Victoria’s Secret saw more than 10,000 Twitter mentions in the month of November due to a hoax regarding a 90 percent off sale for Black Friday, which was also the biggest socially discussed shopping day. Apple followed Victoria Secret with more than 6,000 mentions during the same time frame, alluding to the necessity of standout content on social media for brands to gain any traction.

“Participating in an already noisy social conversation is not enough,” said Dinah Alobeid, head of public relations for North America at Brandwatch. “Black Friday is like the Justin Bieber of the retail world, everyone wants a piece of the viral action.

“Reality is, not everyone can have it and most brands will not stand out from the crowd,” She said. “Secondly, we noticed some brands tried to get a jump start on the shopping season by announcing deals and kicking off sales well before Thanksgiving day and Black Friday.

“On social, this did not amount to any significant attention. There were very few mentions around general Thanksgiving shopping compared to the individual shopping days, even with all the themed shopping days nothing comes close to the volume and frequency of use of Black Friday in the Twitter conversation, as a hashtag, and as the common moniker for the shopping bonanza surrounding Thanksgiving weekend.”

Holiday mentions
When looking at just the holiday shopping weekend from November 26 to December 1, Apple was the leader for mentions, alluding to a holiday shopping win for the retailer. However, for retailers that sell a variety of brands Amazon was the winner for engagement on Twitter for the month of November, seeing more than 15,000 mentions from November 1 to December 3.

Social media content regarding Amazon focused significantly on Black Friday with most mentions of the retailer including the words Black Friday as well.

Women seemed to have discussed retail more than men on Twitter, especially relating to department stores such as Lord & Taylor and Macy’s. However, men made up more than 50 percent of discussions related to Walmart, Home Depot and Best Buy.

Black Friday significance
Black Friday was the biggest shopping event discussed on Twitter by far, with 204251 tweets including the #blackfriday hashtag. Cyber Monday followed in second with 50630 tweets from November 1 to December 3.

“All of the insights from the month’s worth of Brandwatch data around holiday shopping are actionable, and not just for Black Friday 2016,” Ms. Alobeid said. “Retailers and brands should take heart and these results to their marketing teams.

“Executing bespoke social campaigns ala REI and Victoria’s Secret can set your brand apart from the competition,” she said. “Announcing deals, sales and relevant news on social first is a great way to drive engagement and spark the conversation.

“This is true for Black Friday and for any retailer-specific sales or any other holiday or event. If a brand or retailer is not already using a social listening and analytics platform to not only see how they measure up but also track campaigns, they are missing an opportunity to learn from others and learn from their mistakes and successes.”

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily