Wal-Mart’s Social Media: What IT Companies Can Learn

Much is written about great blogging, less about great companies that do it.  So we’re examining the Fortune 500′s use of social media.  First stop: Wal-Mart.  IT bloggers & tweeters, listen up.  Wal-Mart might help you “Save Money, Live Better” in ways you never expected.

Already I see eyebrows going up: What on earth can America’s leading low-cost retailer possibly teach the sophisticated IT community about social media?  For starters, never turn up your nose at a company that earns over $400B annually and holds the #2 spot on the Fortune 500.  They didn’t get there by being behind the curve. In keeping with the company’s leading edge deployment of IT, Wal-Mart’s use of social media is, for the most part, as sharp as an Arkansas razorback.

Why “for the most part?”  Wal-Mart’s tweets can be infrequent. Our search for a blog on Wal-Mart’s consumer web site triggered this response: “Do you mean ‘blow’ or ‘log’?”  Over on the corporate site, social media doesn’t blare out from the toolbar.  You have to hunt, but once you get there things get much much better.

Salient points:

1. Multiple Tweeters, Segmented by Country: 9 for the US, 7 for the UK and 4 in Brazil. Wow! Each tweets on his/her own area: Wal-Mart Specials, Sam’sClubDeals, MP3s, global sustainability, etc.  Tweets are specific to the country, and most tweeters are prolific.
2. A Horde of Bloggers at http://www.checkoutblog.com/  Again, you have to trek a bit from the home page, but once you get there: 16 bloggers — count ‘ em!  The majority are ID’d with a casual “here I am at work” photo, plus short bio.  With a few exceptions (general, global sustainability, lawn & garden) most blog categories are geared toward the Millennial customer’s product interests: gadgets, gaming & music.  Focus on the youth market likely stems from the common misconception that only the young use social media, but Wal-Mart gets an A+ anyway for hammering this segment.
3. Sprightly, Fresh Writing.  Bloggers’ enthusiasm is contagious. It’s a delight seeing posts by people who obviously love what they do for a living.  I marveled, “This is Wal-Mart?’ and kept reading.
4. But Infrequent Posts.  The latest blog post, on back-to-school shopping, is dated August 12 — almost 2 months old.  With so much talent on hand, Wal-Mart can do a better job of delivering a steady stream of new content.

What are the lessons for IT companies?

1. Use Twitter Often.  B2B companies may balk with the usual, “Twitter makes sense for B2C players but isn’t a fit here.”  Don’t believe it.  Twitter is the new search engine for your defined audience of customers, including corporate accounts.  Do it.
2. Make Social Media Vehicles Easy to Find.  Those suckers need to pop on the home page — don’t waste customers’ time in endless searches.
3. Put Blogs & Tweets in the Hands of Experts.  Many companies reserve social media for senior executives, and sure, there’s a place for that.  But blogs by IT experts in specific areas — recent releases, upgrades, news — may be more to-the-point on customers’ specific needs and interests.  Their blogs are generally straight talk, thus credible.  Another benefit of using hands-on authors. . .
4. Quicker and Cheaper.  In one respect, CEOs are the same wherever you go: Extremely busy.  Corralling a C-level exec to write a blog (or review one written by corp comm) can eat up days.  What they say is often very high-level, and perhaps not of immediate practical value to an end user.  And the CEO’s time is worth a bit more than that of an engineer or developer.  So cut the subject matter experts loose — let ‘em blog.
5. Talk Lots.  One of the presumed values of social media is timeliness. IT is fast-paced, on top of it.  Make sure your posts do the same.  Can you picture yourself jumping out of your seat to read an old newspaper?  Not likely.  So keep those posts current.  Timely online interaction with customers will boost loyalty and retention, and help your company’s bottom line “live better.”

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