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Despite the increased use of social media and new online platforms in the past decade, a direct measure of online traffic during Black Friday this year showed that social media played a very small role in the record hitting sales. In fact, only 1% of traffic and purchases on Black Friday and the week as a whole were directly generated by social media sites. That number is based on IBM tracking transactions across 800 U.S. retail websites. According to strategy director at IBM Smarter Commerce Jay Henderson, it has been the flat trend year-to-year, with no dramatic change. According to Henderson, although social media may not have a direct impact, it has a "huge indirect influence" on shopping decisions through brand building and product awareness. To illustrate this, Adobe Digital Index found that there were more social media conversations on Black Friday than Thanksgiving Day. IBM tried to analyze the indirect influence of social media on sales through two social media sites, Facebook and Pinterest. Shoppers referred from Facebook were found to have an average order value of $52.10 while shoppers from Pinterest had a much higher average order value of $92.51. However, Facebook converted sales almost four times the rate of Pinterest, which Henderson believes is due to Facebook's sophisticated ad tools. IBM hopes to have better methods of measuring indirect influences that social media has on shoppers in the future.
Although the direct correlation of social media and Black Friday sales are low, it is clear publics are on social media sites and using them as a platform to have conversations about retail stores and shopping. While companies such as IBM look to improve their measuring methods, how can companies be sure that their investments will translate into returns? Also, with the variety of social media platforms increasing on a daily basis, how can companies make the best selections of where they can advertise?
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