Three Social Media Mistakes Walmart Is Making Right Now

Retailer giant Walmart has been known of its successful commerce- the ability to sell products. While retailer certainly should be aggressive to promote its products through advertisements, they often oversee many mistakes, and some of which are detrimental. In this article, one of Walmart’s major campaigns serves as a great example: Greenlight A Vet, a campaign to honor veterans for the rapidly approaching Veteran’s Day on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I assume that you have noticed Greenlight A Vet ads online, if not on TV. The ads ask Americans to leave a green light on I their homes and offices to show support for veterans. The company has even created a website and a YouTube Channel to promote the idea. The website specifically presented that Walmart is the ultimate sponsor and there is very little crossover between Walmart’s main digital properties and the campaign. As an outsider, I perceived the greenlight event completely divorced with Walmart itself. The advertisement involves significant mistakes.

First of all, the call to action is weak. Although the hope of supporting veterans is absolutely welcoming, but the campaign itself is slick, with just enough emotional touch to create a feel-good feeling and not much else. From my own perspective, I would ask myself, why would I blurb a light bulb for someone I do not know? I have much more stuff to finish and this is just a waste of time and energy, and most importantly, I get nothing from doing so. That is, Walmart merely just invited people to participate and light a bulb, what other meanings can this action delivers to the public? A more practical method of promoting support of veterans could be asking people to post a photo with a green light bulb and hashtag veteran or something similar to that notion. The point is to invite people to participate in the dialogue by asking them to submit their own stories and experiences. A mere promotion in social spaces is just not enough.

Second, commerce and community are not connected. How would you expect people to participate in your event when there is no direct link to buy a green light bulb? If Walmart wants to promote sales and commerce, not only should it provides the online access to purchase light bulbs, but also offers discount on the entire purchase if people share a photo of light green bulb. Ideas like this would definitely help promote the campaign.

Last but not least, a disjointed content strategy is a big mistake. Consumers are exposed to various colors of green light bulb, but are not reminded about what the bulbs are! That is, people have no idea what positions they are in, thus further confused by the link between Walmart and the event website. My recommendation is to put “Are you inspired by the video?” and the “Yes” button takes people to the shopping cart of the green light bulb. This way, it is more logical for consumers to understand what is happening and how to support the veterans in action.

In sum, the effort is noble, yet it requires sophistication and adjustment in order to be more effective. Every company makes mistakes, including a retail giant like Walmart.