Blogging Rants & Raves

Kmart has found a new way to market to the average consumer in such a creative way. They have given 6 influential bloggers $500 to go on a shopping spree through Kmart and blog about their experiences. Furthermore, there was no censorship on what they wrote...the good, the bad, and the ugly.

To add a twist to it, Kmart utilized the social media site Izea for their blogging campaign. It is reported that they have already received over 2,000 comments across their 6 blogs. While comments are not as important as content, you better believe that their post content has drawn people to the site and led them to purchase an item (or several).

As of Wednesday, Kmart's SMI was 23.21%--a 59% increase over its average SMI in November--against SMI's of 12.45% for JC Penney and 43.09% for Sears.

"Kmart has clearly realized significant gains in share of social media voice through this campaign--in fact, it's pulled ahead of JCPenney, and has made gains on Sears," notes Vitrue CEO Reggie Bradford. "Kmart's transparency in this effort was key, and a good example for any brand looking to use paid sponsorship elements to leverage social media's power."