Social media, mobile use from Black Friday weekend

In the areas of search, social media, and mobile apps, shoppers were much more inclined to engage with brands this year, making it a full Cyber Thanksgiving Weekend.

“The reality is that it isn’t just Black Friday or Cyber Monday anymore, these discrete promotional days,” says Eric Papczun, U.S. president of Performics. “They don’t exist the same way anymore.”

Search data show growth in impressions, clicks, and retailer spending each day of the 2012 shopping weekend, but those metrics particularly grew on Saturday following Black Friday. Retailers spent more than twice as much on search ads than they did in 2011. Impressions nearly doubled that day, too.

“We saw retailers set aside more budget for Saturday and Sunday, and even on Tuesday and Wednesday,” Papczun says. Black Friday and Cyber Monday seem to signify the kickoff of a digital shopping season rather than just being big shopping days themselves, he says.

In terms of social media, shoppers engaged more with brands on social networks on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, rather than Cyber Monday.

Facebook fans engaged the most with retailers between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day). On Twitter, followers engaged the most with brands on Black Friday around 5 a.m. and then again in the evening around 5 p.m.

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