Del Using Twitter
Dell is a big player in the world of PCs and Laptops, but did you know that they’re pioneers in the world of Twitter in Business too? Until now, organisations seem to have been slow to realise the potential of Twitter in corporate communications but Dell has embraced the tool and has a whole Twitter-based thing going on here http://www.dell.com/twitter
They have country-specific Dell Outlet Twitters, Twitter highlights from various Dell Blogs, Twitter lounges, Alienware Games Twitters, Community Twitters – in fact it’s all a little confusing really, maybe they’re having a Twitter-overload. The fact of the matter is, however, that they have identified Twitter as a real communication channel and are using it to help them interact with their customers. Some of the Twitters are fed from blogs, so they’re not having to duplicate work. Notably, each Twitter has a real human attached to it – which makes you feel that at least you might get some individual attention rather than an auto-response.
According to a report on the Techcrunch website , Dell’s Twitter experiment is working. Dell’s Twitter experiment seems to be working.
“After making $1 million during the holidays by alerting Twitter followers to sale items, Dell is now offering discounts exclusively to the 11,844 people who follow @DellOutlet . For instance, here is a Tweet with a link to a 30-percent-off deal on an XPS laptop. When you click on the link, it takes you to this product page on Dell.com . The new marketing program was, of course, announced on Twitter , as well as on this Direct2Dell blog post :
Beginning today, Dell will offer deals from the Dell Outlet exclusive to Twitter in the U.S. With over 11,000 followers, our team wanted to show their thanks to the Twitter world through these new deals which will continue each week.
Signing up for what is essentially a marketing email on Twitter perhaps gives some consumers the feeling of being part of an exclusive club. (It’s so exclusive, anyone can join). Or maybe they simply don’t want this junk filling up their inbox, and can choose to pay attention only when they are in the market for Dell products.”
So, now that Dell has demonstrated that Twitter can turn into $$$, how long will it be before others catch on? Well, Starbucks is another giant corporation which is trying Twitter – this time to invite Followers to submit ideas to the company. According to one of the Tweets currently on the site, they are implementing around 2 submitted ideas each month. They’ve set up a Starbuck Reading Circle Book Club in the US and are promoting it like crazy, with free book club starter kits on offer via Twitter. They’ve got thousands of followers – what a lovely warm feeling that must give their marketing department – a whole bunch of loyal Twitter followers at their fingertips, all instantly contactable, ready to give feedback, answer questions, respond to offers….
Comcast has taken a different perspective on Twitter – they use it as an additional customer service facility. It’s a bit odd but it seems to be working http://twitter.com/comcastcares ! The dialogue is a strange mix of social chit-chat, techie talk and customer care reference numbers.
If you’d like to read about other organisations which are using Twitter within their business, there’s a really interesting list here http://www.searchenginejournal.com/16-examples-of-huge-brands-using-twitter-for-business/7792/
Posted in Case Studies