Since its founding in 1966 in Minnesota, Best Buy has become a multinational electronics powerhouse. You would imagine that such a company wouldn’t fall into any real financial hardships….Right? In truth though, in recent years, BestBuy have had to deal with a sharp drop in sales and profits due to the increased competition coming from industry giants Amazon and Walmart. In fact it got so bad that in August of 2012 they had to have a $1 Billion dollar injection from their founder Richard Schulze to keep it in a healthy financial position.
Since that time, BestBuy have begun to increase the amount of time that they spend across their social media channels. What they have begun to do is communicate extensively online, some of which is the the best in the industry for customer communications. In fact a study by Liel Leibovitz, an associate professor at New York University in 2012, saw it come out on top in terms of customer communication.
So how have they done it?
Arguably the most effective of these campaigns is the one that they run on Facebook. Despite the Facebook page being created in 2008, it only really began to take effect when they began to use it to connect to their consumer base through promotional offers. One example of such promotional offers was the awarding of rewards points that they could convert into gift vouchers to use in store. The way that people acquired these points would be by liking their Facebook page and taking their online polls. This has lead to them acquiring over 6.7 million likes on their Facebook page alone.
Another aspect to Best Buy’s social media revamp is their Twitter setup. Unlike many companies, Best Buy has multiple twitter pages with each one relating to certain aspect of the company, examples include the Best Buy Deals twitter feed and the Best Buy Mexico Twitter feed. Twitter users could then get the information that is relevant to them quickly. Their flagship Twitter page currently has a follower count of over 377,000 people.
Along with their new stance on social media, they have also implemented a strict social media policy on their employees. This is becoming increasingly common and helps to avoid any negative publicity that may arise from individual’s comments online.
In summary, Best Buy have pieced together one of the most well thought out and managed SMCs that’s out there today. Should you get the opportunity to do so, take a look as to how they interact with their consumers so well online. You may even pick up a few tips yourself.
Content Assistant – Daniel Horton – @ItsDanielHorton
