Talk about a unique use of social connections. I’ve reported elsewhere how Twitter is being leveraged by various entities (e.g. mining conversations) to tap the power of social connections. But a spur of the moment event occurred today where the power of connections surged in another direction. Like the strong weather that decended suddenly the past few days in Texas and elsewhere, I hardly had time to recognize what was happening.

The Zappos CEO has a Twitter account — @zappos. Somehow I was following his account (not something all that random for me — I check out the value-add of each ‘voice’ before I connect with them). Earlier today he tweets:

I will be randomly selecting someone to get a free pair of shoes from all @zappos followers later tonight. Thanks @pokai for the suggestion!

I remember reading the note earlier wondering if I had to fill out a form or something. I briefly checked out the Zappos site…and then just went on about my business.

Tonight I was tweeting a number of ‘rants’ as I was reading the fabulous book Power Healing, by Leo Galland (e.g. “74 percent of patients seen…for various common symptoms…no…diagnosis to explain the cause of their problems.” 74% failure rate!!!), when suddenly the following series of messages pass by.

And the free shoes winner is… @rotkapchen - congrats! @rotkapchen has 61 followers but only 3 were also following @zappos (cont..)

@marobella @paulisakson @karllong were @rokapchen ’s 3 friends! Congrats to all, thanks for playing! I will direct msg each of the winners!

I’m thinking @rotkapchen — that’s me! I’m shooting an email to my kids and a few friends when private tweets hit my phone as text messages, with instructions to provide my email address to claim my prize. I jump into the Twitter interface to send a private message back directly to the Zappos account, and minutes later I get an email with a code to go online and shop at Zappos.

I was still reeling trying to figure out exactly what I’d done when I read the tweet:

Winner was randomly selected from all @zappos followers, and up to 10 of winner’s friends also win if they also followed @zappos

This was shortly followed by:

Thanks all for playing, it was fun! Let’s do this again soon! @zappos any suggestions for making it more fun/exciting in the future!

This is not a small thing. Free pair of shoes? It’s not too often that I spend $150 on a pair of shoes! But I’ll sure have fun trying.

What was interesting was the email that I received from Zappos. In the interest of time, an existing process was obviously engaged. The fact that this process is already in place is what intrigues me the most. Check out the wording of the message, its implications and how many ways I’m given direct access to continue the conversation if I was to desire to do so (after having a horrific week trying to engage in conversations with other vendors causing me real grief):

We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused. Let us assure
you this is not indicative of the high quality of service and products we
strive to provide our customers.

As a token of goodwill, Zappos is issuing a coupon in the amount of $xxx
for your next purchase at Zappos.

Below is the coupon code you will need to place the order.

csxxxxxxxxxx

You can use this coupon with your next order at Zappos.com anytime
within the next 90 days. To use this coupon, place the code in the space
provided at the bottom of the shopping cart page.

Please accept this as an apology for any inconvenience, and do not hesitate
to contact us if there is anything we can do to be of further assistance.
Please note, this coupon code is associated with your account and is only
valid when used with the email address attached to your account. This coupon
is not redeemable for cash and cannot be duplicated, altered or auctioned on
any web site. This coupon is non-transferable.

Sincerely,

Customer Loyalty Team

Zappos.com
Powered by Service
1-800-ZAPPOS-1 (1-800-927-7671) or
702-943-7677
e-mail: cs@zappos.com
http://www.zappos.com

Pretty much says to me, their byline “Powered by Service” is not just marketease.

Can you imagine what would happen to the GDP if this same commitment to customers and unique, direct involvement in new forms of interaction were to be embraced for ALL relationships (internal and external) by all companies? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, like with Zappos, we didn’t have to imagine it at all but could live it? Why, there probably would no longer BE a justification for a revolution at all.

And what about the others who also get to experience all of this because, simply by association, they too are winners? That’s pretty good payout for social networking. There’s already a lot of goodwill being spread around.

Now if you will excuse me, I have some shopping to do.

Postscript:
Industry colleague David Armano also wrote about this Zappos scenario and pointed out how it’s not about the tools, but about the unique ways in which they get used. Capitalizing (as is Forrester) on the crossover to Marketing audiences, he points out, it’s all about the ‘buzz’!