metapeople Hong Kong

According to a recent survey by retail research organization NPD Group in Canada, found consumers plan to spend no more in 2009 than they did one year ago, during the global recession. Consumers trying to do their holiday shopping on a budget are being targeted this year, more than ever before, by viral marketing through social-media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, as businesses try to find new ways to connect with customers.

Chain Retailers like Walmart and Home Depot gave exclusive offers and discounts to followers of their own Twitter and Facebook pages. It’s just one example of how holiday marketing is melding with new media. Sports retailer Golf Town, has launched what the company calls its “most aggressive social media initiative to date” for the holiday season: the “12 Tweets of Christmas” campaign, featuring a dozen exclusive deals for its online followers on the micro-blogging website Twitter in the lead-up to Dec. 25th.

“Marketing budgets are smaller than they were a year ago, and social-media marketing work generally takes more time than money,” says Darren Barefoot, co-author of the book Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook. “The consumer really wants information and that’s the thing that the web does really well. . . . The best retailers are going to be using that really smartly to get people into their stores.”