“ACTING LIKE PEOPLE AND NOT LIKE A COMPANY”

Most companies spend a lot of time trying to understand their customers.  What do they think?  What do they want?  Why do they buy the products they buy?  What makes a customer LOYAL?  Who are the INFLUENCERS?

Companies that have benefitted most from social media spend a lot of time trying to answer the same types of questions INTERNALLY.

Communities in many companies are based on office geography – who you meet at the water cooler, in the kitchen, in the hallway.  Communities are often predefined silos within functions; marketing staff know marketing staff; IT folks talk to other IT folks. 

Best Buy is now a leading corporate tweeter and highly successful social media organization.  They shared with me that one of the drivers initially pushing them into social media was an effort to decrease employee turnover.  Realizing that SHIFTING THEIR CORPORATE CULTURE would also help to improve sales, Best Buy created and implemented a 3 step process to improve relationships, beginning inside.

l  Blue Shirt Nation – improving  employee-to-employee relationships

l  Bizarro – improving employee-vendor relationships

l  Twelpforce – improving employee-customer relationships

SocialMediaExplorer posted a great interview with the founders of Blue Shirt Nation:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49W2j2huIjg . 

My favorite comments on the video?  Employees use the platform to “get to know each other.  When people put up pictures of their cats, it’s a good sign.” 

And, of course, “acting like people and not like a company.”