, however, is about engagement with potential customers, and not just about how well a brand does across social media platforms. The good news is that Toys “R” Us is also quite active in engaging followers, and often replies to specific people by name.
Macy’s does magic (yeah, that happened) across all platforms. Then again, they’d be in deep fried turkey (yep, again) if they didn’t, seeing as how they sponsor a very famous Thanksgiving Day Parade. They interact with their followers quite well on Twitter; often including the #BlackFriday hashtag and asking users what is on their shopping wishlist.
Lowe’s, Lowe’s, Lowe’s…you may look good on Facebook for Black Friday, but your Twitter page is very disappointing. It seems as if Lowe’s has employed some sort of bot to tweet to anyone who mentions “decorating/redecorating” for them to join MyLowe’s via one of about four pre-made messages. There are sprinkles of actual human presence in their feed, but the automated tweets are enough to turn savvy users away immediately. Nothing recent about Black Friday, either.
Like Macy’s, Best Buy does a great job across multiple social channels. Their Twitter account mixes updates about sales and deals, with tweets about other brands or artists whose products are sold at the chain, with retweets of grateful Best Buy fans. It’s a good mixture of promotion and information, and I imagine Best Buy will do quite well this Friday.
Target has its own Black Friday promotion going on with its 2-Day Sale. Both its Facebook and Twitter pages are resourceful, but I believe that Target is hands-down the winner of the [nonexistent] Black Friday promotional contest for one reason, and one reason alone: Christmas Champ. Target took promotion to a whole new level by giving the crazy Target commercial lady (my favorite comic, Maria Bamford) her own Twitter account. She answers questions in her usual neurotic [hilarious] fashion, and even creates whole new URLs on the spot to reply to potential shoppers: http://www.mytwitterreplytopolosandpeonies.com/, http://www.mytwitterreplytorealmisstnusa.com/, etc.
AT&T is great because it seamlessly incorporates mobile advertising into its Twitter efforts. AT&T gave its Twitter followers a link that allows them to receive texts about their best Black Friday deals. AT&T is also really good about being “human” and speaking/replying to people, directly.
Not only is the brand active and engaging on Twitter, but it has also aligned itself with Foursquare and a good cause. If shoppers check in at JCP on Black Friday, the company will donate $25 to Salvation Army. If Target wins the promotional award, JCP wins the three-birds-one-stone award.
Walgreens does an excellent job of really speaking to “the people.” It doesn’t try to be flashy or overly self-promotional, it’s just real. It answers questions, tweets useful tips and thanks customers who have tweeted their good experiences with the company. The best tweet sent out by Walgreens was the one where it suggested that users downloaded the Walgreens mobile app for Black Friday; the app will let people scan mobile coupons. Already on sale things, on sale FTW!
Well, there you have it. These are the brands that make up Mashable’s Top 10 Black Friday Deals on Social Media from strictly a Twitter-perspective. Which ones are your favorite?
While you ponder that, I’ll leave you with the Christmas Champ…
http://youtu.be/pzgwKn3_lik
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