I posted already about the Wal-Mart campaign on Facebook and gave my opinion that it was a good idea. I still stand by the fact that Facebook is a good platform for connecting with individuals and groups, but having followed the progress of Wal-Mart’s campaign on Facebook, I have to say there are certain details that have come to my attention, that may not work for the benefit of Wal-Mart at all.

I found the Wal-Mart group on Facebook after a short search. The quiz that tries to identify you and your style is actually interesting. I took the quiz and came out as the free spirit type, with the appropriate illustration of what my dorm room might look like. Naturally, other illustrations were offered, I guess each corresponding to a profile someone may get after taking the quiz. Something was missing though…

There were links available all over the place taking me to the Wal-Mart online store, but once there I could only access particular product groups (bedding, beds, desks, chairs, etc). What I was expecting was complete collections of products tied directly to the profiles from the Facebook app quiz. For example, I would love to have seen a customizable product collection already designed for the free spirit profile, or any other profile mentioned on Facebook for that matter. The way things are now, apart from being labeled as College ‘07 stuff, you get access to product categories the way you would if you simply came to the site and started going down your own prepared shopping list. I think this may turn out to be a significant conversion no-no. What’s the point of the quiz, if you don’t find matching setups on the vendor site? To be fair, many of the products offered on the pages are pretty cool though. Wouldn’t mind having many of them in my flat.

The other thing is that there is actually an Anti-Walmart group on Facebook (actually one big, and two small groups). Combined they number about 1600 members. That’s a lot more than about a 100 Wal-Mart Roommate Style Match group members. Actually, at the time of writing this post, that’s 16:1 in favor of the anti-Walmart group.

Is Wal-Mart’s Facebook campaign backfiring? Judging by the numbers so far it seems it is.

Draw your own conclusions:

Wal-Mart Roomate Style Match (about 100 at the time of writing this post)

Anti Wal Mart (the big one with about 1300 members, at the time of writing this)

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