Smith & Hawken Going Social? Mum’s The Word

Thanks to Susan Davis of Paradysz Matera for telling me about the message at
SmithAndHawhen.com that it’s going to become some sort of social media site. Target Corp., which
acquired Smith & Hawken and ownership of SmithAndHawhen.com the from The Scotts Company (according to
Network Solutions) on Dec. 30, says it isn’t so.

I received an e-mail from Michaela Gleason in the Target communications office explaining that “The message was mistakenly posted before we acquired the Smith & Hawken brand. We are currently working to remove the information.”

Really? It takes more than 100 days to take down a Web page? Heck, I could go into my FTP server and Rickroll the front page of Multichannel Merchant in a matter of minutes.

If Target was to jump into social media by harnessing the gardening community, great! It’s one heck of an active niche community, and I’m sure with the brand equity of both Target and Smith & Hawken, a Smith & Hawken social media site can be as successful as some of the social networks we profiled in our June 2009 cover story.

If Target wants to be hush-hush about its plans for Smith & Hawken’s Web site, that’s fine – it’s just Target being Target. If and when they want to announce that Smith & Hawken is now a social media site, they will do it in grand style.

But for now, the gardening community will have to sit back and wait.