Best Buy and Twitter

This morning on one of the local Sacramento area news stations, they put out a question to their viewers.  To paraphrase the question was "What do you think about Best Buy using Twitter as a qualification for hiring future employees?" Apparently Best Buy wants to make sure their future employees are "social" and have some sense of technology. In short Best Buy wants to have their future hires with a minimum of 250 followers on Twitter.

Most of the viewers who responded were against such hiring criteria.  The most famous reply was "I don't even have a Twitter account, so there is no way I can qualify for that job.... and I think this is discrimination"  I can understand the frustrations of those who would not meet that criteria, but I can also see where Best Buy is trying to "stay current with the times..."  Twitter is large and is growing. I can give first hand experience on this one folks.  A couple of months ago,  I thought Twitter was something that Ashton, Oprah, Shaq, and a few other celebs did to keep the public updated.  Since I have joined, I have seen how this thing can be beneficial, both socially, educational wise, business growth, and research.  I am an advocate of Twitter!

Best Buy can institute their own criteria for job qualifications and I think this is intelligent on their part.  Imagine having an army of employees with large follower bases.  Whenever there were sales, specials, new merchandise, announcements, and grand openings, the "army" could tweet this information to their followers.  The reach is staggering and potentially more effective than some other forms of advertising.

People of Facebook and MySpace, don't discount Twitter. Maybe open up your horizons and use Twitter as another means to stay "connected" to your world.  It could actually help you land a job!

July 17, 2009 and I am bullish on Sacramento

David Ohara

Twitter - @dwo34