Dave’s Take

I’ve commented before about the negligible significance of social media in society; how Facebook, Twitter and all the rest are fun diversions, but serve little purpose in daily life. But now it appears that social networking sites have evolved to the point where they can finally offer society some tangible benefits. While they might not offer a cure for cancer, they can now help the American consumer with personal issues.

Led by national retail giant Best Buy, businesses are at long last embracing the immediacy of social sites to solve problems rather than to spin corporate advertising. Best Buy started a pilot program over six months ago that empowers their employees to interact with customers directly via Twitter and Facebook in dealing with product and store service inquiries. Since its inception, the Best Buy program has grown to include over 2,200 employees who are screened and instructed on how to best assist their customers.

And the customers are utilizing the new interactive avenue to the tune of over 15,000 regular “followers”. People are beginning to understand how they can communicate via Tweets to better their shopping experience. From product availability to pricing and delivery issues, consumers can now communicate directly with a store employee who will provide answers spontaneously. The Best Buy employees can accomplish this by referring the customer to a specific section of their website, sending them to a manufacturer’s site, or point them to a demo or ad link.

These new avenues of customer communication provide several advantages to their sponsors – mainly in brand loyalty and in reinforcing media direction and placement. This valuable feedback tells retailers how effective their media message is in regards to reaching the masses in a meaningful way. Clearly, if they keep getting bombarded with price or availability questions, they know it’s time to change their message. On the other hand, if customers share service complaints, etc. they know their employee training programs need some serious revamping.

Regardless of specific issues, consumers obviously like the immediacy of the program. A recent Nielson study discovered that nearly two-thirds of Twitter brand accounts deal with some level of customer service. Big players like Southwest Airlines, Comcast and Patagonia are all jumping into the social media customer service arena. They are now beginning to realize, like the rest of us, that social networking is finally beginning to serve a purpose other than wasting our time.