I saw Mommy tweeting Santa Claus

MANILA, Philippines - This year’s Christmas shopping is one for the books. Unlike many holiday seasons past when shopping for gifts consisted of two choices – go to a store or log on to an online store – this year, many may take to popular social networking sites like Twitter to find out the best deals in town.

Community sites such as Twitter and Facebook are expected to play a more significant role in shoppers’ and retailers’ activities this year as they have become more popular than they were last year in terms of market reach.

In the 24th Deloitte’s Annual Holiday Survey that polled over 10,000 adults from the United States, 17 percent of respondents said they would use social media sites to research gift ideas, look for sales, discounts and coupons, and to discover what’s on their friends and family’s wish lists.

Holiday marketing campaigns on Twitter can start from product promotions and special deals to customer service. Although most will be using this kind of media for the first time, they can look up to the pioneers of direct online selling like Dell, which in June reported that they’ve sold more than $3 million in PCs and accessories via Twitter since using the service in 2007.

Since fans and critics of Twitter can agree that most of these social sites is a vehicle for a lot of unabashed self-promotion, retailers can do the same to drum up interest in their products.

But Facebook and Twitter are not the only properties that can be effective social media marketing alternative tools, according to Shiv Singh, vice president and global social media lead at Razorfish, a brand marketing agency that specializes in digital media with offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Singh, who is also the author of Social Media for Dummies, said that while Facebook and Twitter are on top of their game, there are other companies that succeeded using other social platforms like blogs, as well as mobile solutions, to reach existing and new markets.

The Deloitte survey did find mobile phones still figuring in some aspects of holiday shopping this year. Of the respondents who use smart phones, 55 percent said they would use it to find store locations, 45 percent to learn about good deals, and 40 percent said it would be a handy tool to research about any product on the fly.  Ultimately, 25 percent of them said they would actually make the purchase using their mobile phones.

The old-and-tested online shopping will continue to happen, with 22 percent of survey respondents seeing it as the only way they would ever shop.

And what exactly would be the seasons’ technology hot gifts? The authoritative Consumer Electronics Association’s forecast for this holiday and into 2010 includes items that people probably delayed getting when the recession was in full swing but would buy it, post-recession.  These are Internet-connected TV, ebooks, netbooks, LED TV displays, game consoles and more.  So-called “nesting” gift items that can be practically used at home like Blu-ray appliances are also getting a lot of interests from holiday shoppers.

So, let’s hope Santa is on Facebook or keeps a Twitter account. That way, all our tweets and Facebook posts on all we want for Christmas will be known by the time Santa checks his list twice.