Let’s face it, social media is a weak play generating artifical bonds that can be easily erased.  As marketers we need to try harder.  Buzz requires relevance.  Not relevance on the brand’s terms, rather a combination of our target’s relevance in a space true to the brand — a space the brand can own.  Passion is key.  If you want to be socialy relevant long term, the brand space must be something the target is passionate about.  Successful social marketing lies at the crosshairs of relevance and passion.

From a consumer perspective the easiest way to get to “me” is by embracing my passion, and Johnsonville Brats is inching their way into America’s weekend passions.  To begin with Johnsonville has the big Taste Grill Semi traveling the country giving our free brats at major events throughout the country.  This lives within a passion (and hits the spot), however, the semi is limited to one passion point per weekend.   So, the brand needed to go deeper.  It needed to go to Spartanville.

Spartanville lives at Michigan State University.  Johnsonville took over a part of Spartan Stadium with it’s brand in context of a passion shared by 75,000 fans during those fall Saturday’s.  Spartanville lives at the crosshairs of the fan passion and the brand.  For years Johnsonville has been running the “-ville” brand suffix campaign to reshape food genres (“Pastaville”), time (“Weekendville”), and consumers (Share your Ville video contest).  Sometimes it seemed like the brand was talking to itself, other times it may hit home for some people in a relevant way.

Relevance is tricky — the broader the relevance the more likely a brand can’t own it (i.e. think Valentine’s Day or ), and the narrower the relevance the more targeted and more costly the effort.  Micro-relevance, like micro-conversations, is at the heart of social marketing, but are rarely done due to the logistics of time, cost and effort (and sometimes expertise).

Check out the list of postings on my wall.  Specifically, look at the comments and likes to see which marketers are getting the love back. 

My favorite is the Qdoba kissing contest (way to generate CGC on V-Day).  I only listed one posting, but there are multiple postings on my wall of people kissing for a free BOGO.

AutoTrader.comWhile we always love cars, we love them a little bit more today in honor of Valentine’s Day. Read all our car-love content right here today! http://www.autotrader.com/car- love.jsp
Comments: 3   Likes: 3

Zehnder’s of Frankenmuth™  Happy Valentine’s Day! On the menu tonight at Zehnder’s Restaurant: Lump Crab Cakes to start off with, 18 oz. Porterhouse or Char-Grilled Filet with Demi Glace and of course, a sweet treat for the Valentine and special Valentine drink specials…
Comments: 1  Likes: 14

Pep Boys – Manny, Moe & Jack  Happy Valentine’s Day! Picking up some flowers? Or something for the mechanic at heart? Tell us—what’s the best or worst Valentine’s gift you ever received? – The Boys
Comments: 0  Likes: 2

Chili’s Grill & Bar Win a night out from our friends at ClickItToGiftIt! In 100 words tell them your funniest, craziest or most embarrassing Valentine’s story, then vote on the best tale starting Thursday, Feb. 17 at 12 p.m. EST. The story with the most votes win a $100 eGift Card valid at Chili’s, Maggiano’s, Macaroni Grill or On the Border along with a $50 eGift Card to Regal theatres. Submit your story now! http://on.fb.me/dVdcD8
Comments: 22  Likes:  97

Starbucks  Happy Valentine’s Day! This couple met each other at Starbucks, but they were Starbucks across the street. They might have met faster if they sent a Starbucks Card eGift? http://sbux.co/StarbucksCardeG

Comments:  414    Likes: 5,173

Advance Auto Parts You love your car. See our latest Poll for creative ways to show it on Valentine’s Day.

Don’t forget a Valentine’s gift for the love of your life – your car. Which gift would you choose?

1: A lush bouquet of spark plugs and ignition wires

2: An embossed car bra (for those romantic, weekend road trips)

3: A flask of exquisitely aged antifreeze

… See More
Comments:  7  Likes: 9

  

 Chili’s Grill & Bar  Happy Valentine’s Day! We hope you spend the day with family and loved ones, and if you don’t have plans, stop by Chili’s to try our 2 for $20 with your sweetheart.

Comments: 29  Likes:  236

 

 Weber Grills   Happy Valentine’s Day from Weber! We truly love all of our fans.

