Full disclosure: I’m in love with Best Buy. It’s okay, my husband knows that I’m enamored with the way they’ve been running their business lately. Their strategies have been as aggressive as their expansion, never more so than with their latest stunt and I use that word with the greatest admiration.
Best Buy, fully aware of the power of social media (their CMO is one of the most-followed Twitterers), has encouraged their employees to handle online customer relations and promotions via Twitter. This “Twelpforce” has its own profile on Twitter. Their bio reads: “a collective force of Best Buy technology pros offering tech advice in Tweet form”. Customers with questions can tweet Best Buy employees who register with Twelpforce using their company name and Twitter i.d. Questions are answered in real time, by real staff, not by some automated voice at the end of some phantom phone line.
It’s a win/win for the company and for consumers. Best Buy gets access to millions of customers. Their employees can shine through the transparency that’s inherent in social media. The new service is being highlighted in two commercials launched over the weekend. Interestingly, the most prominent feature of the ads — the twitter.com/twelpforce url — really isn’t that prominent. What is prominent, and brilliantly so, is the sight of thousands of live employees seated in a huge stadium answering the questions of one lone supplicant. Okay, the imagery is not so subtle but that’s why it’s brilliant. It’s easily understood; a simple premise with a simple storyline and a simple outcome, increased business. Am I kvelling? Maybe, but I can’t twelp it, uh, help it, it’s love.
