Welcome to Blue Shirt Nation

Social-media consultant Maruggi says that exposing so many of its internal and personal conversations to the rest of the world is not for every company, but for some organizations it can bring powerful, if somewhat intangible benefits. In an age when people have deep mistrust for institutions, it’s up to marketers to try to make brands and corporations appear “human” to consumers, he says. Social networking can be an effective way to do that, letting individuals become the “face” of a company. “Even on line, there is an element of trust that the individual gets that the company does not get,” Maruggi says.

Inside the company, smart social networking can help break down the proverbial information “silos”—structures that keep valuable information from being shared across departments.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata, consumer technology columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and author of the recently published Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging Can Help or Hurt Your Company, says Best Buy has been “unusually aggressive” about using social networking to help break down those barriers. His book profiles how several companies are using Twitter to change the way they communicate with employees and customers. Many companies are experimenting with social media, but Ojeda-Zapata is aware of very few large companies embracing it to the extent that Best Buy has.

Koelling says that it’s probably overselling Blue Shirt Nation to say it’s broken down the silos at Best Buy. But it has helped to make those silos more transparent, and given employees a tool—and permission—to share information across departments.

Why is that so important? Because growth and innovation happen across silos, Koelling says. Any big or new idea is usually nothing but reassembling old parts, and the odds of putting those parts together advantageously increases when employees are sharing information across departments. “There’s a freer horizontal flow than there’s ever been,” he adds.

Bendt and Koelling have another explanation for the benefits of openness: Ideas are cheap, and they expire faster than ever in today’s information economy. What separates a company or individual from the pack is the ability to sort, process, and polish ideas. By sharing concepts, even rough drafts, the feedback lets a person focus and refine more efficiently.

That’s what happened with Pfeifer’s video game proposal. In the months since he shared it on Blue Shirt Nation, Pfeifer has added, subtracted, and rewritten sections of his plan. (He added an introduction for people not familiar with video game sales, for example.) By the time it landed on Dunn’s desk, it was a stronger document.

Pfeifer’s 30-minute meeting with Dunn last September sailed by in his mind, and he walked away feeling a stronger connection with the company.

“When you finally get to chat with him, you really get to see that he’s just a person like everybody else,” Pfeifer says. Dunn, he adds, is “just a really cool guy, in a suit.”