Interesting news from Wal-Mart as they are working with Facebook to develop Facebook pages for each of their 3500+ store locations: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g3Oa-VLRwHDElixUykC4iuBR7Lag
We're obviously a big believer in this local internet marketing approach - by revisioning the message for a local audience, it's more relevant and more likely to convert. That said, this particular implementation raises a couple of issues for me:
1. Why did they choose to first roll something like this out on Facebook instead of their native walmart.com? While I like the Facebook play here, it's a bit strange that they're choosing to offer a better web experience for their customers on a non-native site. Shouldn't we fix our own house first?
2. Facebook is social medium - requiring 1:1 engagement with customers. Is Wal-Mart prepared to manage this? Do they really have each of their locations ready to engage with local customers? More likely than not, this is managed from a central location - which kind of defeats the purpose.
3. Is this just another "deals" play? If Wal-Mart is just planning on using this to push deals into local markets, then this is really non-news. We have plenty of those options already.
So - here I am being negative about something I fundamentally believe in - the promise and the value of effective local internet marketing. I guess it's the skepticism I have that Wal-Mart is not doing this right - or for the right reasons. Here's hoping I'm completely wrong and this is only the beginning of Wal-Mart rolling out a customized, personalized and effective local marketing strategy.
On a related note - below is Balihoo's "Local Web Planning Matrix" from our recently released whitepaper focused on the local web. In this matrix, we define what elements of a local web strategy should be centrally controlled versus controlled by national marketing. If you're interested in reading the entire whitpaper, you can download it here: The Local Web: The Linchpin to Successful Local Marketing
We're obviously a big believer in this local internet marketing approach - by revisioning the message for a local audience, it's more relevant and more likely to convert. That said, this particular implementation raises a couple of issues for me:
1. Why did they choose to first roll something like this out on Facebook instead of their native walmart.com? While I like the Facebook play here, it's a bit strange that they're choosing to offer a better web experience for their customers on a non-native site. Shouldn't we fix our own house first?
2. Facebook is social medium - requiring 1:1 engagement with customers. Is Wal-Mart prepared to manage this? Do they really have each of their locations ready to engage with local customers? More likely than not, this is managed from a central location - which kind of defeats the purpose.
3. Is this just another "deals" play? If Wal-Mart is just planning on using this to push deals into local markets, then this is really non-news. We have plenty of those options already.
So - here I am being negative about something I fundamentally believe in - the promise and the value of effective local internet marketing. I guess it's the skepticism I have that Wal-Mart is not doing this right - or for the right reasons. Here's hoping I'm completely wrong and this is only the beginning of Wal-Mart rolling out a customized, personalized and effective local marketing strategy.
On a related note - below is Balihoo's "Local Web Planning Matrix" from our recently released whitepaper focused on the local web. In this matrix, we define what elements of a local web strategy should be centrally controlled versus controlled by national marketing. If you're interested in reading the entire whitpaper, you can download it here: The Local Web: The Linchpin to Successful Local Marketing
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