Wal-Mart Finally GETS blogging!
The NYT wrote an article today titled, “Wal-Mart’s Tastemakers Write Unfiltered Blog”. I didn’t believe my eyes when I saw the headline! Can it be—the mother of all one-way corps finally embracing social media? It is true indeed. The nation’s largest retailer, after years of hiding from public view, “quietly” introduced the Checkoutblog during this past holiday shopping season, giving readers an “intensely personal window into the lives, preferences and quirks of the powerful tastemakers at Wal-Mart”
This is a MAJOR milestone for Wal-Mart. I met one of their corporate communications folks a few months ago in a Social Media Club event. He participated in a panel along with Fake Steve Jobs and a high profile Forrester analyst. I thought his involvement in the panel was an oxymoron since their blog at the time didn’t even allow commenting, not to mention their fake blog/Edelman PR disaster. Despite their record, it turned out their PR guy was right when he asserted Wal-Mart’s determination to join the conversation. Checkoutblog.com is a huge step forward in corporate transparency delivered from a unique perspective…The buyers’ perspective that is. I am getting an insiders look into the megalopolis of corporations and I like what I see. From the more than 1.2 million Wal-Mart employees, the people in charge of putting stuff on the shelves are a logical choice of contributors. I’d be willing to bet Edelman had nothing to do with it.
23. April 2008 at 5:11 pm :
[...] has learned from its mistakes. I wrote a post about Wal-Mart’s check-out blog, which I absolutely love. It gives consumers an insight of [...]