5 Consumer Electronics Companies That Are Innovating with Social Networks

From Social Times:

Is there any industry that isn’t jumping on the social media bandwagon? We’ve seen politicians using Twitter, Facebook and other social networks with mixed success, business schools that are producing social media competent graduates, and a recent business-to-business use of Facebook ads. So it’s really no wonder that tech companies – with their tech savvy workforce – are embracing social media in droves. Here is a list of 5 consumer electronics companies that are using existing social networks (or creating their own) to leverage the power of the social web.

Best Buy – twelpforce

Best Buy has created a social space for their employees to tweet and blog customer support. The #twelpforce tag is added to any employee’s tweet that is directed towards a customer’s IT question, and all tagged tweets are aggregated on their Best Buy Connect website. This is meant as a central location for employees and customers to search and find answers to common and not-so-common problems.

HP – 48Upper

HP’s latest venture is 48Upper: “the first Social Collaborative IT Management solution to fully embrace social networking and the power of the community directly within the processes that run IT.” It connects IT professionals to one another and enables them to solve problems efficiently using the power of online collaboration. Some of the tools included in this multi-media heavy network are video conferencing, virtual meeting rooms, voice chats and unified messaging.

Philips – Connect Us

Philips has opted to go the internal social network route with Connect Us. Using Socialcast, Philips created Connect Us as the “employee community” in April, and has seen success in its internal virality through word of mouth and an intense educational campaign by Philips higher-ups. The network itself emphasizes collaboration and security, and has seen nearly 2,000% growth in employee adoption from April to mid-June.

Panasonic – Facebook, Twitter

More of a traditionalist company when it comes to social media, Panasonic uses Facebook and Twitter to connect with its customers and employees. From the looks of things, the wall posts on the Facebook page and the company’s tweets are similar, if not the same. There isn’t too much diversity here. However, Panasonic has created a page just for fans of the Lumix camera recently – which, apparently, is a popular enough camera to warrant one.

Epson – Facebook, Twitter

Epson’s social media campaign uses the Facebook/Twitter staples that most large brands have set up lately, and goes further with help from Walt & Company. They created video campaigns on DailyMotion, Flickr, MegaVideo and Youtube featuring how-tos designed to get customers excited about the Epson brand. This multi-media and multi-network approach is robust, and shows that the company is trying to engage with its online customers.

So which one of these approaches do you think is best? Internal social networks, like HP and Philips? Or ones focused primarily on customer support like Best Buy? Or maybe it’s better to use the networks that are already in place, like Epson and Philips?