Uh oh... CVS struggles with social media

As the internet begins to infiltrate every facet of modern life, thousands of corporations are trying to keep up with consumers through the use of social media (mainly Facebook and Twitter). Unfortunately, CVS Pharmacy did not get the message!

After searching for "CVS" in the Facebook search engine, only one page resulted. With a simple profile picture of the logo, the page looked promising. But with only about 9,000 fans - the page quickly became less impressive. (Compare those 9,000 fans to AT&T's 257,375 Facebook fans or rival Walgreen's 454,240 Facebook fans...)

With one click into the page, my face fell. There are "no recent posts," only random pictures from page "fans" instead of official pictures from the corporation, and a completely blank "info" page. Absolutely horrifying from a social media standpoint - see for yourself!

"No recent posts" = "No recent customer interest" in my book!

At a time when good social media skills is a corporate mile marker for successful public relations, I would think that CVS would put more time into maintaining its Facebook page. A blank Facebook page sends the message to consumers that the corporation is not interested in keeping their "fans" updated about, well, anything! After my experience with the Facebook page (which looks like it could have been created by a six year old) I went against my better judgment and decided to take a glance at CVS's Twitter page.

The search results landed me at www.twitter.com/CVS_extra. Although this page is a great outlet to find new deals available for ExtraCare cardholders, I was again disappointed to see that CVS Pharmacy is not using social media to better the image of their corporation, but only to lure consumers into following their Tweets to find "ExtraCare deals, exclusives and savings advice from experts." ....Great, but how does this help the public's image of CVS pharmacy?

ExtraBucks, great... but what about corporate updates and consumer interests?

In my opinion, CVS pharmacy is struggling in the social media department. In order to keep clients informed on more than just their great deals on shampoo and deodorant, CVS should be publicizing PR successes and other events on their Facebook and Twitter pages. If CVS doesn't step up their social media game, other more tech-savvy corporations are going to leave them in the dust.