Wal-Mart Hits Facebook

Wal-Mart is launching a back-to-school marketing campaign using Facebook, Reuters reports. The megachain has created a "Roommate Style Match" Facebook group to give college students a chance to coordinate decorating before moving in—and then browse an array of "recommended" Wal-Mart goods, including many the retailer promotes as "earth-friendly."

One study estimates that incoming freshmen spend $1,112 on school-related gear before arriving, a trend Wal-Mart hopes to tap through the approximately 40% of Facebook users who attend college. "We realize that this is an audience that we need to be talking to, and that this is a channel we need to be on," says a spokeswoman. (More Walmart stories.)