As we focus on creative and the power of ideas, let’s not forget that today, great creative is about more than print campaigns or TV spots. Best Buy is using a Twitter feed dubbed TwelpForce” for customer service outreach that is inherently social, and hugely helpful— one-to-one tech support with live technology pros tweeting suggestions and tips to everyday users of the products sold by the everything-you-could-possibly-need appliance stores.

TwelpForce was conceived by Crispin Porter + Bogusky/Boulder as a great way to integrate Best Buy’s customer service with truly social media. The service was launched in summer 2009 and aimed specifically at college students heading back to school. The stores already had their on-site Blue Shirts and traveling Geek Squad, so TwelpForce seemed like a very organic extension of the store’s existing customer service tactics. To extend the service further, they back up the Twitter Feed with a searchable online archive that also allows customer service feedback.

The feed is staffed by trained Blue Shirt employees, who aim to respond to customer tweets within ten minutes. Each Blue Shirt posts using an individual Twitter identification, so customers can build support relationships with specific Blue Shirts if they choose. TwelpForce, in fact, connects the Best Buy’s brand to personal service in an era when automation and poor customer support is practically a given across all indistries.

TwelpForce grabbed a Titanium Grand Prix Lion award at the 2010 Cannes International Advertising Festival. And not incidentally, TwelpForce boosted Best Buy’s sales of laptops, exceeding Fall 2009 goals by 40 percent. Who says social can’t be converted to sales?