Best Buy: A social media case study
by Robin Grant in News on 28 May 2009 at 17:10Amongst the famous examples of Dell, Ford, Zappos, Skype and the like, Best Buy may not be the first company that comes to mind when thinking about which companies using are using social media well.
They’re also not the sort of company you would immediately assume would be ahead of the curve in terms of social media – they’re the world’s largest multi-channel home electronics retailer (similar to Currys or Comet in the UK) who have recently made moves into Europe with the acquisition of 50% of Carphone Warehouse’s European stores (and with rumours they may go further than that).
However, in reality they’re as advanced as any of the examples I give above – let’s start with a short introduction from Best Buy’s Chief Marketing Officer, Barry Judge:
And then move onto this presentation from Gina Debogovich, Best Buy’s Community Manager:
It’s also worth finding out more about Best Buy Connect, Blue Shirt Nation (a community for Best Buy Employees), how they use customer reviews, their recently launched API and looking at how they use their own forums and Get Satisfaction to support their customers.
Let’s finish with a 4 minute video
looking at Best Buy’s internal use of social media followed by a 20 minute interview with Best Buy’s CEO Brad Anderson talking about the issues in detail:
Archive for the 'Social Media' Category
Links are the lifeblood of the internet.
Social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook are giving people the power to 'spread' content that they like and that they think their friends and followers will like.
Because of the 140 character constraint, links to content invariably are fed into url shortening solutions. There are over 100 such solutions online right now.
URL shorteners are very simple, they take a url such as:
http://inside.nike.com/blogs/nikefootball-en_GB/2009/05/20/razor-sharp
and shorten it to become something like this:
http://nike.com/u/2/a (this doesn't work by the way)
The benefits are huge:
It enables you to take your brand into these areas (e.g. http://nike.com/ and not http://tinyurl.com/) - This is free advertising.
It increases trust and click-through rates. e.g. You know that clicking on it will take you to something to do with nike.
It enables you to track where and how people are finding your content by ensuring you're adding the necessary meta data and tracking info to the links you are shortening.
One way to try this out in a cost effective way is by using http://awe.sm. For $99 a year you get 10,000 unique urls a month, all tracked by Google Analytics and customisable by you.
Nissan has launched a marketing campaign for its Cube that incorporates Cube-themed iPhone apps, games, videos and ringtones to prove just how hip it is to be square.
The Cube Mobile Hub site gives Cube owners and enthusiasts the chance to bond over a car that Nissan says is designed for interacting, all while disengaged from the real world, poking away at a tiny cellphone screen.
It’s yet another example of automakers using social networking to sell their cars, and it comes on the heels of similar campaigns by Ford and Honda. Honda recently launched a microsite where people can virtually drive the new Insight and learn more about the dirt-cheap hybrid.
Nissan is hoping that the mobile site will convince potential buyers that the slab-sided subcompact is just as essential to the mobile lifestyle as text messages, Twitter and Facebook. “We envision owners using their Cubes as one of their essential mobile devices, connecting with friends, sharing music and sharing fun,” Nissan marketing exec Christian Meunier said in a statement.
Nissan says the Cube features a “socially oriented lounge-style interior.” At the risk of sounding like Andy Rooney, we think it might be a perfect place for five friends to text each other.
We visited the site Mobile Hub and everyone seems to be having a lot more fun than we are. Our favorite feature might be the forthcoming iPhone App called “Cube Party Roundup.” The objective of the game is to gain points doing things that we thought only happened in commercials for cars and liquor: Drive around a city picking up friends, dates, and “ice, music and other items,” all in preparation for a big party.
Social gaming, in it's truest sense, has interested me since I came across Dr. BJ Fogg back in 2006.
Dr. Fogg is the Head of Captology at Harvard University and ran the 1st Facebook course at Stanford in 2007. He's written a couple of books. The one I've read is Mobile Captology.
Captology is the study of 'persuasive technology' - motivational avatars can be as impactful as video games at enticing you to keep playing.
One facet of social media is the gaming aspect. People are playing online social games, they're incredibly popular (particularly on Facebook & the iPhone). One of the reasons for this is because they can't offer the graphics of console games so have to work harder with what they have.
