Best Buy shows corporate world how to use social networking - Dallas Business Journal:

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Instead, they got higher participation inBest Buy's 401(k) plan, lower employee turnover and photos of pets. BlueShirt Nation, named for the polo shirtsa worn bystore staff, is gainin attention nationally as a way to emplou social-networking tools in a corporate It has evolved since Bendt and Koellingh started work on it more than two yeares ago. But the site consistently has helped Best Buy builsd a sense of community among stored employees whose voices rarely are heardf at mostbig companies.
It also has helped the electronicws retailer solve business problems such as which store was shipped the wronvg boxof digital-camera cases and lower-than-desired participationj in the company's retirement plan. BlueShirtf Nation's early mission was to give Best Buy a better sense of the issues faced by employeeswho "breath e the same air as said Koelling, a senior managee of social technology for the company. But Bendt and Koellingh quicklydiscovered that, to engage workers, they had to creatwe a site that employees wanted to use. "Wde found out people want to talk about what they wantes totalk about, whether it was pictures of their cat or Best Buy.
But the one thing they had in common wasBest Buy," said Bendt, also seniofr manager of social technology. After launching an earlyh version ofthe site, they brought in a groupp of employees from stores to "get honest" about what they created. The site now has 22,000 BlueShirt Nation allows users to create their own Web page usinv a template similar to popularconsumere social-networking sites such as Employees can host forums on topics of their choosinbg -- from politics to to storer operations. Koelling and Bendt attribute the site'zs popularity to the ability of employees to freely discus whateverthey want.
"Instead of the breako room, we wanted it to feel like hanginfg out atafter work," Koelling said. Best Buy'sa bottom-up approach fueled the success of BlueShirt Nation and made ita stand-outf example of how to use social networkingf within a corporate said Josh Bernoff, a Forrester Researc h analyst and co-author of "Groundswell," a book that focuses on how companie use "Web 2.0" technologies effectively. Web 2.
0 covers Internegt technologies that allow users to communicate back and forth suchas wikis, collaborative Web sites that multiple users can add to or "Groundswell" used BlueShirt Nation as a case study in social "To take this group that's sometimes frustratede with their jobs and connect them all together took a certai amount of fortitude. Managers have tapped into it, but it's really about what's going on on the sellinbg floor," Bernoff said. The community built by BlueShirr Nation has gone beyond helping employees connecrt withone another.
When Best Buy startes an initiative to boost enrollment inits 401(k) it sponsored a video contest, encouraging people to create clips on what retirement plans meant to them. The effort garnered so much interesft and entries from employees that Best Buy credits it with helpint increase program enrollment by30 percent. The contestt winners got a small budget to redecorate their stor and a chance to present their vide o atBest Buy's headquarters. Employee turnovert at stores often reaches into thedouble digits, but those who use BlueShirt Nation appear more likely to sticm with the company. Turnover rates among employees who use it is slightly more than8 percent, Koelling and Bendt said.
Bernoff also write in his book abouty how Best Buy was quicklu able tohear employees' objections to a pending change in employee-discountt rates. Feedback from BlueShirt Nation helped convince Best Buy to not go forwared with thepolicy change. Best Buy uses othert Web 2.0 technology to connect with employees. It runs "Thee Loop," a program that lets employees post businesd ideas that vie for fundingfrom