Best Buy has a reputation for excellent customer service and online savvy that has its UK rivals worried even before its debut here next year. Some of its efforts in social media are examples of both.

Last week it was reported the US electricals giant — which recently launched its UK website and is recruiting staff for its UK launch — is organising its festive TV ad campaign around a Twitter account.

Specifically, Best Buy is promoting its collective Twitter-based online help centre, the (horrifically named) “Twelpforce”.

Twelpforce is a Twitter account that hundreds of Best Buy employees can access to answer customer queries. Employees can join the service that pools employees’ individual Twitter accounts by registering using their company ID on a specially set up website at Bbyconnect.appspot.com.

Harnessing staff expertise in this way is an idea likely to be widely imitated. Last month Debenhams equipped six Oxford Street store assistants with mobile phones to answer customer queries on the retailer’s Twitter account. Baby steps in the right direction.