Increase of Social Media Campaigns Arrives With the Holidays

Post by Erica Rodriguez

With Thanksgiving just hours away and the infamous Black Friday following short after, the holiday jingles have taken over the airwaves and Christmas trees are found in all department stores. With the change of spirit, weather and shopping habits, are PR campaigns changing for the season as well? PR Fuel had an interesting top five PR trends in campaigns that consumers most likely will be seeing during this holiday season. The list of five included: 1. moving online 2. free shipping offers 3. gift cards 4. toys 5. social media.

Naturally the one that stood out to me was #5- Social Media. With holiday shopping on the minds of everyone these days, businesses have began a heavy push on informing shoppers of incredible deals and free shipping via social media. With stores like Staples, who announced their deals early on Twitter, and Lowe's, who announced their deals early on Facebook, many followers on various will be reaping the benefits of social media.

According to a study done by marketing research company comScore after the 2009 holiday shopping season, 28 percent of consumers of surveyed said that social media impacted their holiday shopping. According to the same survey the largest web influences included reading expert and other consumers' product reviews, following a product's Facebook fan page or Twitter page, and seeing a friend's tweet or Facebook status about a company or product.

Social media is the quickest way to reach out to shoppers, not to mention, it's also the cheapest way as well.

Are any of your clients changing the way they use social media during the rest of November and December? Is there a larger push to reach out to consumers and followers?

How do you feel as a consumer using social media? Does it influence your spending?

Happy Thanksgiving and happy shopping from ASU PRSSA!