garykoelling

Please help me answer this question - she's driving me nuts:

-----Original Message-----
From: Adriana
Sent: Wed 6/25/2008 2:24 PM
To: Koelling, Gary
Subject: RE: Blue Shirt Nation

Last question:
Besides Dell, who do you think are the brands to watch as far as breaking into social networks are concerned....this is the most important question.

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From: Koelling, Gary
Sent: Fri 6/27/2008 6:14 PM
To: Adriana
Subject: RE: Blue Shirt Nation

jeez, nothing like a huge question. all of them? i don't know. here's some little ones, they grow like mushrooms http://www.go2web20.net/

beyond that, you tell me. i'd love to know.

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-----Original Message-----
From: Adriana
Sent: Tue 7/1/2008 9:44 AM
To: Koelling, Gary
Subject: RE: Blue Shirt Nation

seriously.....this is killing my brain. What brands to watch for in social media...who is doing a good job....This is like trying to answer what came first the chicken or the egg. Right when i think i have something- it switches.
The little ones are good. Im talking corporate. Who is the corporate world is acting human? Like that small convenient store owner who knows everybody but advertised to no one....(Your meeting from may 15th with target and GM ha!) What corporate guys are getting it at least the listening part!!!
What do you think about Johnson and Johnson?

Got an email from a college student doing a summer paper on social networks. Here's my response:

Adriana,

So these are some pretty tough questions but I’ll do my best.

“What has Best Buy accomplished by launching the site [BSN]?”
I think BSN gives Best Buy a communication platform that is non-hiearchical.  Because there is a certain level of anonymity on the site users feel more like peers with other users. This is important for everyone along the hierarchy spectrum from the COO to the cashier at a store in Riverside, CA.  It allows people to engage in honest dialog and get to know each other as humans - something that’s easy to forgo in a giant corporation.

“What are some of the disadvantages?”
I think it’s incredibly easy for people to forget the ‘social’ part of a social network. In some ranks there is a tendency to look at the BSN community as a vending machine for answers without understanding that the answers they are looking for require good questions and relationships. You can’t just walk into a cocktail party without knowing anyone and expect to hook up just because you showed up.

“What are some of the ways you keep people active in this online community?”
At first we thought we’d have to bribe people to contribute. We ran contests and gave out awards. But what they really wanted was tool that was valuable on it’s own. A place to easily find other people I have stuff in common with so I can share my stories. So we spend most of our time listening to what the users want and rolling out those features in ways that are easy to use.

“How do you know it’s working? What metric do you think is most important to measure?”
 I wish I had a really brainy answer for this one but I don’t. I guess how you define whether or not it’s working is the first step. For me it’s a laboratory that lets me learn. For others it’s a way to share best practices. I must admit I do look at how many users show up every day and how long they stay. But that doesn’t really reflect the total impact. Culturally it has had a huge impact on how people think about solving problems and how they think about their coworkers - as more than their title. So for me, I measure the amount and impact of the stories it generates - more stories means it’s working better.

“Why an employee network? How did Best Buy decide that this was the best way to tap intot he social network stream?”
The average age of a Best Buy employee is like 20. They’re right in the prime demo. But the real reason was to get a better for what’s happening across the whole enterprise. We’ve got around a thousand stores scattered over the US - it’s hard to keep everyone connected and get a feel for what’s going on. As it turns out, it’s been a great place for us to get educated on how to use social networks without appearing clueless.