 

Comments:  29  Likes:  191

 

   Qdoba    Happy Valentine’s Day ♥ Don’t forget, today all at participating Qdoba locations we’re doing a special BOGO for a Kiss. Kiss your special someone, your mom, friend or even the random person behind you in line to get a BUY ONE, GET ONE FREE entree! No coupon necessary – just your lips and someone to kiss and someone to kiss! (Valid only at participating locations, available here: http://bit.ly/fTWwQP)

  Comments: 21   Likes: 49

   Denny’s    Do you love Valentine’s Day or hate it? Either way, Denny’s will be open to singles looking to mingle and couples looking to canoodle!

 Comments: 25    Likes: 76

   Chick-fil-A    Like this if you love Chick-fil-A as much as we love our raving fans!

 

Comments:  374   Likes: 17,073

 

  Sonic Drive-In  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Comments:  26   Likes:  340

  

  Volvo Cars US    Happy Valentine’s Day from Volvo. May your day be filled with love and joy—and ideally a Volvo. http://cot.ag/f6JtSE

Comments: 13  Likes: 64

  

  BMW USA  Will you be my Valentine?  Yours,  BMW

Comments: 351  Likes: 2,064

 Coca-Cola  Every day can be Valentine’s Day.

Comments: 802 Likes: 19,212

  

  Denny’s  Happy Valentine’s Day from all of us at Denny’s! Make sure you get a free Pancake Puppies Sundae for yourself and send one to someone special using our Valentine’s Day cardmaker!

Comments: 7    Likes: 71

  

  Ben & Jerry’s  Today is all about Love…Love of ice cream!! It’s the 4th anniversary of when we all fell in love with AmeriCone Dream, which we’re happy to report is now available in Scoop Shops! For one day only – Feb 15th – you can buy one scoop of AmeriCone Dream and get a second scoop free! Here’s the really cool thing: Stephen Colbert is donating all of his proceeds from the sale of this flavor. What a guy!

Comments: 25  Likes:316

  

  Ruby Tuesday   Happy Valentine’s Day! 

Comments: 54   Likes: 511

 

   Audi USA  Still looking for that perfect Valentines Day gift? To help get your wheels spinning, our friends at Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com put together a list of the Top 10 Turn-On Cars for Valentines Day. Can you guess which car they selected as number one? – http://audi.us/f2ppck

 Comments: 156   Likes: 3,888  

 

   Best Buy  Valentine’s Day is only one day away and if you still aren’t sure what to get that “special someone” we have the perfect 2-Day sale for you!

Comments: 15   Likes: 135

 

 Little Debbie  This Valentine’s Day, we wanted to share a rare behind-the-scenes look at how Little Debbie became America’s sweetheart. Watch this news clip and let us know if you learned anything surprising!

 Little Debbie: the sweetheart of Valentine’s Day   A Knoxville TV news crew recently got the inside scoop on how Little Debbie became an American icon.

Comments: 57  Likes:  344

 

 Chicken of the Sea Love is in the air. Impress your Valentine with Easy Salmon Italiano. This dish pairs Chicken of the Sea Pink Salmon with spaghetti squash to create a truly delightful meal. Your sweetie will thank you. http://bit.ly/dtRyNL

Comments: 1  Likes: 3

 

  Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Happy Valentine’s Day! You get the sweet, you get the hot, you get the picture!

Comments: 11  Likes: 46

 

  

 

 

For me it is not a surprise, and a little of apples and oranges comparison.  For example, comparing fans to visits is incorrect.  Facebook fans are not all active on the page, in fact I would argue the majority of fans are not active on a marketer’s page in a given month.

If we want to truly make it an apple to apple comparison, Facebook fans are more analogous to an marketer’s email list — people who opted in to stay in touch with the brand.  For comparison purposes let’s assume Kraft had an email list equivalent to their facebook fan volume.  The exposure rates would be similar if a message was sent out in email and facebook.  While we know the exposure volume, we don’t know how many people acknowledged the message.  We only know the response rate (e.g. likes, comments, postings).  Comparing facebook to email, in a given email blast a marketer would expect a 25% to 35% response rate or about 2.6 million responding.  I doubt that 2.6 million people are active on Kraft facebook communications.

