We Play in Traffic

eMarketer just published information that says that holiday retail shoppers are going to hit social media sites this season  – “Shoppers already conditioned to comparison shop, check coupon sites and look for discounts will also be heading to social networks for information—and good deals.”

Assuming these shoppers will use the sites of retailers of which they are already friends or followers, I thought I’d poke around to see what these retail brands are doing in social media to help us shop.

I discovered on Best Buy’s Facebook fan site a tab called “Shop + Share.”  It lets me search down to the item level and has a button that says “Get Advice.”  So, I thought I’d see how this works to get advice about MP3 players.  I asked about a Sony Walkman – “A lot less expensive than iPod. Other than cool of iPod, is there anything that makes that better than this?” and I clicked “Get Advice.”

I was hoping that someone among the 845,000 Best Buy Facebook fans would have something to say.  But that’s not how Shop + Share works.  It posts my question on my Facebook page for my Facebook “fans” to comment.

The probability that my Facebook fans have anything meaningful to say about a Sony Walkman MP3 player is negligible, at best.

So here’s a social media function that I’m guessing took a fair amount of time and effort to develop.  But Shop + Share really doesn’t do much.  If I wanted to poll my friends on this product, I could have done that without Best Buy’s help.

I think Best Buy does a terrific job with social media.  But maybe they should re-label the button from “Get Advice” to “Ask Your Friends.”  Then my expectations would be better matched to the results.

Shop + Share.  An interesting retail idea for social media whose time is not yet.