Social Media Doesn't Click for Black Friday Sales

Top social media sites show decreased traffic leading to sales on the prime shopping day. Overall, Black Friday sales were up from 2011.

Overall, online sales and traffic showed an increase on Black Friday 2012, the introduction day to holiday commerce. However, leading social media sites were not part of the upswing, according to a Wall Street Journal blog. The report said that just 0.34 percent of all online sales came from referrals from the top social media sites -- Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. That was a 35 percent decrease from 2011. Twitter was the biggest fail. The site was at 0.00 percent in 2012, not even rounding up in the third decimal point. Facebook referral traffic was down marginally, although its user base grew by 25 percent in the quarter. However, online shoppers did use social media to express satisfaction with purchases, according to mashable.com. …

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Money-Saving Smartphone Apps for Black Friday Shoppers

Need some help on the go? We've got it here.

Black Friday/Thursday is almost here, and the Internet will be full of deals. But even after all that online browsing, you may still need some help when you are on the shopping scene, or running other errands. Look no further. Thanks to popular technology site Mashable.com, we bring you some money-saving apps for Black Friday. And make no mistake, plenty of people are planning to use their smartphones and tablet computers to find those holiday deals. An article by USA TODAY points out that almost 70 percent of smartphone owners plan to use the devices for holiday shopping, according to one survey. Smartphone ownership is on the rise: 46.1 percent of consumers have one, up from 39.7 percent last year, according to another survey. Some apps …

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NEWS NEARBY: Dunwoody Police To 'Live Tweet' Black Friday Calls

The department will be tweeting all of its calls on the busiest shopping day of the year.

Ever wanted to know how crazy it gets on Black Friday around the Atlanta suburb of Dunwoody but didn't want to be a part of the holiday crush? You can find out both from home on Friday, November 23. Starting at 6 a.m., Dunwoody Police will put on Twitter.com all of its police calls for a 24-hour period. And Dunwoody Patch will have a story running all day that will upload the tweets as they happen, and in real time. The tweets will give people an idea of how busy the department is on Black Friday and what kind of calls they will be fielding on the busy shopping day. They will use their handle @DunwoodyPolice using the hashtag #dpdcalls. Here's how their official Twitter post read: "How busy will we be on #BlackFriday. Check out our …

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Add Target to Thanksgiving 'Black Friday' List

The retailer announces that it will open at 9 p.m. on November 22. Walmart already had planned to open at 8 p.m.

It won't be hard to find a place to shop on Thanksgiving night in 2012. Target has announced that it will open at 9 p.m. on November 22 so shoppers can get a head start on Black Friday deals. “We thought long and hard about when the right opening time would be,” Target executive Kathee Tesija said in an Associated Press report. Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, already had announced that it will open at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving. Target plans to offer deals that include an Apex 32-inch LCD TV for $147 and a Nikon digital camera for $99.99 for the earlier opening, according to the report. From 4:00 a.m. to noon on November 23, customers who spend $50 or more on clothing, accessories or home products will earn a $10 Target gift card to …

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Black Friday on Thanksgiving? At Walmart, Yes

The nation's largest retailer will roll out 2012 specials beginning at 8 p.m. on November 22.

Black Friday? That was SO 2011. Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, has announced that it will begin holiday shopping specials at 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, November 22, according to media reports. The retailing giant also began Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving 2011, but at 10 p.m. In 2012, the specials start at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Walmart has a Suwanee outlet. The move could put more pressure on big-box retailers such as Target and Best Buy to push their own opening times earlier, according to Bizjournals. According to an ad on Walmart.com, Black Friday/Thursday specials include $399 for an iPad 2 (16GB) and $148 for a 32-inch television. -- So, are you glad to see Black Friday deals extended further into Black Thursday? Or do you…

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Apple Outdoes Black Friday Sales Forecasts

Overall, a record number of shoppers visit stores nationwide over the holiday weekend.

Initial Black Friday sales figures are trickling in, and -- surprise -- Apple saw some whopping sales figures for the signature shopping day. According to a report in mashable.com, Apple had forecast four times the normal sales volume, and topped that by 7 p.m. Among the discounts were $101 off several laptop models, now presumably in less demand because of the iPad. Apple is the nation's most valuable publicly owned company, with a market cap of more than $330 billion. The company has a retail store at the Mall of Georgia in Buford. This year was expected to be particularly attractive to online shoppers. According to a report from comScore, Black Friday saw $816 million in online sales, a 26 percent increase over last year. According to …

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Woman Pepper Sprays People at Walmart in LA

Incident happens about 10:20 p.m. Pacific Time at San Fernando Valley store.

Get Ready for Black Thursday, Suwanee

The famous shopping day overlaps into Thanksgiving.

  Black Friday? That was SO 2010. Get ready for Black Thursday. Suwanee will join the steroid-like shopping craze when Walmart kicks off the shopping craze at 10 p.m. Thanksgiving (in Suwanee, the store is open 24 hours). Hey, it'll be Friday in Europe. Other retailers, such as Kohl's (which has a Suwanee outlet) and Best Buy (which is near the Mall of Georgia in Buford), also have announced plans to open on Thursday, some at midnight. At least one eager shopper is really beating people to the punch. In the Tampa Bay, Fla., area, a woman set up shop on Wednesday, Nov. 17. Really. Need an assault plan? An Atlanta TV station has released online maps of top stores. All that's missing is bread crumbs. Of course, there is no shortage of …

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Steve Burns

8:45 am on Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Savanah, I do not feel it's an ethical violation at all. The objective is to report on what is a major shopping day in Suwanee and elsewhere, and also to show how other media outlets are reporting on it. For better or worse, this is a major event everywhere.   more ›

Black Friday Is Nearer, Suwanee

The famous shopping day is just a week away.

In a week, throngs of holiday shoppers will descend on retailers in and around Suwanee in a mad rush to scoop up bargains. Expect large crowds at the Mall of Georgia in Buford and Walmart in Suwanee as they kick off the holiday season. Also, Kohl's, which has a Suwanee store, also is releasing Black Friday information. Do you know of any Suwanee stores or restaurants offering Black Friday specials? Tell us in the comments or email steve.burns@patch.com The mall will be closed on Thanksgiving Day, but will open at 4 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 25. The mall will remain open until 10 p.m. on Black Friday. Early shoppers may stop by the Simon Guest Services desk between 4 a.m. and 4:55 a.m. to register for a $500 American Express Simon gift card. The…

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