Dell Social Media Snapshot

Dell's social media efforts are led by Bob Pearson, Vice President of Communities & Conversations.

Mr. Pearson says social media is extremely important with Dell, as they use their Idea Storm to get feedback from their customers, and Twitter to drive revenue by advertising refurbished Dell products.

Program Components

• Twitter - Dell uses Twitter to sell off refurbished Dell products. So far they have 518,778 followers and driven about $1 million in revenue through Twitter. While this level of revenue is inconsequential for a company the size of Dell, this does demonstrate a commitment to having ongoing conversations with their customers.
• Chief Blogger Lionel Menchaca runs a blog that takes people’s ideas from Idea Storm or problems they have had with products and talks about them.
• Mr. Menchaca can be followed on Twitter as well.
• Facebook - Dell has multiple pages. Their primary Main Facebook page has over 30,000 fans
• New product updates can be found on Facebook as well. This page has about 3000 fans
• Dell offers a Facebook page dedicated to how Small Business can use social media to improve their business. They offer free guides and YouTube tube videos discussing the importance of social media for a small business. This page has about 33,000 fans.

Dell's award-winning support site includes forum where customers help each other with their problems concerning Dell products. The site was given the Association of Support Professionals award for One of the Ten best customer support sites. The site also won a similar award from the Localization Industry Standards Association.

Program Goals

Dell targets people in the market to purchase a computer or related technology in the near-term. They are also building relationships with future buyers.

Dell uses social media in a customer-centric way. They are allowing customers to give their input on products and ideas for new products and services. Dell helps customers analyze problems with their computers and guide them to corrective information.

Effectiveness

According to an interview with Richard Binhammer, since Dell began using social media there are 30% less negative comments about the company.

This is critical for Dell. In 2005 they had a near-death brand reputation experience. Jeff Jarvis, a leading blogger for Buzzmachine.com, called Dell’s customer service “Dell Hell” because it was so bad. This was crippling to them at a time when some of their PCs were catching on fire due to faulty batteries. Jarvis has since posted about how far Dell has come and that Dell is now one of the leaders in customer service and the effective use of social media. This is one of the great turnarounds in the brief history of social media.

This turnaround is also cited in the blog Social Media: Rags to Riches.

Dick Hunter, Dell's head of customer service, says consumer satisfaction has risen 25% in the past four years.

Snapshot Caption:

We think there are some critical lessons learned. When a company is not attuned to the blogosphere and major social media channels, they are not in touch with customers and very negative things can happen to their brand. Fortunately for Dell, they have embraced social media and are using it in a positive way to have positive customer conversations.