Best Buy’s Social Media Engagements
Gina
Communities, Manager
ECC Social Media Strategist

Best Buy: Multi-Brand, Multi-Channel
1,098 United States locations
• Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, Geek Squad
• Magnolia Audio Video
• Pacific Sales Kitchen & Bath Centers
198 Canadian locations
• Future Shop - 139
• Best Buy & Best Buy Mobile – 58 & 3
Chinese locations
• Five Star Appliance - 167
• Best Buy China - 6
Fortune 56
2,465 European locations
• The Carphone Warehouse
$40B Revenue
Websites & Contact Centers
150,000 Employees
2

Social Media Engagement
• Goal: Showcase Best Buy as a concerned and
connected retailer through online community
relationships
• Theme: How to get the Best out of Best Buy
• Objectives:
– Fulfill brand promises of Trusted Perspective for Inspired Living
– Educate customers about technology and life integration
– Decrease customer’s technology-related stress
– Drive online product discussions

Power of Unfiltered Communication

Power of Unfiltered Communication

Actually, We Embrace Social Media

Power of Social Media
Tweet,
tweet!

Best Buy’s Social Media Engagement
Increasing
Spending
Loyalty
Insights
Decreasing
Support Costs
Social Media
Engagements
• Forums
• Twitters
• Blogs
• Videos

Bringing People to Bestbuy.com
My Web 2.0 Expo Keynote: until Best Buy adds people to its
website our jobs are not done - Robert Scoble 3/31/09
“When I go to BestBuy.com, what do I see? No people. Web 2.0 hasn’t
reached BestBuy’s headquarters yet.”
Our Store’s Community Involvement: Relay
for Life, Kids in Distress, March of Dimes,
AIDS Walk, Kids Ecology Corp, GLCC of South
Florida, Breast Cancer Walk

Bilingual Community Forums
Decrease
support costs
Drive product
discussion
Gain insights
Bring the power
of our people to
the internet
Community Connectors
Blueshirts
Geek Squad Agents

Adventures from the Forum

Influencing Sales

Video
• Weekly video
– Best Buy news
– Product spotlight
• Bestbuy.com video reviews
• Best Buy Customers
http://tiny.cc/BBYCustomers
• Best Buy Employees:
http://tiny.cc/BBYEmployees
http://ourstories.iambestbuy.com/
• Best Buy Leadership:
http://tiny.cc/BBYLeaders

Twitter
• English
– Gina_BestBuy – news, information, support
– BBY_Community – news, information, support
– RewardZone – deals, support
– BestBuy_Outlet - deals
• Spanish
– BBY_Comunidad – news, information, support
• French
– BBY_Communaute – news, information, support
• Best Buy Connect
– Aggregates employees Twitters: http://bestbuyinc.com/connect/

Twitter Example

Insignia – Ideas Into Action
Supporting
Listening
Innovating
“Successful innovation only
happens when you listen.
At Insignia, our customers
inspire the products
we create.”

@15 – Empowering Teens

Facebook - Campaign Alignment

Making Your Own Best Buy
Best Buy’s Remix – open API

Transparency
• Blog: Kathleen Edmond, Best Buy’s Chief Ethics Officer
“By making ethics a completely transparent dialogue, Best Buy can
be a leader in ethical standards for our employees, our customers,
and our shareholders. Please feel free to join the conversation.”
http://www.kathleenedmond.com
– Discussion transparency ethical challenge Best Buy deals with
– Asks questions of the community to hear its voice
• Recent Topic
– Employee Falsified Time Records for His Peer
– Feeling Like They Were Out of Choices
– Best Buy Wins Ethics Award
– Sexting
• Does Best Buy as a retailer of mobile phones have a social responsibility to
customers to inform them of the risks of this practice?
– Employee Returns Vendor Gift to Store
– Supervisor Takes Massive Discounts
– Manager Terminated
– Conspiracy and kickbacks at Best Buy

Brand Recovery
• Scanning the blogosphere, seeking out
customers we can assist
From Negative
To Positive

Employee Knowledge

Internal Communities
• Best Buy
– Watercooler
• 1.2m posts to date
• Discount issue – 26 pages deep
– Mix
– Wiki
• Contact Centers
– VoiceBox
– VoiceBox 2.0
• Geek Squad
– Geek Squad Forums

Questions?
Gina
Manager, Communities / Social Media Strategist
Creating meaningful communication in a virtual world
My blog: forums.bestbuy.com
My Twitter: twitter.com/Gina_BestBuy