Wal-Mart Cracks the Code on Social Media Integration

By Jeff Zabin

"Based on a survey conducted last month of more than 250 companies for the benchmark report Social Media Monitoring and Analysis, the Aberdeen Group found that organizations are coming to view company-hosted blogs, discussion forums, and other Web 2.0 platforms as a critical prerequisite for their online content strategy.

In fact, according to the research findings, 62% of best-in-class companies already host such platforms (compared to 42% of laggards), with an additional 22% planning to do so in the next 12 months.

Yet, despite the proliferation of company-hosted blogs and discussion forums, most companies have yet to treat social media as an additional touch point, and one that can be integrated into their overall customer-facing activities. Retailers, in particular, have a golden opportunity to leverage consumer-generated content from their discussion forums to create cross-promotional campaigns and to even drive in-store sales."

Read on....

Has everyone forgotten that so much of early web activity was built on forums, message boards and 1 to 1 interaction? That was the most exciting thing for myself and many friends was the ability to connect with someone else virtually through the web. Why should that seem so foreign to so many brands already?

I like the quote from Wal-Mart exec discussing the greater goal of online/offline related activity, as opposed to the lesson learned about 7-10 years ago, that web cannot solely replace brick n' mortar businesses. Discuss!