MyKmart

MyKmart is an online community of Kmart customers interested in sharing their opinions, ideas and thoughts on Kmart products and services. Launched by Sears in May 2009, MyKmart.com is one of several community review Web sites created and powered by Viewpoints Network. MyKmart.com is intended as a venue for consumers to share and discuss information about Kmart products and services in a variety of ways, including reading and writing reviews, sharing ideas and posting on discussion boards. Currently, there are more than 240,000 registered members in the MyKmart community.
As part of the MyKmart community, members have access to recommendations, reviews, expert help (from Kmart staffers and other community members), special forums to express their views and ideas as well as access to exclusive offers and promotions. Active members of MyKmart also have access to coupons, deals and promotions and are also eligible to win cash and merchandise prizes via sweepstakes that occur regularly throughout the year.
According to Quantcast.com, MySears reaches more than 329,000 people/month in the United States and is particularly popular among women. The typical visitor shops at Dollar General.
In addition to MyKmart.com, Sears Holdings Corp. and Viewpoints Network have launched several other online communities, including MySears.com and MyGofer.com.
Objective
The aim of the MyKmart community is to help people make smarter purchasing decisions and give them a chance to affect the future of Kmart. "We want to hear from you to learn about what is working and what isn't, with us and across all of your shopping experiences and relationships. So whether you are a loyal Sears, Kmart, Lands End or Craftsman shopper or perhaps have never made a trip to a Kmart, Sears, or any of our affiliates, MyKmart offers you the opportunity to tell your story and help us improve. Your Perspective is Invaluable..." the MyKmart site says.
"Through the networks, MySears and MyKmart members can engage in all the usual social media shenanigans: social profiles, uploading photos, creating user tags, connecting with "friends," writing blog posts, tracking their readership stats, and exchanging private messages with other community members," MediaPost Publications wrote about the launch of MySears and MyKmart. "The initiative shows just how invested brands are becoming in social media as a marketing medium."
Reviews, Ideas and Guides
Reviews: All honest opinions are welcome on MyKmart. Positive reviews, negative reviews and anything in between. The only requirement is that the reviewer is over the age of 18, a registered member of the MyKmart community and that the reviews are focused on the product. MyKmart members can write about any Kmart product. If the product isn't on the site yet, they can easily add it themselves by following the prompts. MySears does not seem to accept reviews that include service, pricing and shipping issues, but these issues can be addressed on the discussion boards and by Kmart Customer Service. Reviewers can save their work as a draft before publishing and return to it later if they wish. Reviews are published within 72 hours unless they have violated any of the content guidelines. The MyKmart staff will never edit or tamper with any of the reviews, but members can edit their own review at any time. Anyone reading a review can give it a helpful or non-helpful vote. The more helpful votes a review is given, the higher it will appear in results lists.
Ideas: Another way Kmart customers can connect with Kmart is through the Ideas feature on MyKmart. Members can submit any idea or suggestion they have about how to improve the quality of Kmart products and service. Members can vote for their favorite ideas, as well as sharing them with other people. Kmart representatives continually monitor the Ideas page and let members know if their idea is being considered.
Guides: Kmart also offers several shopping guides with advice about how to pick the right product to buy and make informed purchasing decisions. Popular guides include [http://www.mykmart.com/Gas-Grills/guides/Backyard-Ideas-Fun-Ways-to-Fix-Up-Your-Yard "Backyard Ideas: Fun Ways to Fix Up Your Yard,"] [http://www.mykmart.com/Accent-Furniture--5711/guides/7-Quick-and-Easy-Ways-to-Organize-Your-Home "7 Quick and Easy Ideas to Organize Your Home"] and "How to Buy Video Games for Somebody Else."
Recognition Rewards Program
The [http://www.MyKmart.com/help#recog1 MyKmart Recognition Rewards Program] recognizes members for their contributions to the community. Members earn points by participating in various activities such as uploading a profile picture, writing a review, or gaining Fans in the community. All the earned points then contribute to an overall point total. A member’s point total determines their Level in the community and that Level is a way for fellow community members to see the most active members of the site.
There are that members can achieve based on the points they earn for contributions to the community. The Level signifies activity and involvement within MyKmart Community. Below are the various ways members can participate in the community and how many points they earn for each activity. Members will see their points added immediately with all actions with the exception of publishing a review. Once a review is published, points for reviews are pending and will be added upon review approval. This can take up to 72 hours to process. The member's current Level and current point total can be seen on the member's profile page. Each award earned will be displayed in the Awards section on the profile page. Members' badges will also follow them throughout the site below their profile picture.
alt=MyKmart Reputation Rewards Points and Levels.

Other MyKmart Community Features
MyKmart utilizes several social media tools, some of which include social profiles, uploading photos, creating user tags, connecting with "friends," writing blog posts, tracking their readership stats, and exchanging private messages with other community members. "Retail chain passionistas visiting MySears can express themselves via these increasingly ubiquitous Social Media features: taking polls, connecting with your fellow Sears buddies, creating a social profile, uploading photos, tagging, blogging, and participating in (my favorite part) the Ideas section.
Lest your passion for Sears not be completely fulfilled, consumers can also follow MySears and MyKMart on Facebook, YouTube, MySpace and Twitter," wrote the Guru of New in a review of MySears and MyKmart.
Discussion Boards:
Another feature are the MyKmart discussion boards. Open to everyone, members can tap into the collective knowledge of the MyKmart community to ask questions, search for answers and provide information to other members. Many of the discussions involve Kmart locations, employee practices and promotions and events going on at Kmart and. Popular discussions topics include Bluelight Specials, A Big Thank You and Jump In- Introduce Yourself.
"Interestingly, much of what you’ll see in the discussion boards are complaints, but you’ll also see representatives responding and offering advice. Which we gotta give them props for," reviewed the Budget Fashionista.
My Home:
Every registered member has an individual profile page called "My Home." On their profile, MyKmart members can access all of the reviews they have written and add information about themselves, including photos, interests and hobbies. Members can also read comments left for them, view the latest activity of their friends and fans, create their own blog, view their Reputation Rewards point total, awarded badges and discussion board participation.
I Am Tags:
To make the site more fun and personal, MyKmart introduced a feature called "I Am" tags. When writing reviews, members are asked to create tags that tell the community about them as it relates to the item they are reviewing. For example, if you are writing a review of a ski-resort, you might include a Reviewer Trait like "black-diamond skier" or alternatively, "bunny-slope skier." These "I am" tags are then searchable, so readers can choose to filter reviews by people who they connect with on one or more of these levels.
MyKmart Blog and Polls:
Also available is the MyKmart blog, which is continually updated with information about Kmart products, events, promotions and giveaways. The blog features several contributors who post about everything from clothing and bedding to video games and cribs.
Members can also voice their opinion to Kmart by participating in a variety of polls and surveys on MyKmart. Kmart uses this information to get to know its customers' lifestyles, habits, preferences and more.
OpenID:
MyKmart.com recently made news with its decision to implement the OpenId platform, which enables visitors to easily register and login at the MyKmart community using existing accounts at Google, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Windows Live, and . Sears and Kmart are the first company of its kind to adopt OpenID. However, Kmart has not yet adopted OpenID on its site, adding to the split between Kmart and MyKmart. "But why are there two experiences in first place? Presumably because one is hosted by Viewpoints, the reviews/community vendor, and the other is powered by Sears’ ecommerce platform. The problem is that the end user should neither know nor care which parts of the experience are provided by what vendor, or managed in what technical platform," writes John Eckman on optarus.com.

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