Social Media + Bargain Hunting = Great Deals

November 15th, 2009

When Staples recently became the first retailer to announce their Black Friday ads on Twitter and Facebook, it made me realize the potential impact of social networking on my total shopping experience. I can now seek out the best deals anywhere, both online and in stores.

I had been following more than just my friends on Twitter for a while, and enjoyed getting a coupon or deal here and there as a fan of a few shopping sites and retailers. But recently there has been a veritable stampede of all sorts of businesses to join the social network. Now I follow my favorite restaurants, grocery stores, food products, manufacturers, even movies, and the rewards are rich indeed. I know instantly when there’s a sale or a coupon available. This only works because I’m “following” these Twitter accounts.

If you’re wondering how to find “Tweet deals” for yourself, here are some suggestions:

1. Use Twitter Search – Enter either the business name or a trending topic that might be mentioned in their tweets. For example, if you search for “deals,” you may find tweets from the likes of Amazon deals or tech deals, MacMall, ThinkGeek, Overstock, or Dell Outlet, to name a few.

If you can’t find them using Twitter search, google the company name. Usually the Twitter account is listed among the search results, or you can look at their main website for direct links they’ve posted to their Twitter or Facebook accounts. Sometimes it’s difficult to locate the right one in Twitter if there are several similarly named accounts. There’s an extensive list of useful Twitter links here and here.

2. Follow Your Favorite Money-Saving Sites – Quite a few of the coupon aggregators and deals directories now have Twitter accounts. You might already be monitoring them through email or RSS, and you’ll be happy to learn that you can follow them on Twitter, as well. These include accounts for sites such as Coupons.com, RetailMeNot, SlickDeals, Buxr, CheapStingyBargains, and more. Twitter is also the latest outlet for savvy travelers who want to get up-to-the-minute deals and information in Tweet streams from airlines, hotels, cruise lines, and travel agencies. Travel guidebook publisher Lonely Planet finds and forwards interesting travel-related posts to more than 11,000 followers.

3. Use Twitter-Based Web Tools – There are websites that can collect deals from Twitter for you. CouponTweet organizes coupons by favorite merchants; you can also search by brand, product, or service, or simply browse the listings by category. CheapTweet scours Twitter for deals, coupons, bargains, sales and discounts.

4. Create Lists to Follow – Twitter users can now organize users into groups or “lists.” Each user can maintain up to 20 lists, and this new feature is being rolled out gradually. By grouping various Twitter accounts, particularly those that you don’t follow, you’re able to check them occasionally without adding their tweets to your main stream. Get more details about this feature here or here.

5. Retailer’s Facebook Fan Pages – On Facebook, you have to become a “fan” of each company in order to see news, promotions and coupons from them. Some of the deals are extremely time-sensitive, so receiving them electronically allows me to take advantage of offers like a one-day Deal of the Day coupon from Toys R Us or a free entree at Pei Wei Asian Diner. Yankee Candle recently posted a poll, asking their followers which coupon they’d prefer from among several choices, while Herbal Essences offered free shampoo samples.

Social Bargain Hunting or Information Overload

As I add increasing numbers of businesses to follow, I’m afraid I’ll become inundated with too many promotional texts, e-mails, tweets and Facebook updates popping up on my Web-enabled mobile device, and I won’t be able to manage the sheer volume of it all. With that in mind, I still do add new ones all the time, but I’m careful to screen out the ones that message me too frequently. I’d rather get fewer quality deals than be bombarded with repetitive tweets. I’m striving to strike a happy balance between getting the information I need easily without too much manual input from me, and that task is proving to be more difficult than I thought. I do like having the ability to contact the businesses I follow, because I can ask specific questions or interact with customer support and get a timely response, which is much easier than the frustrating task of trying to reach the right person by phone. The last straw for me with attempts at phone contact was a recent lively conversation with an artificial intelligence mechanical voice in lieu of a living person.

The Future is Social and Cheap

It’s clear to me that the future of retail marketing and social networking could well be a marriage made in shopping heaven. And I’m confident that, armed with my mobile device, I can now plan my bargain-hunting itinerary knowing that I’ll still have my finger on the pulse of the latest sales.

Picture Credit: Matt Hamm

Entry Filed under: General