This holiday season is the first chance for most retailers to test the selling power of Facebook and Twitter, and one early survey shows the strategy is working.

A survey conducted Dec. 4 to 7 showed 28 percent of shoppers who have already started buying gifts were influenced by social media, according to a report issued Tuesday by the research firm comScore Inc. of Reston, Va.

And 6 percent were influenced by friend’s status update on Facebook, while 3 percent said they followed the advice of a Twitter tweet.

Also, 7 percent of the respondents joined a retailer’s Facebook fan page – and 5 percent began following a retailer on Twitter – so they could get special holiday offers and discounts.

Get the full story at sfgate.com