I'm a little ambivalent about Best Buy's Twelpforce winning the Titanium Grand Prix for "Best Use of Social Media Marketing" at Cannes.
Not because I think it didn't deserve to win - it obviously did.
Rather, I'm worried about too many companies drawing the wrong conclusions from it.
In my new book, THE ON-DEMAND BRAND (available everywhere books are sold), I look at Twelpforce and the phenomenal job of fielding questions, offering suggestions and mitigating any negative online chatter before it becomes an issue.
As Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff, co-author of "Groundswell," says in my book, "We're in a world where one person, by their actions, can make a company look bad. On person talks, and a bunch of other people echo and amplify what that one person is saying. Big companies now have to be worried about one individual with a microphone called a bog." Or a twitter account, as the case may be.
But in light of the new attention Twelpforce will get after its big win at Cannes, companies far and wide will decide they need Twelpforces of their own. And they very well might. But as I say in the book, social networking is not a replacement for customer service. Best Buy already has outstanding customer service. Most companies don't.
As sophisticated as it may sound to have brand representatives ready to monitor and respond to social media chatter, it's far more useful to have highly-trained, highly-effective customer service that can handle issues long before customers feel the urge to share their war stories on Twitter.
If you really want to get cutting edge, start there.
Read more about Twelpforce's Cannes win, here.
And read more about the book, here.
FOLLOW RICK ON TWITTER & FACEBOOK
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"... WITTY, INSIGHTFUL, DYNAMIC ..."
“THE ON-DEMAND BRAND is witty, insightful, dynamic, and highly inspiring. This book should be required reading for marketers—or anyone trying to understand how to keep their brand relevant and energized through the rapidly changing consumer landscape. Mathieson has a gifted ability to dig under the breakthrough ideas that are keeping top brands engaged with their current and new consumers, offering key insider takeaways that we all can learn from.”
Alison Moore
Vice President, Brand Strategy
& Digital Platforms
HBO
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