Best Buy wanted to be a resource for customers beyond their experience in the stores. They knew technology people enjoy today is sometimes challenging to use and learning the details of product features, benefits and sharing can make heads spin. The company developed a unique way to connect with customers through their @twelpforce account to provide real-time interaction.

Twitter Strategy: Instant Connections

Best Buy empowered the "blue shirt" members of its Geek Squad tech support service and corporate employees to staff their @twelpforce account on Twitter. People use their own Twitter account to ask questions directly to @twelpforce, and any Best Buy employee, working on company time, can provide answers using an @reply to the customer. By tagging their tweets with #twelpforce, the answer is sent through the @twelpforce account, allowing anyone to search the feed for topics they are researching.

As of 1/11/09, @twelpforce has provided over 19,500 answers to customer inquiries. They've had a tremendous response from employees as well, with over 2,300 signed up to answer questions.