Comparing Wal-Mart and Target on Facebook
Both Target and Wal-Mart have sponsored groups on Facebook – both of which are targeted at college kids.
Target has over 7,000 members and mostly positive comments in a vibrant set of discussions. The Wal-Mart group on the other hand has a little over 1,200 members, no discussions are allowed, and the wall postings are mostly negative.
What is the difference do you think, except for the fact that a large portion of the population believes that one of the two companies is truly evil?
The Wal-Mart home page looks like another interactive ad.. The Target home page is more inviting and enlists the help of users to co-create the experience. Any other differences that you can think of that would result in such a difference in membership and tone of conversation?
We can take the discussion to Facebook – in fact I started a thread on the subject in the Marketing 2.0 group, where we now have more members than the Wal-Mart Facebook group.
[Tags: marketing social networking facebook wal-mart target]
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October 2nd, 2007 at 2:00 am
It’s interesting to see the two different approaches and styles via web 2.0. I think the real lesson is, if you want to engage an audience don’t intend to market to them. Buzz is the byproduct of a solid brand and engaging content.