Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton-Jan

Have you all heard the ads for the Twelpforce?  This is a Twitter service created and staffed by Best Buy. The one-line bio reads “A collective force of Best Buy technology pros offering tech advice in Tweet form.”  You just add @twelpforce to the beginning of your Tweet, and your tech support question gets sent to the Twelpforce, and they answer.  They’re nearing 4,500 followers already. 

So…basically this is free tech support, in Tweet format, from Best Buy.  What’s in it for them?  Advertising and consumer exposure, of course.  Subscribe to their feed and not only do you get the Tweets of tech help, but you get product recommendations (carefully crafted in all likelihood) and re-directions from one product to others.  Advertising, advertising, advertising!  For more info, see the official Twelpforce page on the Best Buy website.

So, what could libraries do along these lines?  Twitter reference services, like many libraries are offering now.  We’re doing this…we’re just not marketing it very well.  We need to use jazzier social networking profile names.  Make our social network profile pages look cooler.  Advertise the service everywhere in the community, and not wait for them to come to some hidden page on our website proper to find it.  We can do this, people!  We just need to think faster and smarter.