Comments on: Attention Kmart Shoppers: Your Social Elements Are On Aisle 3

By: rob

rob — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:25:07 +0000

Since I run the community, I can confirm that there is no aggregation (even from viewpoints). All reviews are generated from Sears or MySears. we do let members review anything however, even things we do not carry. We also retain reviews from past products or out of stocks. That is our policy. But thanks for your comments, they are helpful. We will be making changes regularly based on our members’ feedback.

Rob

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 09 May 2009 13:16:06 +0000

Actually, Sears and Kmart (owned by the same corporation) are actually on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn (!).

There is a larger ViewPoints Community that both MySears and MyKmart are spinning off from, so this is really more like drawing out content and discussions that are already taken place. It sounds like they may be using Facebook Connect in the futre, too. Also, the sites are all connected, so it if you go to Sears.com, you learn about MySears.com. My point is that it is all integrated… more so that some other retailers.

I think they are doing a lot of things right here and will likely learn a lot.

By: links for 2009-05-08 « Das Textdepot

links for 2009-05-08 « Das Textdepot — Fri, 08 May 2009 12:30:24 +0000

[...] Attention Kmart Shoppers: Your Social Elements Are On Aisle 3 K-Mart und Sears haben neue Communities für ihre Kunden gestartet (tags: community case) [...]

By: Facebook Nowitzki | World News

Facebook Nowitzki | World News — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:17:31 +0000

[...] using something like Facebook Connect to tie Facebook profiles to MySears and MyKmart accounts. [...]Could Twitter Really Get $700 Million? – DealBook Blog – NYTimes.com Facebook is losing value [...]

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:44:22 +0000

These reviews are not aggregated from third party sources (eg amazon.com in your post), but rather from viewpoints.com itself. Viewpoints is not trolling external sites and populating its (or Sears’ or K’Mart’s) content/reviews.

By: Bayard Saunders

Bayard Saunders — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:22:05 +0000

Missing the boat completely…

Consumers are already engaging in conversations about Sears & Kmart, on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and Wordpress and Craigslist and Beebo and the list goes on for so long that it makes no sense to build another mountain to spend money driving traffic to. Why aren’t Sears and Kmart trying to engage consumers in those existing communities? Why isn’t customer service available via Twitter (like Southwest and Comcast, etc.)? Why can’t I buy from Sears.com through an application on Facebook?

On the upside, OpenID technology (Google Friend Connect, Facebook Friend Connect, etc.) are being integrated now in so many new sites (like we just did for http://www.10ThousandDoors.org), that consumers will come to expect to maintain their network connections across all websites offering any “community” features. Eventually, if Sears/Kmart doesn’t, they will again stand-out among retailers online in consumers’ perception as a step behind the times. Hope not – I hope they will add the OpenID soon – I like these brands and their potential, especially in this economy.

By: Dilligaf | Dinosaur Killers

Dilligaf | Dinosaur Killers — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:56:09 +0000

[...] to TechCrunch. I guess they were feeling left out of the social network noise and someone upstairs “we need [...]

By: Not Impressed

Not Impressed — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:52:51 +0000

In concept, I almost like this but the experience of aggregating reviews from other retailers as part of it makes no sense to me. I think the ViewPoints site is actually pretty cool and they’ve done a nice job with the UI, but they’re pulling the content from people like Amazon (and many others) and then using it as a conversion tool on Sears – sure can’t be something Amazon will stand for a long time. This is evident in the following page where Sears isn’t in the Where to Buy (clearly the product / review didn’t originate there), it just points you to a search results page on Sears.com where the product in unavailable – and they don’t even make swap out recommendations.

http://www.myse...rol-review-59d9

Great concept, wrong application in my opinion.

By: Allen McGuire

Thu, 07 May 2009 16:27:06 +0000

I use RPX to allow members of existing social sites (Facebook, MySpace, even Google or Yahoo) to join my site – it’s very, very easy to do. Of course if they want to integrate with each API separately, that is their choice, but for those of us without that sort of time, RPX makes it super simple.

Just some thoughts – great looking site!

Allen
http://www.madtownlounge.com

By: Robert Oschler

Robert Oschler — Thu, 07 May 2009 16:20:08 +0000

Then there’s also the “Is this a ______-killer?” meme when it comes to sensationalizing a new application or service.

By: RahulC

RahulC — Thu, 07 May 2009 15:15:48 +0000

I came across a website that has a listing of all the websites starting with “My”. You think of a name and there.

Social network is here to stay – we like it or not. It will definitely evolve over a period of time and companies/individual will find their own ways of user engagement.

Probably these big companies are realizing that they can add more value and make it more profitable by reaching a small targeted customers at a personal level than reaching out to millions over a billboard.

By: Envy

Envy — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:22:47 +0000

your a tool

By: blackcatloner

blackcatloner — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:53:27 +0000

I noticed that Walmart also has its own social networking site called mywalmart.com. But good for Kmart for doing that.

By: Ian Alexander

Ian Alexander — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:09:29 +0000

“My______” has to be up there with “Got_____” for the most bastardized tagline. From an audience point of view “My” doesn’t even make sense, it never did. The “My” is actually a “Your” and an “Our”. When the third person says “then they will click on My____, it makes sense but when I (the user) arrives My____, falls flat—then the “My” is actually and “Our”. I’m confused even talking about it.

By: Hamilton Wallace

Hamilton Wallace — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:05:02 +0000

Good for Kmart. There’s little downside to adding another level of engagement with your customers, regardless of how much of an experiment you feel it is.

By: chris quinlan

chris quinlan — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:03:58 +0000

Sears and Kmart are pushing forward into an area that few companies have been able to monetize. I think they are on the right track to be able to offer goods and services based on a customers likes and dislikes keeping it real versus a mass appeal. Everything is cyclical and small town values and store fronts could make a comeback…..they are right there and ready.

Great stuff!

By: Hamilton Wallace

Hamilton Wallace — Thu, 07 May 2009 13:00:18 +0000

Good for both companies. Isn’t most social media still something of an experiment? So why not have been fiddling with it for a couple years when a direction reveals itself?!

By: Kbad

Kbad — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:06:41 +0000

lose

By: batman

batman — Thu, 07 May 2009 12:03:59 +0000

Kmart is a liberal virus.

By: Igor

Igor — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:54:11 +0000

This is about the only things Sears and Kmart did right for the past 8 years.

By: martin

martin — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:45:53 +0000

possibly adding a affiliate program for these sites to increase e-commerce traction

By: Adon

Adon — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:39:24 +0000

Companies can be very successful with social networking sites, especially if they include exclusive offers to their members (similar to how companies offer exclusives to their followers on twitter).

By: SocialLocator.com

SocialLocator.com — Thu, 07 May 2009 10:39:11 +0000

awesome. when is TC gonna have an article on the power of “MY” prefix and how it has changed everything? where the orgins of “MY” started, the power of its presence, what it all means, and where its all going? is it a fad or will it be around forever.

MyLocator.me – its personal

By: Chen Yingwei

Thu, 07 May 2009 10:28:17 +0000

Good