Tech Blogs Talk about Wal-Mart on Facebook
Posted on August 29, 2007 by webteam
What have the tech blogs been saying about Wal-Mart’s latest foray into social networking? Lots.
Wired’s Epicenter blog notes how few of the comments in the group relate back to the group’s original purpose: dorm decorating with Wal-Mart. Slashdot talks about the company being “trashed” – with a comment thread that is over 400 entries long. AOL’s Switched gives the company credit for starting the group, but not too many props in regards to foresight.
Looking at the posts, one of the common themes is that what Wal-Mart is doing really isn’t fooling anyone. Grokdotcom.com brings up the issue of transparency.Such has garnered a Facebook group called Facebook: Stop running Wal-Mart ads! group, which is trying to boot the slick PR tactics of the company off of the free-for-all online forum.
As BusinessWeek’s Brand New Day (not a techie blog, but an informative business blog) blogger Burt Helm noted in the title of his post last week, Sorry, Wal-Mart. The kids would rather talk labor politics than home decor. Will the company actually pay attention to what the online discourse in their very own group is really about, and what the dissident discourse revolves around – health care, labor rights, the environment, consumer safety? Talking heads at the company have been spinning things, saying they anticipated that the dialog within the Facebook group could take a different turn or two. As noted in ComputerWeek’s article earlier this week:
In a statement e-mailed to Computerworld, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jami Arms said that the company is glad so many of its customers are visiting Facebook and interacting with each other.
“We recognize that we are facilitating a live conversation, and we know that in any conversation, especially one happening online, there will be both supporters and detractors,” she wrote. “We’re happy that so many of our customers are talking on Facebook about why they like Wal-Mart. Most of all, we’re glad that soon-to-be roommates are using our site to come together and make choices about their dorm rooms.”
Sounds like trying to make the best out of a sticky online situation.
Wal-Mart, you’ve been here before. Web-savvy citizens are more perceptive than you think, with carefully calculated graphics and advertising language sticking out like a sore thumb on a social networking site like Facebook. This past Monday, RetailWire noted how, in general, social networks can be a challenge for large, well-known brands. We’d like to see this be the start of Wal-Mart being more truthful online, as well as being more upfront with the issues that citizens and consumers – and even college students – are concerned with. After all, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s pretty tough to disguise it as a chicken.
