During the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday (Nov. 22-26, 2012), some 50 million tweets related to Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping were generated, with peaks of nearly 100 tweets per second, according to a report by DataSift.
More conversations occurred on Black Friday than Cyber Monday, with tweet activity building on Thanksgiving Day (as promotions went live) and peaking early Friday.
In 2012 overall, Twitter activity related to the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend was up from 2011 levels, the report found.
Below, additional findings from DataSift.
Most Active States
Over the five-day period, most social activity was generated by states typically viewed as more "wired," such as California and New York, which generated 15% and 7%, respectively, of Twitter conversations related to Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping.
However, Texas (8%) beat New York in Twitter activity, while Florida (6%) and Georgia (4%) rounded out the top five states.
Those top 5 states accounted for nearly 40% of total tweets related to the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, DataSift found.
Women Tweeted Most
Women generated far more Twitter conversations than men during the weekend (65% vs. 35%), and nearly 60% of all conversations (regardless of gender) were driven by Twitter users age 17-24:
Top Retailers
Wal-Mart was the most popular retailer on Twitter during the weekend: 37% of tweets mentioned the brick-and-mortar super-store. Other popular shopping destinations were Amazon (24%), Best Buy (13%), and Apple (11%):
About the data: Findings from the DataSift report are based on social activity via Twitter and Facebook (using searches of relevant keywords and hashtags), November 22-26, 2012.