Social media is the next big thing: Dell

Dell entered the social media space more than three years ago and this move has enabled the computer giant to expand connections with customers, says Lionel Menchaca, the chief blogger for Dell's virtual community.

When Dell forayed into this arena, it did not realise that social media would gradually become a way to listen and learn from its customers. What started out as a way to connect and respond to customers has now become a powerful customer engagement channel.

One million views on Flickr

Menchaca said that Dell moved on to IdeaStorm after starting with a blog, and then decided to tweet on Twitter as well as connect on Facebook. She noted the huge popularity of Dell's Flickr page, which has seen more than one million views.

The company then decided to use a YouTube channel to share pictures and video content it was producing for Dell's virtual community, Direct2Dell. The success of Dell.com support.Dell.com and the Dell community forum convinced the company's execs that the Web was the right tool for connecting directly with customers.

Social media allowed Dell to share with customers what the company was all about and how its people focused on making technology work to improve the lives of people.

US$6.5 million in revenue from Twitter

According to Menchaca, Dell's global community boasts more than 3.5 million people across the social web, but is still only a small part of the 2 billion connects it has with customers worldwide every year via phone, e-mail, et cetera.

While @DellOutlet announced US$3 million in revenue from Twitter in June, in total, Dell's global reach on Twitter resulted in more than US$6.5 million in product revenue. The company has experienced growth in its Brazilian and Canadian accounts also. Twitter enthusiasts in Canada requested Dell Canada to come online and the company obliged.

The @DellnoBrasil site has generated about US$800,000 in product revenues in less than a year of its launch, and @DellHomeSalesCA has already surpassed US$150,000. Menchaca suggests that Dell streamline its presence in social media networks in future and continue growing the number of connections with its customers in those places.

Menchaca suggests that Dell build tighter integration between its Dell community sites and continue focusing on scaling support of social media initiatives into the Dell business units.