Inspired Blog #5

My fifth inspired blog was inspired over Thanksgiving break when while talking to some family members about social media and how they use twitter and Facebook to find the best deals. I also found out about cyber Monday over Thanksgiving break which I also decided to blog about.

I talked with friends and family who are crazy about black Friday shopping. They said they used twitter and Facebook to find some of the best deals. On, Twitter they would fallow major retail stores to see what adds they post or what deals they tweeted. On Facebook, they mostly conversed with their Facebook “friends” about where the best deals were and what time. I saw an article about Cyber Monday, Black Friday and what to fallow on twitter. Retailers are using social media now more than they ever have before to advertise and attract their customers. This is can be good for the consumers in many ways. Most people are too busy on their phones or computers to look through newspapers or to even take time to browse through major retailer’s websites. So, the major decided that the simplest way to send get to their customers was to use a Twitter account and advertise their black Friday deals through random tweets during Thanksgiving. Amazon was one of the retailers who took to Twitter on Black Friday. TJ Max was another, not only did TJ Max Tweet about their black Friday deals, but the tweeted a “style alerts” which I’m assuming is some tactic of advertising a specific type of style they are trying to trend. I was surprised to see HomeDepot as one of the major retailer on use Twitter, I was also surprised that they had black Friday deals. And, of course there were other major retailers like Wal-Mart, JC Penny, and Sears using social media to advertise their black Friday deals.

This Thanksgiving I found out about Cyber Monday” which is guess is the Monday that immediately fallows black Friday. It was created in 2005 by companies who wanted to persuade people to shop online. I feel like it should be called “identity theft Monday” instead. I feel like Cyber Monday is the perfect opportunities for thieves and hackers to take advantage of online shoppers. I read that about 40 percent of holiday purchases will be made online this year. The Federal Trade Commission reported that last year more than 250,000 people filed complaints about identity theft last year. I wasn’t surprised by this number; I actually thought it would be much higher. Anyhow, I think cyber Monday is a cool idea for good deals, but I would be careful putting sensitive information online.