“Digital Direct Math” aside, there is several data nuggets in the article.  One is the extreme drop in web site traffic for Kraft.  The article points out this may be a function of marketers shifting email lists to facebook fans.  Logically, it makes sense.  If my email list declines (or becomes more passive) the number of people going to the site would drop with each blast.  

While we could micro-analyze each digital experience we need to take a macro view the online experience.  We need to stop assessing a brand/consumer presence by one destination or domain (e.g. facebook, website, YouTube Channel). This is so 2003.   The online brand presence should be measured as an aggregate of all content, all experiences, all conversations.   Kraft is probably looking at their online presences in totality, understand the purpose of each channel within the brand / marketing strategy.

From a consumer perspective this makes sense too.  Marketers are smarter to integrate their brand experince into the consumer’s online experience, instead of brand-centric view expecting consumer’s to come to the brand destination.  A marketer’s online investment strategy should not be restricted to one destination, rather it should assess opportunities holistically, and determine the best places to intercept the desired target, at the right time, right relevance, and right mindset.  This may be facebook, search, email — or all the above.

I received an email today inviting me to try a new crispy chicken taco via facebook.  However, getting the coupon seems to be a little loco (their words, not mine). 

In reviewing Del Taco’s facebook presence, you can see they are trying hard to build their fanbase (currently at 96,300 fans) and engage them too.   Del Taco has created many facebook elements including a webisode (The Del Taco Special Show with Wes & Barry).

Unfortunately for Del Taco the facebook banter the past several days is more about the missing coupon then anything else.  To their credit the facebook admin is highly apologetic about the SNAFU.

As I reviewed in a past entry (Can I bribe you to be my brand fan?), coupons can be an immediate draw, but are brands truly attracting brand fans or the coupon fringe?

Nabisco is not the first (nor last) brand to incentivize people to join their fan page.  Different brand stimuli have been used by Outback, Babies’R'Us, and Sears just to name a few.  Outback offered a free Bloomin’ Onion, while Babies’R'Us gave fans a $5 gift card.  Sears like Nabisco offers coupons to new fans.

Nabisco’s offer is not really free (note the asterisk).  The deal is fans can download a coupon on the first Monday of every month (limit 500,000 coupons per month) throughout 2010.  The coupon is good for a free package of Chips Ahoy when you purchase one package of Chips Ahoy and a gallon of milk.

 The second question is what type of  fan does a brand attract with incentives?  I don’t know how many fans of the Nabisco Cookies page came for love of brand or love of free cookies.  However, there is some insight by reviewing the page content.  In reviewing the past 24 hours there was over 30 postings.  Fan postings are primarily shout outs to their love of cookies.

• J Blair: we love cookies Yesterday at 4:57pm
• L Goodman: we are all cookie monster in this house:)Yesterday at 4:56pm
• V Coffey: MMMMMMMM COOKIES!!!! Me love cookies!! Yesterday at 4:38pm
• A Orr: Nabisco cookies and milk?! hummmmmmmm Yesterday at 3:13pm

Not every post was for the love of cookies.  There was some banter about the coupon promotion.   On the discussion page there seems to be a little angst around the use of the coupon.

• J. Mowen: Went to the store this morning and tried to use my coupon. I admit I should have read the date ahead, but what kind of coupon is only good for three days!!!! Leave it to a huge corporation like this to put such great limitations on the deal!  (Yesterday at 10:13am)
• J. Moore:no stupid coupon nabisco you suck (March 8 at 1:21pm)
• B. Dyer: NO COUPON.  WHAT IS WRONG WITH NABISCO? MUST BE RUN BY A MALE (Tue at 6:07pm)
•  
  D. Cooley:We have two major grocery chains in St. Louis/St. Charles Missouri. They both rejected my coupon because they SAY, it is not posted in the stores, that they reject all internet coupons for free items or even cents off! I talked with the store managers and they say they were not told by Nabisco they were having a promotion, and they would not accept a free item internet coupon!!! Thanks for a good idea, but it turned out to be useless to me!  (March 1 at 6:21pm) 

The question is intriguing.  Marketers struggle with the valuation of social initiatives.    While no one questions the value of someone advocating your brand, people question the impact of a social campaign because …

• Social programs do not fit in a media model.
• Social is one discussion at a time, where traditional is about a mass broadcast.
• Social programs are about effectiveness not efficiency.
• It is difficult to relate social interactions to a sale.
• Social programs are about fueling a conversation, not controlling the message.

