Holiday shoppers' search extends to social media

Panda Express has also seen the power of social media, albeit on a smaller scale. To celebrate its new SweetFire chicken breast, on Sept 25 it allowed Facebook fans to print a coupon so they could visit a restaurant and try it for free.

Chief Marketing Officer Glenn Lunde said 25,000 coupons were redeemed and traffic in its restaurants rose that day.

"We were very pleasantly surprised," he said "I don't think we thought we would really see a big difference that day."

TWEETING GIFT IDEAS

Social media is also giving companies a direct link to customers to find out their wants, needs or even gripes.

When Target asked its Facebook fans this summer what they thought of its men's clothing, it found consumers wanted a wider range of sizes and more designer duds.

Kent Hathaway, who oversees its social media efforts, said Target is using the feedback to tweak its assortment.

Best Buy Co Inc (BBY.N) is now promoting its Twelpforce, where its employees respond to consumers' questions and offer tech advice on Twitter. This holiday, it said it will use Twelpforce to help customers figure out which gifts to buy.

Raj said companies need to keep social media's potential in perspective. He pointed to Dell Inc (DELL.O), which has said it raked in more than $3 million from Twitter followers who clicked through its posts to its websites to make purchases.

But he said that is "not even a drop in the ocean" for a company that posted $12.3 billion of revenue in the first quarter of this year alone.

Many companies said they are still trying to figure out how the media can be used to support sales beyond generating a one-time boost, while also not becoming overly promotional.

Panda Express's Lunde said Facebook allows it to connect with its loyal fans, or "fanatics." It now needs those fans to spread the word to other potential consumers.

"It's really about how do we inspire our fanatics to get excited for themselves and even more importantly for their friends?" he said.

Penney used Facebook to promote its back-to-school merchandise, and noticed its fans were then swapping different Penney deals with one another.

"We're seeing a lot of areas of engagement," said Nick Bombersbach, who oversees Penney's social media. "The question now is how do we turn around and turn that into traffic?"

(Additional reporting by Martinne Geller and Dhanya Skariachan in New York; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)