'Play' is an integral part of online digital engagement and for finding content online.
Tristan Ferne is a blogger I've followed for many years. He's an exceptional Technologist and his latest work involves the work of Louis Von Ahn and Games With A Purpose (GWAP) I can't wait to see what Tristan and his team have been playing around with.
As Jake McKee commented on my previous post, there are some excellent niche communities which, over the years, have created such an active community of members that the brand they've advocated has had to stand up and do something about it.
In the case of Lego, they embraced the online community activity on the Internet and created a 'Lego Ambassador Program' back in February 2005. This, I presume was entirely down to Jake, who at the time was a Lego employee (Jake, please correct me if any of this is incorrect...).
Initially the individuals who were nominated for the Lego Ambassador Program not only had no tangible benefits, but were also a merry band of only 15. Now, with the nominations for the 08/09 Ambassadors having been announced only a few days ago, there are not only very tangible benefits but also a much larger group of Ambassadors.
Brothers-Brick is one of the major contributing communities and blogs which have generated Ambassadors. Over the last 3yrs their blog has grown to one of thousands of subscribers, all of whom have an interest and a passion in Lego from an adult perspective and now they're embracing Facebook.
It's fantastic to see how Lego's confidence and belief in their customers and fans has led to a really excellent Ambassador program which is not only aspiring to the Lego enthusiasts in the community, but offers an opportunity for Ambassadors to shape the future of their favourite bricks and be first to be asked opinions on new up and coming ranges from Lego themselves.
Lego's 50th anniversary celebration video, released to the community:
Jake McKee, ex-Lego employee and now founder of social media consultancy Ant’s Eye View, talks about his work in developing a community for Lego. Interestingly, his target audience was the parents.
(Disclaimer: I am personally involved in the development of Fiat's digital presence with my work at AKQA)
BMW and Crysler DO NOT GET IT! (read the comments).
Ford sounds like it's right behind them...
It's interesting to see how Fiat are describing and marketing their Blue&Me technology.
They seem concerned about the detail, which is always a good sign. They offer Blue&Me EcoDrive as standard and have Nav and Map add-on features.
Fiat EcoDrive is described in greater detail here, but essentially it measures your driving style irrespective of the car you drive. It puts everyone on a level playing field and gives them tips and suggestions on how to improve their driving style, saving them money by lowering their fuel consumption.
It's a niche, but interesting, concept and importantly it's engaging whilst not being disruptive. EcoDrive promises to 'teach drivers how to go greener'. Drivers can fit whichever navigation system they choose to the car, rather than being tied down to a locked-in version, suceptable to bugs and poorly executed updates.
I'll be interested to find out how drivers communicate between their car and their desktop computers to make intelligent use of all the data that's captured and (possibly sharing that information within a community???), but it strikes me as a far stronger proposition than attempting to steal a march on the SatNav's out there like TomTom and Dash.net in the US, who only last week announced that they were opening up their API to developers.
What do you think? Do you want to watch YouTube in the car? Is being online important?? Is this running before you can walk or a bold move?
Something happened on Twitter over the last week.
Twitter, the micro-blogging platform used by a niche user-base of very vocal early adopters and internet marketers, took a giant leap in its user-base as the most immediate communication channel of choice again at last week's SWSX conference.
Twitter really took off at last year's SWSX, so it's no surprise that it took the headlines again.
It showed its potential to great effect during the US Super Bowl last November and I would ove to see how it could be used during the European Football Cup this summer.
"The fabric becomes stronger as the threads connect"
The more like-minded people connect with one another, the richer the conversation becomes.
Twitter can take comments made during a TV commentary and extend it online.
The beauty of Twitter is that it's limited to 140 characters per post so either you make your point succintly or you link through to further, more in-depth conversation and opinion.
There's no spam and your peers and audience are individually picked by you - that's a powerful, if not so sexy, channel to get in on from a brand perspective.
For more read these:
Conversations are moving onto Twitter
Ambient Intimacy, Collective Musing & intellectual Musings
Tags: twitter, European Cup