  … therefore we often ask the wrong valuation questions, because we are comparing social campaign to traditional campaigns – traditional measurement.  It is interesting people are not asking what a television viewer is worth.  Although we know what it costs to reach the viewer (CPP), we do  not valuate the viewer.  In other words, with traditional messaging we look at efficiency of distribution not a valuation of target impact.  When we gauge the success of a traditional campaign, we point to shifts in funnel measures, and there is nothing wrong with this.  However, we do not point to a specific commercial airing nor try to correlate it’s impact.   Enough about television, let’s get back to facebook.

I believe there is merit in the social valuation or what a facebook fan is worth.  The worth of a fan can be evaluated by looking at the cost incurred to generate a facebook presence and the brand value received from fans.  To accomplish I would recommend a three tier approach: recruitment, engagement, and advocacy.

Recruitment
Recruitment is the cost to attract people to your facebook page.  Some brands have the luxury of fans building their fan presence on Facebook (for example the two Coca-Cola fans who built the initial coke presence on Facebook).  However,

The value in recruiting can be assessed by the quality of fan.  Are you attracting people who have an emotional connection with the brand?  Or are you attracting people based on a non-brand premise like a contest or shared passion point?  Many brand run contests or sweepstakes to attract fans.   The value proposition for a contest is a false value rarely within a brand’s DNA, therefore most fans attracted in this manner are less likely to be engaged — unless there is another contest.

A shared passion point between the brand and fan (e.g. sports, entertainment, fashion).  An example for many marketers is their NASCAR sponsorship.  M&Ms sponsor a Kyle Busch’s Toyota car, and they also have a facebook page for the sponsorship.  It is no surprise the comments on the page center more around the driver than the chocolate covered candy.  Lucky for M&Ms the fans on the M&Ms Racing page  (6,653 fans) pale in comparison to the M&Ms page (545,688 fans).  

Measuring recruitment can be measured in Cost Per Fan Acquired (cost incurred /  fans added).  The CPFA will vary when you consider the following:

• Zero cost assuming fans are attracted to the brand.
• Cents per fan by using  an email campaign soliciting fans from an existing brand email list.
• Dollars per fan using a targeted online media campaign to attract fans.
• Cost of an item to attract fans.  For example Outback treated facebook fans to a free Bloomin’ Onion last year to fans and more recently Babies R Us offered a $5 gift card to attract fans (per BlackFin 360 nice blog entry about the campaign).

In general the less you pay will equate to a higher quality of fan, but it is still difficult to assess the quality of fan during recruitment — quality will be defined by engagement and advocacy.

Engagement
Engagement is the cost(s) to reach and engage the fanbase.   Reach is simply the cost to update your facebook presence.  The benefit of a facebook reach strategy is keeping the brand top of mind with fans — a tactic shared by other social channels like  Twitter or other direct channels like email.   The value of the facebook message (or call to action) will dictate whether the message will result in additional awareness or purchase. 

If reach is your only goal, then you might want to rethink your facebook strategy.  Facebook is about community.  It is about engagement.  The better facebook pages are built around engagement or getting fans involved.  Engagement is fueled by persistent community content and activities to get fans to take action — to respond — to feel.   Some examples include Dunkin Donuts (1,228,000 fans) or Tide (354,000 fans).   If you look at both facebook pages, there is nothing really profound — no “ah-hah” moment, because both sites do the little things well.  They pepper content with activities to keep people engaged with the brand, and fans respond.  Intermingled between the brand posts you will find fan shout outs about their affection for the brand.

Engagement should be measured through effectiveness of the facebook interaction.  Effectiveness can be valued through interaction rate or transaction. 

Interaction rate is the participation level relative to total fan base.   If a brand has 100,000 fans and in a given week 1,000 participate on the page then the interaction rate is 1%.   The interaction rate is an indicator to the health of the brand engagement.  Different factors will effect the interaction rate including how much natural brand conversation exists; the brand participation on the page; and the emotive attachment fans have to the brand.

