Report: Walmart employees serve as social influencers

A new program from Walmart reportedly puts its salaried workers in the spotlight on social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.

According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the discount titan is running an initiative called “Spotlight” which enables a team of about 500 employees to make promotional posts on TikTok and Instagram. Walmart has been increasing its focus on TikTok in the past several months, running the first-ever U.S. livestream shopping event and also teaming with Oracle to pursue a potential joint 20% acquisition of a new business that would be called TikTok Global and feature Walmart as an exclusive e-commerce partner. According to Walmart, TikTok is its fastest-growing social platform.

In addition to creating awareness, the retailer also seeks leverage Spotlight to create personal connections between employees and customers. Participants are volunteers and do not receive any extra pay, but can receive perks from corporate sponsors. Posts must include the hashtag #iworkatwalmart. 

The program developed from a previous Walmart social media initiative known as My Local Social, which featured store employees posting about the specific stores where they worked. To read the full article, click here.