Walmart was the most-talked-about brand on Facebook over Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and it appears that the major retailer has carried that momentum through the holiday season. According to an infographic from Compass Labs, Walmart is again one of the most popular Facebook brands, with the iPhone and Xbox 360 among the biggest tech gifts.
Lisa Raphael (left), the social media producer at Katie Couric's daytime talk show Katie, is one of our featured speakers in Mediabistro's upcoming Social Media Marketing Boot Camp, an online event and workshop starting June 6, 2013. Lisa will share a case study on how the hit show uses Twitter to build interest and buzz around upcoming segments. Learn more about our our twelve event speakers and register here. 
As millions of people opened their wallets last weekend for Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, brands’ Facebook pages also experienced success. Walmart, which was bombarded on Facebook with criticism for opening at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, was actually the most successful brand on the social network during the two shopping days, according to Socialbakers. Amazon, Macy’s, and Toys “R” Us also earned kudos for fan growth and engagement.
Facebook had Black Friday fever during the week of Nov. 16 through 23, as the top 25 people talking about this scores went to retailers on Black Friday itself, with gigantic jumps in mentions of Black Friday (1,450 percent), shopping (586 percent), mall (304 percent), and sales (162 percent) during that time period.
With Black Friday just days away, mentions on Facebook containing words related to holiday shopping are up 160 percent compared with one month ago, while mentions of Christmas are up 157 percent, according to the social network.
Retailers’ Facebook page administrators may want to mix in more promotions and prepare to work some off-hours during the upcoming holiday season, according to the results of a study of the digital marketing campaigns of 20 leading brands by Yesmail Interactive.
Users of Facebook and other social networks were thirsty for Coca-Cola in August, as the beverage giant sat atop the growth list for the Optim.al Index for the month, along with pulling in the most likes for the month.
Online retailer Amazon added more than 908,000 likes during the period of July 4 through 17, cruising to the top spot on the list of top 100 brands’ fan growth during those two weeks from Optim.al.
When it comes to Black Friday retailer projections, bigger is better, at least according to social media and digital analytics company Socialbakers.
