"This kind of advertising has to be taken advantage of," retailers tell ToyNews.

A1 Comics attracted 800 customers to its Braehead store in the space of a couple of hours last year.

The queue itself lasted for four hours and it was the best day of retail for the independent retailer in years.

The store didn’t spend a fortune on High Street flyers, posters or newspaper ads. It did not hire a PR agency to pull off a publicity stunt. 

It wrote something on Facebook.

Read the full social media retail sales boost feature here for more examples of how to use Twitter and Facebook as marketing tools.

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