Walmart's adoption of social media marketing strategies in the retail industry

Wal-Mart Changes in Business Practices

Marketing in 2012 Demands a Rapid Pace of Change Affecting Business Practice

Over the years, there has been a change in the way organizations market their products across the globe. These changes are influenced by the dynamic nature of customers as well as changes in consumer behavior. It is pertinent to note that the introduction of social transparency has promoted the aspect of customer service in e-marketing. The social media is now considered an instrumental aspect of the marketing of any organization. This study will elaborate the significance of social media to Wal-Mart's marketing strategy. Through social media, customers become the influencers regarding the product consumption and purchase decisions across the market. Additionally, multiple aspects of an organization can be incorporated. These include advertising, public relations, marketing, customer service, as well as e-commerce. Social media website form multidimensional platform for different client engagements.

This study comprehensively articulates the demands of the marketing strategies with the rapid developments in the market. The changes have significantly influenced the practices of much business across the globe as competition stiffens. The use of different social networking sites as channels of communication for different business engagement is also clearly discussed. It is pertinent to note that the discussion is in relation to the retail chains market. The company at the center of the discussion is Wal-Mart. Over the years, the adoption of social media as a marketing platform has reduced the costs of reaching out to the masses. A comparison is drawn between the traditional media and the social media platform effectiveness. It is pertinent to note the rise of social media is based on the strength of new media platforms such as the Internet and mobile networks (Christian, 2011).

Industry Selection

The retail industry is characterized by stiff competition and aggressive marketing. The industry has multiple players across the globe with many of the multinationals conducting its in many regions. Wal-Mart is a leading retail store multinational with operations in multiple countries across the globe. It is pertinent to note that the organization has a workforce of about two million in its more than eight thousand stores. The organization has multiple divisions with different target markets. The Sam's club is recognized as a wholesale outlet for the organization whereas the department stores are known as the Wal-Mart discount stores.

The organization faces competition from different types of retail outlets such as Target, K-Mart and other local retailers in the different countries of operation. It is pertinent to note that stiff completion in some countries such as Germany led to the folding of operations. In Germany, the organization had implemented multiple advertising strategies mostly through traditional media, which include print, radio, and television. However, the efforts did not bear fruits with a remarkably small market share gained after the entry of the retail giant in the German market. The outlets were later sold to another company after Wal-Mart terminated its operations. The organization failed to adopt new techniques of marketing and instead replicated the old approaches it had applied in North America and the United Kingdom. This served as a key lesson to the organization expansion planners. The role of social marketers is to develop social content that is relevant to the retail markets to promote the organization. Some of the areas that social media plays a significant role in organizational development include branding, product launches, public relations, customer services as well as satisfaction surveys (Clow, 2012).

Wal-Mart Marketing

Wal-Mart is an organization, which has a vision of making other people's lives better. Therefore, it has come up with several initiatives, which are meant to make a difference in people's lives. This has made it come up with a slogan, "save money, live better." It has used this slogan in the social media to market itself. For this reason, Wal-Mart has gained a significant recognition from all parts of the world. This has helped it grow to where it is today.

Initially, when social networks like Twitter and Facebook were not common, advertising, or marketing for Wal-Mart was a serious challenge. This occurred when it came to the cost of advertising and the ability to reach as many clients as possible across the globe. One of the key marketing strategies that Wal-Mart has used in the social media is Every Day Low Cost, which has invited people to purchase different products from them. This is because people have used this strategy and saved their money, stretch paychecks, and at the same time provides reasonable lives for their families.

However, the strategy of helping people live better lives goes beyond the company's store walls. Through social media advertising, the company has been able to extend to different societies and around the world and have a positive impact on the lives; some of the company's employees and executives will never meet such people may not meet these people face-to-face.

In addition, it is still through the social network that the company has been able to educate people on the importance of conserving the environment, providing access to healthy and affordable food, empowering women and fighting hunger. Through this network, Wal-Mart drives meaningful changes in the lives of different people across the world that no other organization has been able to change.

Based on this, some of the commonest pages that Wal-Mart has shared with the world in both Facebook and Twitter networks are environmental sustainability. In this case, the company has declared that it is committed to sustainability of the environment because that is the appropriate thing for them to do and the right thing for the company. Secondly, they have shared a page on nutrition and hunger whereby the company is committed to providing more healthy food, while the healthy food is made affordable, and eventually strengthening the global food supply chain. Third is the women's economic empowerment page where the company has taken the initiative of changing the lives of many different women around the globe.

