Nathan T. Wright › Comments

Nah, I'm just not going to go to each brand's "my" site. And I'm certainly not going to go there and expect that most people are "real" as opposed to plants placed/paid by the brand. - Craig Eddy

A smarter move for Kmart & Sears is to use existing socials, benefiting from cross-pollination. - Jason Nunnelley

I dont like it.. YASN = yet another social network.. why not use the tools everyone is using already - instead of trying to pull people in. that's why the news industry is flailing now - refusal to adapt and insistence on pulling people in when they didnt want to be - andy brudtkuhl

We added reviews to our sites and in very short order have over 7000 responses. It's been very useful for everyone. But, it all remains under our primary domains so it does not take the shape of a separate social media site. - Rick Bucich

Rick - that is exactly how it should happen - andy brudtkuhl

@i140 Jason: perhaps it's particular to our product but for us, existing review platforms haven't gotten traction. I suspect it is because many (like Yelp) are localized and our customers are nationwide and international. - Rick Bucich

Interesting conglomeration at mykmart, mysears, etc. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009... - Jason Nunnelley

Look at non-traditional social networks that sprout up around e-commerce... Amazon comments, lists, recommendations, etc... Netflix has friends features, recommendations, ratings - andy brudtkuhl

In an article about the launch the founder talks about using things like Facebook Connect, etc. to pull in additional user data. Doesn't want it to be a chore to set up "another profile." Also, this is an opportunity for them to build partnerships with places like Amazon, Netflix, etc. to bring in their content. Either way, they'll build up a community of uber-focused brand loyalists. - Mike Templeton

I don't think there's a solid argument yet over which is better: custom-building social features or leveraging existing platforms? Corporations like Sears will want to collect (and own) customer data and behaviors, so custom-building makes sense out of the gate for them. Building off Facebook Connect assumes that Facebook is *the* ubiquitous social networking utility, which may be true, but does require a leap of faith from the big corp standpoint. - Nathan T. Wright

@mike true but those brand loyalists are already buying from them and are following them on Twitter, Facebook, etc... Why create another bridge? Why create more dispersion? - andy brudtkuhl

@webtwopointeight I concede your point, and see a social deep-linking future. Aren't we wishing we had threading now? - Jason Nunnelley

@Nathan - you are exactly right - they want the data. This why newspapers are in the state they are today. They wanted to own eyeballs and data (classifieds, jobs, etc). Rather than using the tools available they tried to create their own and they became irrelevant - andy brudtkuhl

@abrudtkuhl The idea is to keep you on the site. It makes sense. They link into existing socials also. <3 existing platforms. - Jason Nunnelley

I wonder if you can create a happy medium here. Build some proprietary social functionality but still allow for the portability of identity and social graphs? - Nathan T. Wright

@abrudtkuhl Though we don't like to admit it, not everyone is on Twitter/Facebook. This is a way for Sears to mine the data they collect from fans, just like Facebook is doing as a third-party aggregator. Also, how much are you really going to be posting about Sears on other websites? To me this is like signing up for the email newsletter. I joined their community because I am interested. I'll go there to see reviews, discussions, etc. related to Sears. It's not only a filter for them, but a filter for me. - Mike Templeton

Completely retarded. It shows a complete lack of understanding for the long-term as we move away from proprietary networks, owning customers, etc. - coldbrew

But after the initial "flash in the pan" from the site being new, what compels me to keep coming back to mysears.com? Honestly, I can't think of anything... - Craig Eddy

@mike oh yes i agree they want to broaden their social reach .. but they should do it on their main domain, wrapped around their store - directly linking the online buying experience with the social experience. Not YASN - andy brudtkuhl

@Craig - exactly that's why it needs tied into the buying experience. Any B&M store like this should look to Amazon for how to approach implementing proprietary social systems into the buying experience - cuz that's where it matters. - andy brudtkuhl

Example: Whenever I am looking to buy something, I go to Amazon or Newegg first to check out the ratings and recommendations - which are tightly coupled to the product - not on a completely different site - andy brudtkuhl

http://www.viewpoints.com/ is an existing social, just not one of the ones we typically use. I agree that controlling your space is paramount in commerce. Amazon comments are dead on. - Jason Nunnelley

@Andy I think you will see them incorporating things like reviews and discussions from the MySears site back into their main online experience. Just give them time. - Mike Templeton

@Mike undoubtedly... so that begs the question - why not just implement that in the main site? ...Where all your customers are already visiting ... right where they can click "BUY" - andy brudtkuhl

Another component I love about this: "2,338 members in IA" Already that's more people than I follow on Twitter, and I follow people from everywhere. This is a great way for me to find targeted information from a targeted audience. - Mike Templeton

Amazon has only one physical product of their own (not counting SKUs), and it also represents lots of different retailers. It is not quite appropriate for an analogy. - coldbrew

The benefit to the stores are cross-linking / deep-linking between their web presences. I don't see a benefit to the customer - like Craig said "why would i go back?" - andy brudtkuhl

@coldbrew yea it is - sears sells products that arent their own - andy brudtkuhl

@Andy I'm saying they will add that into the main site. It's just a difference of a domain. It also creates some separation for those who may not care. "To join in discussions about this product, visit MySears.com and see what other consumers are saying." - Mike Templeton

Brudtkuhl: The majority of Sears products are their own (Kenmore, Craftsmen, etc.). I wouldn't go to Sears for anything else. Sears doesn't have other vendors for whom their domain is an ecommerce site. Amazon has less conflict of interest in controlling the consumer contributions (moderating poor reviews). - coldbrew

It's still a digital natives issue if you ask me. Traditional retailers too often have very little knowledge, interest, or ability in using social computing to engage customers, despite these encouraging signs. Of course, the survivors 10 years from now will have figured it out, one way or another. - Dion Hinchcliffe

@Dion: Do you feel that Sears is not "getting it" with this community? They have a blog, offer consumer reviews, discussion sections, a "submit your idea" ala Dell's Ideastorm, plus outposts on the top social media websites. They've even got tools to enable users to share information via email or other channels. Seems to me they are ticking all the social media boxes. - Mike Templeton

I think Dion is drawing a distinction between "ticking the boxes" and making it part of the fabric of the retailer... I work at Best Buy and we are spending a lot of time thinking about the latter. - Ben Hedrington

@benhedrington But first Best Buy had to step into the conversation, right? I think this is a good step for Sears, but is also only the first step. With what they've launched for now, I'd be surprised if we don't see this stuff integrated into their main experience in the near future. - Mike Templeton

Mike, I'm with Ben, social retailing is something that goes far beyond social media; it's about transforming the very way customers are engaged by the company. The models for doing this effectively (both in terms of cost and the desired outcomes on both sides of the conversation) are still evolving. Social media is a good medium, but it's far from sufficient when it comes to engaging customers over the network as a primary channel. Great first steps from Sears IMHO. - Dion Hinchcliffe

@Mike I don't disagree start somewhere start small and grow it based on feedback organically... but when you see these vendor platforms launch it seems more about "installing a product to make you social" in this case Viewpoints.com rather than efforts to become a social retailer. All that said kudos to Sears for trying and getting out there with something. - Ben Hedrington

Jeremiah thanks for your post. Rob Harles here - I am the VP of Community at Sears. The comments from your followers are very helpful and many of them dead on. This is a first step for us and we are committed to seeing this through to fully integrate community into everything that we do. We are very keen on using this initiative to learn and evolve. So, we are glad to hear from you. - Robert Harles

Robert - thanks for chiming in! Great to know you are listening! - andy brudtkuhl