Did Social Media Save Black Friday?

Black Friday has come and gone, and so too has the constant flow of tweets, status updates, and blog entries exhorting us to “take advantage of special savings!” Experts predicted that purchasing would be down, but spending was actually up 0.5% from last year.  According to the Wall Street Journal, people spent about 10.66 billion dollars on Black Friday. Do retailers have social media to thank for helping Black Friday endure despite the recession?

While it’s hard to determine what impact social media had in terms of actual sales, it’s apparent that a lot of the major players (such as Office Max, Target, and Old Navy) put their faith in Twitter and Facebook to spread the word about their Black Friday deals. With advertising budgets hurting due to the economy, social media provided a cheap way for companies to reach a lot of people.