The fourth page shared by Wal-Mart on Twitter and Facebook is inclusion and diversity. In this web page, the company provides explanations to different network users: the information relates to its history, and growth over the years to make it what it is today. This gives people confidence that Wal-Mart is a company that a person can rely or depend on with their lives. There is also another web page dealing with ethical sourcing. In this case, the company explains its positive influence on global supply chain by raising or improving its standards and working conditions in all the nations from which the company sources over the years. Finally, a page on veteran and military families exists, and the company shows how they have to give back to different nations' heroes.

It is pertinent to note that, Wal-Mart Company has also used or utilized social media in order to invite any potential investors who may be interested in investing with them. This is done by ensuring that every quarterly in their financial year, the company updates its quarterly results in its Twitter and Facebook pages. This is where all its financial news is realized as the pre-recorded management reviews its transcript and phone calls. There are also two other pages which provide the biography of the executive management and the other the board of directors and their downloadable photos. This is done to ensure all the potential investors are made aware of all the company's deeds and how it is run.

Additionally, its way of inviting more suppliers is through social networks, which is Twitter and Facebook. The company acknowledges that their key role is to ensure that all their members and clients are satisfied at all times. Therefore, for this to happen effectively they have to have a network of global suppliers. Therefore, the company has invited any person who is ready to become part of thousands of businesses that call themselves Sam's Club Suppliers and Wal-Mart to join them.

Therefore, still through Twitter and Facebook, pages have been posted on how to become part of Wal-Mart's suppliers team. This page provides any interested party in their supplier requirements, and the five types of suppliers who the company works with comfortably. There is also a get-to-know Wal-Mart page showing that it focused in becoming a Sam's Club or Wal-Mart's supplier besides filling the application forms. Finally, there is also a page on the resources and references available, which are meant to assist any potential supplier in finding links with other partners of the organization, together with other helpful contacts, files, and forms.

Wal-Mart careers are not only in their websites: they are also on Twitter and Facebook. This is because by using social network media, there are extremely high chances that people will get the company's career information other better than they would get if they only used the websites. With their careers, they have been able to make better lives for many people possible. Their careers range from stores or clubs, corporate, Wal-Mart e-commerce, distribution and transport, pharmacy and optometry, global sourcing, and drivers. With all these careers, their descriptions and qualifications are all laid out in the social media: interested persons working with the organization can apply for the available vacancies (Mullins, 2010).

The Changing Technology

The changing technology and the increasing pace at which marketing is taking, companies just like Wal-Mart have been put under pressure to ensure they keep up with the pace. Otherwise, those organizations, which have foregone the use of social media as a way of marketing, have failed. Social media like Facebook and Twitter are the two commonest and powerful social sites, which have a significant influence on people especially the young people.

This is the key reason as to why Wal-Mart has discovered in order to grow to other levels that they have so far not been able to grow to, is to do their marketing through social media. Thousands of people access the two sites every second; this means that they can access all the available advertisements at any given time. It is extremely difficult for many people to see periodic advertisements in split seconds using other modes of advertising like television or radio.

However, this has had a considerable impact on Wal-Mart, both positive impacts and negative impacts. Positive impacts are such that the company had experienced a tremendous growth, which was not the case when it marketed itself through television, radios, and even billboards. The other advantage is that the company has been able to popularize itself. This is particularly crucial because even if a person is not interested in its services or careers, he or she may end up encouraging someone else who may be interested.

It is also advantageous because social marketing is like network marketing. The company will be able to meet and interact with people online, and from that, they will know the views of different people. They will know which products or services to improve and which of their products and services are demanded more than others are. Additionally, keeping frequent contact with the public is an appropriate way of showing people that the company is there to help them improve their lives. However, if they do not keep in touch with the people, it will be a sign that they do not care about their welfare.

However, some of the disadvantages are that the company has to hire people and allocate them a different department, which will always ensure that the company is always in contact with the social media, and ensure that all its pages are always up-to-date. However, Wal-Mart cannot just sit back and fail to do this because they know that they will be putting their business at a risk. This is advantageous because the company will have to spend more on hiring the people: they do not need to hire permanent employees to do this because the temporary ones who will leave after some time (Stratten, 2010).

Conclusion

In conclusion, many companies around the world should do everything possible to ensure that at least sixty percent of their advertising is through the social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. This is because the advertising type is not as costly like other types. Consequently, many people can access as much information as they can from the company. However, this is not possible in the case of using television or radio advertisements.

Companies should be aware of the rapid changing marketing demands, which might affect their business either in the long-term or in the short-term. However, since not all organizations would be comfortable marketing their products or services through Twitter or Facebook, it is crucial for those companies to identify some other social networking sites where they can be able to market their products or services comfortably.

In addition, those companies like Wal-Mart, which prefer using some social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, should be extremely careful so that con artists may not end up defrauding them. The con artists may pose as the organizations' employees and try to understand the in-depth of these companies eventually defrauding them. They may do this by picking money from potential suppliers who may be wishing get to work with the company.