Black Friday grabs SA social media’s attention

Social media mentions of Black Friday grew more than 300% this year in South Africa compared to 2014, said online customer engagement agency 25AM.

Black Friday is synonymous with promotional sales at US retailers following Thanksgiving celebrations.

But the phenomenon has now also caught on in South Africa as 25AM said that there were over 18 000 mentions of the term ‘Black Friday’ tracked on social media platforms on November 26 and 27.

This compares to around 6 000 mentions of Black Friday in 2014 on social media in South Africa.

“The social media momentum suggests that some of the country’s top retailers got good returns from their marketing strategy for Black Friday, “ said Andre Steenekamp, the chief executive officer of 25AM in a statement.

Elaborating further, Steenekamp explained that the “hottest trend in Black Friday marketing” involved brands’ increasing use of video.

25AM added that consumers between the ages of 25 and 34 years were the most active on the day, there was a somewhat equal split in terms of gender, and approximately two-thirds of the Black Friday conversation in South Africa had a positive sentiment.

25AM also said that Twitter was where people “preferred to talk about Black Friday and engage with brands, demonstrating its importance for seasonal social media campaigns”.

Twitter users also didn’t necessarily just talk about brands as they asked questions around why the day is called Black Friday and what it means.

However, brands that were most talked about on social media on Friday included Checkers, DionWired and Pick n Pay, according to 25AM.

Checkers had the highest number of social media mentions as the retailer was the first to push the concept of Black Friday with its 2014 promotions, said 25AM. DionWired had the second most mentions on the day while Pick n Pay was third-placed.