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My New BFF: Tony Hsieh of Zappos
Posted on August 18, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Once upon a time I resisted Twitter. My affair with micro-blogging began mostly as an experiment. At first, the whole idea felt narcissistic. Who cares what I’m doing right now? Can one say anything meaningful in 140 characters? Nevertheless, I joined Twitter and wrote a few cryptic posts about the mundane things happening in my daily life. I doubted that anyone would read what I had written—let alone “follow” me. But all that changed one night when I was looking for a new pair of shoes on Zappos.
Unexpected Results
After thirty minutes of fruitless searching, I came across a particularly garish pair of Ralph Lauren metallic loafers, I couldn’t help but throw a “Twitter fit” and write about my frustration. By the next morning, Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, was following me! (Apparently, Zappos tracks Twitter writers to see who mentions their company.)
Then I started to do a little investigating. Tony has used the power of social media to such an advantage, his company has become a social phenomenon. He and his leadership team maintain an extensive blog about their brand and its values at http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/ceo-and-coo-blog. The employees also have their own Zappos Twitter accounts, through which the company has given them the freedom to Tweet about whatever they want. That may sound like risky business—but instead, it’s worked to their advantage.
A Leap of Faith
Instead of attempting to control what their employees write, Zappos encourages self-expression. In regards to policy, Mr. Hsieh notes,
“If you don’t trust your employees to tweet freely, it’s an employee or leadership issue, not an employee Twitter policy issue.”
At the time of writing this article, Tony has 1,148,405 followers (twitter.com/zappos). And the other employees who Twitter under the Zappos name also have audiences of multiple thousands. Zappos has become a powerhouse of branding by putting unrestrained social media to work.
Lesson learned: Don’t be afraid of your own people. Embrace them and then set them loose to do the selling for you.
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Burkey Belser
Burkey Belser, president and creative director, pioneered legal services marketing. He has been quoted on brand design topics by dozens of industry publications and is highly rated as a speaker on topics from branding to information design.