Will the competition between Target and Wal-Mart come to a head over social media? Last year, we saw the result of Wal-Mart’s astroturfing incident with their blog and Edelman’s not so transparent assistance. More recently, Target Rounders has come out, and once again the public (bloggers and consumers alike) is left with a sour taste in their mouths from the corporate giant’s attempt at manipulating the message.

Wal-Mart is certainly a case study for what NOT to do in social media, but even with all of the bumps along the way, can they come back and truly start over, receiving genuine feedback and engaging in conversation with their consumers? Perhaps with the controversy over Target Rounders, it’s prime time for Wal-Mart to get back in the game. With the launch of their new blog, Check Out, Wal-Mart is trying again.

Target was the good brand that could do no wrong, with a growing reputation and success. Maybe the fact that Wal-Mart’s brand and reputation was more well known, therefore making it a bigger target (no pun intended) for criticism, gave Target had the upper hand. But digging a little deeper shows that Target has just as many problems.

Though Wal-Mart may (or may not) have learned from their mistakes, they keep trying to prove their willingness to listen and engage their customers. Hopefully Wal-Mart will be able to get it right this time, and really become a part of the community, as we have seen with Dell, SouthWest, and other companies that have successfully engaged the public through their blogs (and willingness to acknowledge their downfalls).

Perhaps it’s just the nature of these big corporations that they will experience up and down periods, but I think that Target should have known better. You can’t claim to be social network savvy and assume that people are going to play by your rules, as Target Rounders did on Facebook. This is further proof that controlling the message is out, and giving people the opportunity to participate and play by their rules, is the key to a successful social media campaign.