A second measure is transaction.  Transaction can apply to a purchase or customer service response.    A non-intrusive to measure transactional impact for a purchase would be using coupons to determine if fans purchase the product (think about Outback’s Bloomin’ Onion coupons).  Another method to determine purchase frequency would be to survey purchase habits of fans.  For high-consideration purchases (e.g. autos, electronics) you would survey purchase consideration instead of  purchase frequency.

Customer service transaction incorporates facebook into your customer service strategy.  The goal would be to reduce the number of customer service calls by providing an interaction method on facebook.  Best Buy has been playing with this idea on Twitter (e.g. TwelpForce) and is using their facebook page in a similar manner.  The advantage of a customer service facebook page is the power of the community would assist in answering a customer’s question (instead of crowdsourcing you could call it “Crowdservicing”). 

Advocacy
Advocacy is a desired result for a facebook investment.  It also may be the toughest to measure.  The desire of any brand would be to have their band of fans spread how greatness of the brand/product.  Advocates are people we know.  They are people we trust.  The power of the advocate can be the most influential marketing force (nothing new – this is a Word Of Mouth fundamental truth).  However, measuring facebook advocacy impact is not easy.

Advocacy can be measure through brand exposure and purchase impact.  Brand exposure are the social impressions in a fans news feed that are generated from a page interaction.  They can be as simple as fanning a brand to ”Like” something to generating comments on the brand page to using a brand app. 

The brand exposure would be computed by taking the each fan interaction times the social exposure to their feed.  For example, if four fans comment on a topic we would calculate as follows: fan 1 has 110 friends; fan 2 has 150 friends; fan 3 has 300 friends; fan 4 has 250 friends.  The additive value for this brand exposure would be 810 brand impressions.  The likelihood of 810 friends seeing the interaction is remote, therefore this should be seen as an opportunity. 

Looking to the future, facebook should supply brands a threaded brand exposure view.  This is defined as the real brand exposure as oppose to the calculated opportunity as described above.  Facebook should be able to tell how many people are exposed to a friends brand interactions, and better yet, how many people acted on their friend’s brand interaction.   Friend to friends actions can include becoming a fan of the brand or ”liking” / commenting on their friend’s interaction.

The residual value of advocacy’s impact on purchase can be difficult to measure — but not impossible.  Many people are studying the effect of social buzz to purchase.  For example, a study done by Northwestern University’s Kellogg’s School of Management with Motivequest examined the link between online buzz and sales relative to cellular phones (“When talk matters — A Study of Online Performance and Firm Performance”).  The study found a correlation between online buzz and sales.  From this analysis Motivequest (with Northwestern University) created an Online Promoter Score.

What’s the right measure for your page?
These measures outlined will vary by brand, by page, by client.  Therefore I have to add the appropriate measure will depend on the objectives of the site.  A best practice would be to break measures into what you can effect and what is good to know.  Focus on measures that are actionable — that help you achieve you objectives.

A survey by BizRate Research notes many retailers will be offering special one day promotions on Cyber Monday. ”Promotions will range from special email campaigns (32.0%) to specific deals (29.9%) to one-day sales (28.9%). Additionally, one-fourth of retailers (24.7%) will offer free shipping on all purchases. In fact, 72.2 percent of online retailers are planning a special promotion for Cyber Monday, up from 42.7 percent just two years ago.”

Cyber Monday is about the deal, getting a jump on holiday shopping, and for some people avoiding a little work.  With a projected 68 million hitting cyberspace, it makes you wonder if it may also be a social opportunity.  Like Cyber Monday, Black Friday is about the deals too, and for many a social experience too – normally hitting the malls with a friend or family member.  So why not Cyber Monday?

There are many sites (and retailers) dedicated to intercepting cyber-monday shoppers.  Some of the sites like CyberMonday.com even have a facebook page (with about 3,340 fans).  Of course, having a fans on facebook does not necessarily translate to a social experience. 

