Sears Enlists Bloggers to Build Consumer Electronics Buzz

From Mashable:

In an attempt to earn some credibility in the consumer electronics category, Sears has enlisted some top CE bloggers for the Sears Blue Blogger Crew, which is making its debut by chronicling CES on behalf of the retailer.

The lineup, which includes Andru Edwards of GearLive.com, Kris Cain of LittleTechGirl.com, veteran blogger Kelly Clay of Lockergnome, WiredPRWorks.com blogger Barara Rozgonyi and Jenna Hatfield of Stop, Drop and Blog will blog, tweet and appear in videos for Sears. According to the company’s blog, the idea is to provide an opportunity “for our peers (i.e. fellow gadget geeks) to share their knowledge and experience in the technology space with their readers and followers, as well as our customers.”

The Blue Blogger Crew will also do interviews with members of the Sears Blue Consumer Electronics Crew (pictured) and will blog for Sears at other, yet-unnamed events as well. The company will also be looking to expand its blogger lineup throughout the year. As for compensation: For CES, Sears Electronics is covering travel costs and expenses for the bloggers in attendance, as well as providing each a small video camera.

Jeremiah Owyang, partner at the Altimeter Group, says that Sears’s strategy makes sense. “Organic wins over paid,” he says, “since the trust will be higher from consumers.”

Sears is far from the first to enlist bloggers to further its brand name. Walmart currently runs a program called Walmart Moms (formerly known as ElevenMoms) that blogs about products at Walmart, among other topics.

Len Kendall, account group supervisor for digital PR firm Golin Harris, concurs. “It’s great to see companies creating more balanced spokespeople for the products they sell. There was always a major gap between our friends (word of mouth) and celebrity endorsers or actors,” Kendall says. “While entities like the ‘Blue Crew’ are certainly influenced by the brand they’re speaking on behalf of, they’re also bringing their individual points of view, and previously earned audiences along with them, which lends a great deal of credibility to the brand.”

The push comes as other retailers that play in the CE space, namely Best Buy, have been aggressive on the social media front. Best Buy expanded its Twitter presence with Twelpforce, a Twitter support service the retailer launched during the 2009 holiday season. Best Buy doesn’t have a blog, but it boasts active community forums and 2.1 million fans for its Facebook Page, versus 342,702 for Sears.

The move is the second new front that Sears has opened in the online arena in the past two weeks. In late December, the retailer and its Kmart unit announced they will launch a movie download service that will compete with Best Buy’s CinemaNow, among others.