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13/06/2009 by
8274 views

Why Wal-Mart Needs A Facebook Strategy?

Many companies are looking to create a vibrant online community to boost their brand and business. But many companies are seeing their efforts fail or get results that do not live-up to their expectations.

walmart_logo

Does a brand need to build its own online community or does a brand need to embed their community within an existing social network? Those are questions I frequently get at marketing events.

Here are some considerations why many online communities will never grow organically, will never build brand equity or will never create loyal brand ambassadors. To simple rule is mostly: what you seed, is what you get. So, if you are ready to put a lot of effort in it, you will earn attention and ROI.

The “do we ignite our own” or do we “embed our community in an existing social network” question is rather simple to answer. It all depends on your goals and objectives.

A dedicated, skilled and experienced social marketing agency will give you the answer pretty soon. Once they have de-briefed your initial briefing, their creative strategist will soon present you a tailored answer, so if you turn to the right agency, you do not even have to worry about this question: it all depends on your goals and objectives.


These articles about Dell and Starbucks will help you.

Both have defined clear goals and objectives, and a smart but tailored social marketing strategy was created based on their needs. They both refresh their brands by listening to consumer feedback and ideas.

Next both companies share their planned actions towards the community and this is the start of a long term mutual beneficial relationship. A great example of developing smart social marketing strategy is the one from Barack Obama.

Another great example is Jeep. They did a brand benchmark within the social space and learned that there were a lot of Jeep fans that already had created their own Jeep communities. So did Jeep chose wisely to create a Jeep hub which acts as interactive oil.

In the Jeep community Jeep facilitates its brand ambassadors to get sneak previews, content and other material in order to “pimp” their Jeep pages. See more about Jeep’s approach here.

We have also seen H&M which decided not to participate in a user created H&M community that ignited in Dutch leading social network Hyves. This H&M Hyves page has now 250.000 members, but H&M ignores it completely. Read more about it here.

Probably the fastest way to doom a community-building effort online is to focus on making money off the community before it even exists. Companies that think this way usually build a community site (or slap up a page/profile on a social-networking site) and wait for the community to come so they can make money off its members.

If you look at Wal-Mart’s Facebook page, you immediately notice that there’s little to no feedback from Wal-Mart, and at least half of the posts/comments/content created by others reflect anti-Wal-Mart sentiment.

Wal-Mart has apparently done what many companies do: It slapped up a Facebook page and has done very little to manage it since then. People who visit the page can sense what little effort Wal-Mart is putting into using this page as a way to communicate with customers, and they are reacting negatively.

How to fix it: Don’t put the cart before the horse. When creating your online community, keep in mind the best interests of the people you are trying to reach. Communities don’t form around the idea of being monetized, so make sure that your community-building efforts have a clear utility built in for its members.

Understand that building brand equity or monetization can’t effectively happen until the community exists, and the community won’t exist unless there’s something in it for the people you are trying to reach.

If you have questions about branded communities brand ambassador programs or consumer connectivity programs, feel free to send us your questions.

But remember: it all starts with a clear briefing (goals and objectives). Next select an experienced social marketing agency. They must be able to transform your brand and business by creating a smart social strategy that’s tailored to your needs.

And if you don’t have the time or budget to do it properly: you might consider not to jump into any community at all. But let’s leave that decision up to you: since it’s your brand, not ours.

Source: MarketingProfs