The idea of virtually shopping with others is in the spirit of  Cyber Monday.   Virtual shopping with friends could manifest itself in different ways like c0-shopping on sites, tracking shopping progress through a status feed, or just simply sharing the latest deal.  Sharing the latest deal would be very simple to do, and benefits both the shopper and retailer.  The shopper gains fame through good-natured bragging, while the retailer gets exposure through word-of-mouth.

Tracking the status of friends as the meander from one shopping cart to the next is another way to socially share the experience.   The shopping path will spur conversation on where they found the best deals or the most unique items.  Similar to sharing the best deal shoppers can brag about their best deals, but also guide each other through Cyber Monday.

Finally, there is the idea of co-shopping.  Imagine an app where you and a friend can co-browse a shopping site.  Similar to an experience at the local mall or department store, friends can share a real-time experience.

Virtual co-shopping may not work on most days, but on Cyber Monday with so many people online,  there seems to be an opportunity to leverage a virtual social shopping experience.  Of course with many good ideas there many be a drawback — you probably do not want management aware you are shopping while you are suppose to be working.

The topic intrigues me as of late.  For many products advice from social groups typically is a primary influencer in products considered and ultimately purchased.  For example, about 20% of new vehicle shoppers state friends and family were the primary influence ( more than any other medium). 

This social factor has influenced people for years — my interest focused on the use of facebook as a “social shopping” tool for shoppers to make educated decision.   By the way, don’t confuse customer reviews and testimonials as social shopping.  Although both may influence a shopper’s decision, they lack the strength of social advice from someone the shopper knows.  Someone the shopper trusts.

Asking the Right Questions
My perspective is the benefit of social shopping is related to the shopper’s inquiry.   Social shopping questions can be unstructured and open ended (Anyone have advice on a new HDTV?) to structured (Anyone have advice on purchasing an HDTV for about $1,000?  or What is a better deal the Sony Bravia XNT-1234 or Panasonic Vizio DDF-1234?).  I believe the usefulness of the response will be more helpful the more structured the question.  To this end I decided to test a structured question meant to give specific advice to an HDTV shopper (see below).

I am looking for a new LCD HDTV for about $1,000 to $1,200 What features are “gotta have” versus “nice to have” versus “not worth it” ?

The goal of the post on facebook was to bucket responses in a way that I can use them.  That is why I structured the question on positive attributes “gotta have” and “nice to have”, and negative attributes “not worth it”.  Through this questions, I was hoping to tap into people within my network who recently purchased a HDTV, and focus on what they were thrilled about in their purchase and/or uncover aspects of buyer’s remorse.

Based on these expectations, the responses somewhat surprised me (see below).

Patrick W

make sure it is 1080i other than that at least 2 HDMIi ports and your good. Buy at Sams club if ur a member they have best return policy in the world! Vizio is great brand for the money (it took two years but they worked out all the kinks in the last two model years) Samsung and sharp are also impressive but more pricey! Good luck!

 

Jay G

You didn’t mention plazma, but compare the differences between the “black” on a plasma vs. an LCD. I don’t own either, but my brother in law has an LCD and swears the “black” on the plasma is so much deeper and clearer. He has mentioned it several times when he’s seen the in-laws tv. I wouldn’t have thought to notice that. Costco and Sams club both rule, but of the two, I give a slight edge to Costco.

 

Jeff H

I’m one to talk, since my newest TV is a 52″ rear projection thats 10+ years old… but if you’re going to research, find out about these new LED Tv’s. They’re like 1″ thick vs LCD which are 3-5″… (I’m hoping you do all the research and then report back!!)

 

Jimmy J

Costco rocks. Check out the power consumption as well. My understanding I’d that plasma is very power hungry.

 

Stevie G

You won’t get an LED in your price range. LCD is good for brighter environments, though I just got a Panasonic Plasma that is nice and bright.

 

Brian G

Don’t worry about the features, just focus on getting the biggest screen possible in your price range. Don’t worry about the picture quality either, only the screen size can properly define your manliness.

 

I’m just waiting for the first marketer to have an official “FaceUp” with their facebook fans.  

People on facebook meet up every day — after work at the bar; at a friends house on the weekend; or every half-decade at a reunion.  Not a new concept within our social circle, however, meeting someone face to face from a facebook brand page is novel, new, not been done (at least to my knowledge and several Google searches).  In other words it is begging for a marketer to be the first or at least the first to coin the term to get full industry credit.

