Facebook Pages of Target and Wal-Mart

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Social media strategy of advertisement is not as easy as it may be thought by most businessmen, however when nicely used, it can bring more advantage to the company. Facebook being one of the social media has unbelievable audience which is greatly attracted by many business’ products. Firms strive to come up with numerous advertising ways that are appealing to the many audiences. Face book provides a platform where a video of a product can be posted and shared amongst the larger audience. It is also easy to communicate with clients via Facebook page and target customers based on various segments such as demographics and location as well as posting quality updates that engages customers. This paper compares and contrasts the Facebook pages for Target and Wal-Mart companies.

Wal-Mart has greatly developed her Facebook page with a lot of emphasis on the brand growth. Wal-Mart’s timeline has been updated with her images showing its growth since its formation in 1962. The company’s face book page has more than 26 million fans indicating a rapid growth since its initiation. Most of the company’s posts are product suggestions and in most cases, it posts between two and five suggestions which in turn receive a great response from the fans. Wal-Mart further comprises description competitions and proclaiming her viable credentials where they receive thousands of comments and “likes” on every post they make (Ryan, 2012).

The company has created numerous pages for her different stores especially in US as a way of creating brand loyalty and boosting local interaction. The company however is recovering from the blow it received when it initiated a Facebook page due to inadequate planning and abandonment of their brand image. The Wal-Mart’s Facebook page is purely based on advertisement and not as interactive as any Facebook page should be. The Wal-Mart’s public negative image has had a great influence on their Facebook page by limiting her page’s user content. Wal-Mart has further set guidelines to follow while using their Facebook which restricts fans to be polite and courteous, stay on topic and further discourages any post on their page. They have a Facebook feedback tab where they encourage their users to post their comments and questions. They posit that people posting comments should not be either fake or anonymous (Ryan, 2012).

Target Company concentrates much on how they can bring their customers to the physical stores and therefore have come up with cartwheel service. This service successfully combines the social networking and the discounts which plays a major role in customer’s choice since it may lure a customer to buy from the company. This service is of beneficial to the shoppers with Facebook accounts although the customers can only redeem their points by going to the stores but not online. Clients choose the transactions on their Facebook and forwards barcodes to the physical stores where they are guaranteed discounts (Reuters, 2013).

Cartwheel gives a client an opportunity to interact with friends who in turn may recommend the product for the shopper. This will indeed play a major role in attracting more friends of the shopper. Clients’ points shoot up when they convince another Facebook friend to sign up. This strategy is aimed at keeping loyal and attracting new customers to buy from the physical stores but not from online retailers such as Amazon because the Facebook fans can be able to compare prices. Target mainly uses Facebook as the only social site that can help her connect with shoppers especially as far as promoting a product is concerned (Reuters, 2013).

Wal-Mart Facebook page is so much restricted especially in the area of interaction being that it is controlled by the central team compared to the Target Company’s fan page which is very interactive. Wal-Mart further insists on fan pages which singularly promote its local stores since there are Facebook pages entitled for each of the local stores (Wal-Mart, 2013). Their Facebook page is basically intended to promote the local market. However, Target Company’s Facebook page is generally meant for the whole company and does not have fan page for each of her stores (Ryan, 2012). Wal-Mart Facebook page leads the retail industry in terms of fan responsiveness. Target Company’s use of Facebook is only meant to draw more customers to their stores due to the discounts offered as shown with the use of Cartwheel application. Target’s main aim is to boost interaction amongst her clients and the clients’ friends as a way of increasing the number of their customers.

When it comes to similarities, both the Target and Wal-Mart companies Facebook fan pages are designed to promote services especially sales of the two companies. The promotion of the companies and their products are their main role played by their Facebook fan pages. Both the Facebook fan pages are very interactive and allows for opportunity for the company to interact with their customers through commenting, liking and even sharing. Generally, both the companies use their Facebook pages convincingly in line with their areas of concern. As the Target Company targets more customers into their local stores so is the Wal-Mart company encouraging local stores interaction through the Facebook fan page.

References

Reuters. (2013, May 7).Target Hopes Facebook Deals Will Draw More Shoppers Into Stores.The Huffington Post. Retrieved http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/08/target-facebook-deals_n_3234436.html

Ryan, Tom. (2012, October 1). Wal-Mart’s Local Facebook Approach Not Cutting It. Retailwire. Retrieved http://www.retailwire.com/discussion/16306/walmarts-local-facebook-approach-not-cutting-it

Wal-Mart. (2013).