February 1st, 2010 by Angie
When Viral Content & Link Bait Goes Bad: Walmart
Category Social Media | 5 comments »
Last week, I published a piece on dark side of viral content and link bait, and it certainly seemed to get the conversation going on Twitter and beyond. This week, I thought it’d be good to look at a few examples and learn from a few other’s screw ups. Let’s go to the dark side shall we?
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Walmart and Its Introduction to Social Media
Now, I know we’re talking about link bait and viral content, but the story of Walmart’s experience with its virtual audience wouldn’t be complete (?) without getting a bit of background in here.
(Disclosure: I worked at Walmart for a few years. However, this post is not connected to that in any way. All things considered, I liked it there.)
The Story:
Walmart has been taking the heat for a number of years on various issues surrounding its business practices and the way it treats its work force. In fact, it has turned into a bit of a PR nightmare that just doesn’t seem to go away. So, to combat this, Walmart decided to go straight for the working population to fix it. It decided to use the power of the Internet.
It may not be Walmart’s first attempt at Social Media, but their Facebook page was definitely one that should be included in SM textbooks in the future. You see, instead of using it to launch a complementary marketing strategy or share information, someone at the company thought it would be wise to let people share their stories about the company.
Well, I’d love to show you the results of this little experiment, but Walmart got rid of it pretty quickly. However, I can tell you it had attracted a number of people who were less than happy about several questionable business practices. Can you say ‘whoops’?
Not long before that, Walmart got caught creating a number of blogs filled with fake stories and content. Well, to be fair, they hired the PR firm Edelman to do it. Anyway, this wasn’t just any old content and information on how it’s cleaning up its act. Nope.
One of them, for example, (and this is going to sound familiar to Tim Horton’s fans) followed an imaginary couple as they crossed the country in their RV and ventured from Walmart to Walmart. Others were fake stories by imaginary staff members and other ‘family’ members about all of the wonderful things Walmart had been doing.
The Problem:
Um, they lied, and for a retailer and a company who has worked to make its company part of daily life for the working public (or a part of their family, depending on which way you look at it), this was pure suicide.
In the case of their Facebook page, they failed to recognize the true power of the general public and exactly what they would do if left to their own devices. The only real upside to the whole thing at this point was the fact that their reputation was already pretty tarnished, so this wasn’t a big shocker to anyone.
Possible Solutions:
When it was discovered that things when horribly wrong, the evidence simply disappeared. There was little to no conversation about the topic on the official side, and no real statement made by the offenders either. Well, an Edelman senior account manager blamed a junior, so someone lost his job. In vain, I might add. The whole situation smells funny and it’s even worse if you know a little history on Edelman. They may as well have not bothered.
Making up a bunch of BS posts about how wonderful Walmart is and all of the great things it does for everyone should have been the last thing they considered. Why not take the time to talk to some of the people who work and shop there? It wouldn’t have taken that long, and if they’d have done it right and offered a reward or prize for each person who submitted a feel-good story, they would have been able to repair their image from the inside out. They could certainly afford it!
Once they got busted for fake content, they should have come clean. They should have admitted to the screw up, but they also should have followed it up with a collection of really awesome genuine stories. The more grass roots, the better. Videos or podcasts would have been even better.
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The next step would have been giving back to the public in some way. Giving away something on those fake blogs would have been ideal, particularly if the coupon or post about the giveaway was sent through the RSS feed only.
At the same time, Walmart and Edelman both generated a number of links, and most people forgot about the whole situation. Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all? Maybe they decided to try it anyway? Neither company had much to lose. Remember, their reputations were already pretty dark.
The Facebook page demonstrated nothing but pure stupidity, really. I mean, before soliciting for testimonials and revealing them to the public, you should make sure you want everyone else to know what they say.
Had they moderated the comments published to the page in some way, they would have been fine, but they didn’t. In fact, they could have just forgotten about the fake blogs and just posted some of the real stories on their Facebook page.
You know what would have made some really great viral material for a place like Walmart? Posts like ‘Odd situations/occurrences in your local Walmart’, ‘Weird Shoplifting Incidents’, or even ‘If you could change one thing about your local Walmart that would have you returning several times per week, what would it be’.
We’ll look at a few more examples of negative viral content/link bait, but I’d love to hear your ideas on this first.
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February 4th, 2010 at 9:55 am
As with many large companies, Walmart’s left hand does not know what Walmart’s right hand is doing – and they probably don’t care. I’m sure they believe that such a large company will never die…As did K-Mart…possibly Sears…
February 4th, 2010 at 10:36 am
Walmart basically did not have a PR problem prior to entering the grocery business.
When they started selling groceries the UNIONS went ballistic because they were non-union. This generated the bad PR generated by unions.
February 4th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Walmart was my first job and I loved worked there. The benefits were great and I enjoyed working with and getting to know my co-workers. I was fifteen and I owned stock in Walmart. Of course, all of that was over 20 years ago.
I have been disappointed over the years as I watched some of the things Walmart has resorted to. It could still be a great company if it got back to actually caring about the people.
February 5th, 2010 at 2:12 am
Hi
I am from Europe and I do not know anything about the “Walmart” store but I think that this post is very informative and I like it. Regularly visit your blog and I look forward to your next email.
March 4th, 2010 at 11:02 am
[...] When creating your campaign you want it to be easy and actionable; the simpler, the better. It shouldn’t take more than a minute or two for someone to digest and react to your offer. To support that quick and instant reaction, you want to build your campaign on established platforms. Video, images, e-mail, Twitter, and so on, are readily accessible and understood. This is not a time to experiment with little known technologies. And be forewarned: You need to be clear about who you are and what you are attempting to do. There are countless examples of companies that tried stealthy seed campaigns without taking ownership of them and were criticized when the truth came out. Take the lesson learned from Walmart’s misstep with the fictional cross country road trip. [...]