On another note, I doubt a marketer will use “Face Up” since this is the name of a Catholic Magazine.

The ability to fulfill this promise is questionable.  I had several pending purchases, and thought it would be interesting to test the power of Twelp Force to assist me in my decision.

The first purchase related to my 2G iPhone.  I have been thinking about upgrading, but I am hesitant.   Six months after I bought my phone, Apple introduced a 3G phone at a cheaper price.   So, I was curious if it is worth upgrading to a 3Gs or is it better to wait until June 2010 to see if Apple will release a 4G phone.  To this question, I tweeted TwelpForce for assistance.  I didn’t receive much help. 

@egbowe:
I currently own an 2g iphone. should i wait until 4g comes out or buy a 3g now? @twelpforce6:00 PM Aug 25th from web

@Lodenk:
@egbowe There have been no announcements about a 4G iphone, I have the 3GS and the upgrade from using Edge to 3G is great. via @Lodenk

Although I appreciate the honesty (and endorsement for 3G), it became apparent the stadium of TwelpForcers were not any more in the know about Apple’s future plans than I was. 

My second attempt at Twelpforce was in reference to purchasing a new HDTV.  My current Sony was dieing a slow tubular death, so I was in search of a replacement.  I planned on spending about $1,000.   I did a little research on Best Buy’s Site and CNET to get a feel for different features.  I quickly realized I had no clue which features were most important for that price range, and which features weren’t worth buying.  I thought this was a good question to ask TwelpForce.   The following is the twitter exchange:

@egbowe:
I am looking for a new LCD HDTV from $1k to $1.2k, What features are “gotta have” versus “nice to have” versus “not worth it” ? @twelpforce

@agent3012:
@egbowe Here’s some initial HDTV feature tips, if you haven’t already read: http://bit.ly/3KCEJM via @Agent3012

@agent3012:
@egbowe The features I generally look at 1st are contrast ratio, refresh rate (Hz), and the number of inputs. via @agent3012

@BBYCiaran:
@egbowe 1080p and 120hz should be priority via @BBYCiaran

Several initial thoughts on the exchange.  First, the immediate response was impressive.  I do like the information received, although I didn’t find it very useful.  Another point relates to the first tweet response – sending me to a page on Best Buy which lists a glossary of terms and industry jargon doesn’t help.  My goal of talking to someone is to answer my question, not learn it for myself (I already tried that).

I was going to continue the twitter dialogue, but I felt it was fruitless for several reasons.  First being, it is not practical to exchange knowledge in 140 character bits of info. 

Secondly, I don’t think Best Buy Tweeters can truly answer my questions.  Although TwelpForce did a part of my question, the one question I would like to know is “what features are not worth it?” when spending $1,000 on an HDTV.  I could have re-asked the question, but I was losing patience.  So I tried a different tactic, and I did get my questions answered in about two minutes — at a Best Buy.  The store personnel were very helpful.  This is not a surprise to me.  In my experience I find Best Buy Employees helpful and most are knowledgeable about the products they represent. 

I think the TwelpForce is more PR play than a true customer service option.  Look, Best Buy has brain power to answer the question, when you consider their knowledgeable workforce (including Geek Squad).  So, this is not a function of desire, rather a limitation of Twitter as a customer service tool. 

An opportunity for Best Buy would be to not restrict  TwelpForce to the twitter channel.  Having Twitter as the end all be all limits customer interactions to micro-conversations.  Rather TwelpForce should be a mechanism for introduction.  If appropriate, an introduction which follows re-routes people to their different service channels: The Unboxed Community, Email, Phone, or the nearest retail outlet.  I think some agents have already figured re-routing is the way to go.  I did notice some interactions which re-routed people to another channel.

A better opportunity would have been to create (and market) TwelpForce page on facebook.  Although the Twitter feed is a tab on the current Best Buy facebook page, socially, it deserves more prominence.  Possibly it’s own facebook page.  A facebook page would solve some of Twitter’s limitations like the 140 character limitation.  Also, conversations can be threaded (and followed) better.