when Macy’s buyers are getting ready to commit to next season’s styles, they include what they have learned from social media: recently, the company used 2,500 “likes” on its Facebook page to decide to carry jeans in “very vivid” blue, orange, and red instead of pastels and later solicited feedback from nearly 4,000 customers to decide about stocking another design. At Walmart, instead of figuring out next week’s specials by themselves, marketers run a “Toyland Tuesday” panel on social media, where consumers hit the “like” button to select two toys that will be discounted the following week.