Posted Tuesday, March 4, 2008 by
PJ Hinton
Over at StraightUpSearch, there's a new
post about
Wal-Mart's latest blogging initiative. The author of the post notes that some of the bloggers have been surprisingly critical of the products they mention. The post concludes with the following remarks:
Wal-Mart is attempting to bounce back from its earlier attempts at blogging, which the blogosphere denounced as a disguise for the company's PR department. Wal-Mart learned right then that it needed to be authentic online at all times...
Honest reviews about the products they sell are obviously a good thing, and fake reviews only accenting the positives would not be authentic, but how is that going to drive consumers to the store to buy that product if its own employees are giving it a bad review? Is authenticity enough?
Authenticity is a necessity in corporate blogging, but I don't think it's sufficient for success. The other ingredient that's needed is
relevance.
Over time, the accumulation of content should provide a glimpse of the company and the people behind it. Moreover, the posts need to relate back to the customer. In the case of Wal-Mart, the product is only part of the story. If I want to buy something like an operating system or a DVD, I don't need Wal-Mart to tell me whether a product is that great. There's plenty of independent sources of information that can vouch for the adequacy of a product.
Wal-Mart's story needs to convince me that I should buy a desired product from
them, as opposed to one of their competitors. If I were the one writing the corporate blogging guidelines for them, here is what I would say...
Buyers, like those featured on
Wal-Mart's blog, are responsible for deciding what makes it to the shelves. Instead of singling out individual products for praise or panning, I think the buyers would better serve the company sketching out their process, the complexity of the effort, and the benefits that their efforts confer upon customers (e.g. better models, more variety, affordable prices).
Branching out into other areas of the company, there could be blog posts on what they're doing to improve the customer experience at their stores and the lessons that they have learned over time. If they truly don't have anything going on in this area, it' a sign that they don't fully appreciate the way markets have changed.
Better yet, think about an area where Wal-Mart has encountered the most trouble recently... building new stores. Announcements of construction are not always welcomed by the host communities, which results in very heated discussions at city planning or zoning meetings.
Imagine Wal-Mart creating a set of blogs to follow the process of opening a new store, covering the decision to select the site, the legal hurdles they encounter in getting approval, and the ups and downs of getting ready. From planners to construction workers, it would provide a very human dimension behind the big box of a building. There's ample room to being both authentic and relevant to customer in a situation like this.
Who has the best clients? We do. This past week I have been working with Hilary and Travis @ 
This past Friday, I traveled to Washington D.C. to take part in BlogPotomac, a casual conference (it took place at the State Theater, host to mostly concerts).
This question just came up during a webinar that Chris Baggott hosted today (5 Compelling Reasons SMB's Should Blog. Slides coming soon), and I couldn't resist responding to it myself.
