Wal-Mart launching YouTube channel with moms
BENTONVILLE, Ark. Provide 11 moms with video cameras and turn them loose to share money saving ideas online is Wal-Mart’s newest attempt to promote social networking.
The retailer isn’t expected to announce the initiative until September, but it apparently has chosen 11 female bloggers to participate in what is being referred to as the “Walmart Money Saving Community Project.” The moms chosen to participate already operated Web sites under money saving names such as beingfrugal.net and dealseekingmom.com and some have already begun posting enthusiastic messages regarding their involvement.
“Some nice folks at Walmart contact me recently with an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up,” according to a blogger who calls herself Geekmommy. “I’ve been chose to be one of the 11 moms in Walmart’s Money Saving Community Project.”
The moms will post money saving tips and advice and use video cameras provided by Walmart to produce videos that will be posted on YouTube beginning in September. Geekmommy said she hoped to post her first video this week but her camera had not arrived yet. Blogger Dealseekingmom had yet to post any videos but said she was thrilled to be able to share wonderful news with everyone that she was selected as one of the 11 moms.
“This is a huge honor and I’m still having trouble just taking it all in,” according to a posting on her Web site. Blogger Domestic Diva also gushed about being involved with Walmart. “That is right, the Domestic Diva has been chosen as one of the eleven moms that will be the officials gurus of money saving tips for the Wal-Mart money Saving Community Project. With the help of our Flip cameras and YouTube we are hoping to spread our knowledge of money saving tips across the Internet.”
According to one of the bloggers, the 11 moms are being flown to Bentonville to meet with Walmart in October, but they are not being paid for their involvement and their comments won’t be censored. Other bloggers made no mention of their involvement with Walmart on their Web sites, but there were links to their sites on the site of the other bloggers who were more enthusiastic about being part of Walmart’s newest community. One of those, at Jessicaknows.com, also asked herself the hypothetical question, “will I lose friends over this?” “I hope not,” she responded. “My family, despite their personal opinions of Wal-Mart, are really excited for me. As I learn more about Wal-Mart and some of the positive initiatives they are rolling out, I share this with my family and friends because there is a lot I didn’t know about until my involvement. I am going into this project with an open mind and an open heart and it is my genuine hope that my friends and family will do the same.”
Don’t count on it. The new initiative is sure to be met with cynicism given Wal-Mart’s earlier involvement in efforts to foster advocacy. The Working Families for Wal-Mart organization launched in late 2005 lacked credibility as it was created by Wal-Mart and its public relations firm Edelman. The organization has been silent for more than a year and its website, www.forwalmart.com, advises visitors to, “please check back soon for a new site brought to you by Wal-Mart.” The retailer’s most infamous misstep involved the fake blog Wal-Marting across America which chronicled the travel adventures of a couple who camped in their RV in Wal-Mart parking lots.
These efforts and those of other companies who attempted similar strategies, have failed because due the lack of credibility that results from corporate involvement. Even if the mom bloggers are unpaid and uncenscored, Wal-Mart newest effort is unlikely to pass the smell test. In addition, the moms could quickly find themselves and their YouTube videos subject to ridicule from the Wal-Mart haters active in cyberspace sure to see the long arm the retailer behind any favorable mention of the company as a place to save money, no matter how true the assertion.
The following is a list of the bloggers Web sites who are involved with Walmart’s new effort.
www.geekmommy.netwww.thedomesticdiva.orgwww.momadvice.comwww.classymommy.comwww.beingfrugal.netwww.dealseekingmom.comwww.frugalupstate.blogspot.comwww.kingdomfirstmom.comwww.couponcravings.comwww.thecentsiblesawyer.blogspot.comwww.fromdatestodiapers.comwww.jessicaknows.com