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Wal-Mart’s Stealth Social Strategy: Pretend This Isn’t About Customers

Written by Frank Hayes
January 18th, 2012
Retail chains have been using Facebook and other social media to connect with customers for years, but now someone is trying to use it to acquire new suppliers—and, astonishingly, it's Wal-Mart. On Wednesday (Jan. 18), the retail giant launched a contest to let would-be suppliers pitch their products with YouTube videos, which customers can vote on to choose their favorite products. The winners get a chance to have Wal-Mart sell their wares online or in-store.

But what's really clever is how the contest uses social media as stealth customer engagement—an area where Wal-Mart hasn't been exactly brilliant in the past.

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Posted in E-Commerce, In-Store, IT Strategy/Industry, Premium Content, Social Networks
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One Comment | Read Wal-Mart’s Stealth Social Strategy: Pretend This Isn’t About Customers

  1. Rajan Says:
    January 24th, 2012 at 1:21 pm

    Very clever indeed. It is effectively ‘crowd sourcing’ product selection.

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