Best Living - Community Manager's blog

Today, Best Buy launched a new way for Blueshirt and Geek Squad Agents to connect with customers: TwelpForce.  Customers can Tweet to TwelpForce and Best Buy employees will respond. 

Providing support to customers on Twitter is not new to Best Buy.  My team and I have been Twittering to customers in English, Spanish and French for quite some time know.  I launched my Twitter, Gina_BestBuy, in April 2008.  We expanded to other languages a few months later and eventually other programs including support for the Reward Zone program, Best Buy Outlet Center, Geek Squad and our  Insignia exclusive brand.  In addition to my team at corporate, some stores have also joined Twitter to support customers.  One of the first was Bianca at store 221 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

We have had many successes through these engagements on Twitter.  For example: http://tinyurl.com/BBY-Harte. 

Twitter is an interesting social phenomenon.  It cleaves thoughts into a Spartan 140-character piece.  For me the mixture of grammar and syntax, the use of the lexicon, is an art.  Therefore, Twitter's appeal remains a bit elusive to me.   The concoction of words that take on meaning is powerful...the pen is mightier than the sword.  Words form phrases which make up sentences that then comprise treatises - this changes lives.  Only a few weeks ago, we in the US were celebrating the Declaration of Independence.  It is hard to image our founding fathers putting that masterful document into less than 140 characters. 

I do not doubt that Twitter has a place in our new world of rapid communication.  The recent events in Iran attest to Twitter's utilitarian applications.  Our team has seen the countless power of using Twitter to serve Best Buy's customers, and I am excited to see our Blueshirt and Geek Squad Agents enthusiastically jumping on TwelpForce to assist our customers.  However, with the amplification of a voice into the chorus of the conversation on Twitter comes responsibility to live the Best Buy values and philosophies.  These are the foundation for the culture of service at Best Buy.  Each Tweet is an opportunity for us all to show how we live the Best Buy values and philosophies.  I rise to the occasion as I know many will also.  I hope that in the coming weeks and months, Twitter connects our impassioned employees with our customers in new and novel ways that we have not yet imagined.  In the words of Buzz Lightyear, "To infinity and beyond"... a call to action in less than 140 characters.

Today anyone can go online to voice their opinion.  Increasingly these opinions transcend the online space and modify events.  It was only a few months ago that an ad on Motrin's website offended mothers by comparing the carrying of children in baby slings to a fashion statement.  Outraged mothers (and others) quickly jumped on Twitter, and their outrage spread to YouTube and blogs.  Within days Motrin pulled their ad.  Congratulations to social media for quickly bringing this to the attention of Motrin.

Last week Bloomberg reported that Blockbuster hired a firm that deals with bankruptcy.  People on Twitter picked up this story and started Tweeting that Blockbuster was filing for bankruptcy.  This went viral within a few moments and their stock fell to $0.17.  Blockbuster put out a press release saying that they did hire the firm to help with capital initiatives, but reports of bankruptcy were entirely false.

Twitter is a rapid means of communication that is unfiltered.  Anonymous people can say whatever they want without repercussions.  When there is limited or no accountability, what measures are there to protect individual citizens and corporations from false, libelous or slanderous accusations? 

As fact and opinion blur, the consequences to individual lives will increase.  Will the next false viral rumor cripple a brand to a point from which it cannot recover?  How many jobs will be lost over a fallacious statement?  These concerns highlight the imperativeness of brands actively monitoring their perception in the blogosphere.

I love social technology.  And I am happy to join the online conversation on behalf of Best Buy.  Joining the conversation today is more important than ever for brands to survive and thrive in the world of Web 2.0.