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Comment by surteen | Hacker News Reader

Is this astroturfing by Walmart? Why are there two stories on the front page about how much Walmart pays people?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39176877

What would Walmart possibly gain by astroturfing HN? Do you think they are recruiting software engineers as assistant managers?

There was a story on the front page yesterday about many software engineers considering career switch

They could be paying a firm for generic astroturfing / publicity campaign. That PR firm could have HN as one of many communities they target by default. Walmart could be unaware and uncaring as to which communities, precisely, are targeted by the firm they hired for this. The PR firm might not put much effort into specifically tailoring their target communities for each and every campaign, but generally just follow a standard playbook, which might happen to include HN.

HN literally does not register for PR firms.

Categorical statements are generally easily disproven:

BMV is a PR company which won prdaily.com's 2023 award for "Best Use of Research/Surveys"[0] Their website[1] says:

> You also want to distribute and share the news on your announcement into popular communities for engineering talent, such as HackerNews.

Salient PR also targets HN[2]:

> Choose a team that can speak the same language as your audiences and create content that resonates. Look for demonstrated experience engaging developers across communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, HackerNews, and relevant podcasts.

Vidico's "Optimized Video Marketing Campaigns" also target HN:[3]

> Q: Which publishers do you reach out to? A: Our publishers are higher tier tech publications that include Techcrunch, Hackernews and FastCompany. We write your press release, and include high-quality media media assets such as the video we’ve produced for you and still photo assets.

Bizibl Marketing's "Content Distribution Playbook"[4] says:

> And embrace communities. Platforms such as Inbound, Reddit, HackerNews and niche-specific communities allow you to put your message amongst your audience. But be aware that whilst these communities may applaud and amplify a relevant and compelling message, they are likely to pull apart one that is irrelevant, unfavourable or unwelcome.

Relevance also offers PR services targeting HN[5]:

> Take a careful look at whatever had worked in the past and leverage different platforms like Reddit, Slashdot, HackerNews, BuzzSumo, GrowthHackers, Twitter, and Zest.

0: https://www.prdaily.com/awards/content-marketing-awards/2023...

1: https://beantownmv.com/how-to-get-press-coverage-for-your-st...

2: https://salientpr.com/developer

3: https://vidico.com/video-marketing/

4: https://bizibl.com/marketing/download/content-distribution-p...

5: https://www.relevance.com/captivate-your-target-audience-by-...

Walmart has a huge digital team; who do you think operates walmart.com ?

I very literally accidentally clicked upvote when this article was first on the home page. I can't undo upvotes for some reason. Hopefully my little vote didn't help visibility.

I hope they are recruiting software engineers! Then maybe they will get someone who can fix their purchase history search. I'm talking about the search near the top of this page when you are logged in: https://www.walmart.com/orders

A long time ago that partly broke. It stopped showing purchases made in-person. It would still show items purchased online for home delivery. I think it also showed items purchased online for parking lot pick up, but don't remember for sure.

I think it might now be completely broken, because I can't get it to show me purchases even when I search for something I'm pretty sure I had delivered.

I've reported this via their feedback page several times and they have not done anything. It's quite annoying.

I don't know if is broken for everyone or if for some reason something is fucked up with my account. I know it is not something to do with my computer because it fails the same way in the Walmart app on my phone and tablet. On the other hand surely if it was broken for everyone someone in whatever department maintains it would have noticed...surely some of them actually shop at Walmart and occasionally want to look up a past purchase.

Whenever I see someone bring up astroturfing I check their profile under the assumption that they have also shared links either not critical of or blatantly promotional of a corporation or any of their products.

I'm never wrong.

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