Marc Geffen

Before waking up at 3 a.m. on Black Friday, fighting the crowds, we considered a new strategy: why not listen first? Turns out, predicting what others want for the holidays may just take a little bit of research.

Perhaps you’re not sure what to get for your co-worker, where to shop for your niece, or how to impress your father-in-law on Christmas. Here’s our advice:  if you’re looking for gift ideas for friends and family, you should probably follow them on Twitter. A little (blue) bird just may tell you what you need to hear.

We analyzed a sample of tweets to understand how consumers talk about what they want for the holidays. These 140-character wish lists provide insight into what types of gifts are hot this season and how consumers spread the word about what they hope to find under the tree.

Who is vocal about their wish list, and how do they share?

Women are more likely to share their wish list. Seventy-one percent of “what I want for the holidays” tweets are from female users, compared to 29 percent from males. Most often these are posted as status updates and are real-time statements about what gifts they would like to receive. However, consumers also strike up one-to-one conversation about holiday gifting and occasionally link to other content in their posts, such as pictures of products.

Source: 360i analysis of the social media landscape conducted December 2011 for data spanning November 24, 2011 – December 6, 2011. Sample size: 150 posts from Twitter.

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360i recently conducted an analysis to identify the types of assets and content that consumers include in their branded conversations online. Retail/Fashion and CPG posts were examined, with the aim of understanding how people share online beyond words and how conversations differ from one vertical to the next.

This tweet about an Oreo Blizzard from Dairy Queen is one example of someone mentioning a brand while sharing content (not part of research sample for this report).

So, what did we find? Retail/Fashion discussions generate more frequent re-tweets on Twitter, and while both verticals yield a similar “Like” rate on Facebook, the average CPG post receives more comments on the platform. The differences are also clear when it comes to asset inclusion: Retail/Fashion conversations frequently contain links, while CPG posts are more likely to include a picture. Yet, there’s a unifying thread: influence. On average, consumers who share content and mention either type of brand have more friends/followers than those who do not.

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