Singles’ Day started as a tongue-in-cheek celebration for singletons in China. Celebrated on the 11th of November — 11/11, the digits look like “bare branches,” a Chinese expression for being single. It was an anti-Valentine’s Day tradition, marked by the unattached treating themselves to a gift. Seeing the commercial opportunity, retailer Alibaba latched onto the day in 2009, and has since turned it into the China’s version of Black Friday.
Singles’ Day is now the world’s biggest one-day shopping event. It often beats Black Friday in sales, but which one won this year’s social media battle? Using a Synthesio Social Media Intelligence report, we dived deeper to find out which of the shopping extravaganzas dominated conversations online in the APAC region.
Share of Voice
While Alibaba marked the tradition’s 10th year with record Singles’ Day sales of $31 billion this year, it was Black Friday that dominated online conversations.
Mentions were significantly outweighed by Black Friday vs Singles Day. Our social intelligence software showed that the term “Black Friday” gathered 71% of the overall share of voice. Singles’ Day accounted for just under 30% of the total mentions.
For brands, having a social media intelligence report to track share of voice allows them to see who is driving the most mentions within their industry. They can understand their brand or product’s place in the competitive landscape, and benchmark their share of the conversation against key competitors.
So when were people talking about Singles Day vs Black Friday? Over the past 30 days, mentions of Singles’ Day and Black Friday gained momentum in the the days leading up to both occasions, and unsurprisingly, as we can see in the chart below, it was on the days themselves that we saw the highest spikes in online chatter.
By using a social media intelligence report, organizations can understand the drivers behind these spikes in mentions for their brands and topics. They can immediately identify what’s creating the buzz and anticipate any potential crisis.
Media Type
Looking at the share of conversation split by media type, Twitter emerged as the top platform for mentions for Singles’ Day and Black Friday, contributing to just over half of conversations. Twitter is often the preferred choice for consumers to contact brands directly and for sharing news — in this case, many shared the breaking news of Alibaba’s record 2018 sales — which could explain why it was the most popular outlet during these huge shopping events.
Forums closely followed Twitter with just under a 19% share, which suggests that consumers were using these outlets to share tips and seek advice on deals and products during the sales.
Using a social media intelligence report to identify the share of conversation by media type is important for brands in understanding where conversations around their products, services and campaigns are taking place.
Learn how you can create a social media intelligence report that will give you a full picture of the conversations that matter to your brand.
