Dell: Successfully Using Social Media

From its start in 1984, Michael Dell had a vision to put customer relationships at the forefront of Dell's business model. He used a simple mantra: "Be direct." By the early 2000s, Dell had changed its interaction with customers by making a major commitment to social media. Dell was one of the first corporate social media adopters and is now a leader in the use of social media to transform company performance. With a corporate culture that fully embraces social media connectivity, Dell is leveraging powerful interactions with consumers to improve products and services, retain loyal customers, and increase revenues.

Liz Bullock, Director of Social Media and Marketing, stated that Dell is using social media to deepen customer relationships and build trust by listening, engaging, and acting on customer needs. Through social media connections, marketers and customers share information of all formsfrom their thoughts about products or images to uploaded pictures, music, and videos. The changes in social, mobile, and online technologies have changed how marketers communicate with their customers. Marketers now think about the objectives of marketing communications using the 4E framework: excite customers, educate them, help them experience the product, and allow them to engage with their social network. Marketers rely on three general categories of social media: social networking sites, media-sharing sites, and thought-sharing sites. More recently, opportunities have arisen in the area of mobile marketing. To be successful in their social media strategies, marketers must engage their customers. Social media engagement is a three-step process that involves listening to what customers have to say, analyzing the information available through various touch points, and finally implementing (or doing) social media tactics to excite customers.

The goal of this activity is to explain the concept of social media engagement; a three-step process that involves listening to customers, analyzing the information available through various touchpoints, and implementing social media tactics to excite customers.

This activity is important because it helps managers understand how social media can transform their company's performance by leveraging powerful interactions with customers to improve products and services, retain loyal customers, and increase revenues.

Source:http://i.dell.com/sites/content/business/solutions/power/en/Documents/ps1q11-20110266-socialmedia.pdf

Read the case below and answer the questions that follow.

Social media is a tool firms use to facilitate conversations with customers, partners, and employees over the Internet. In their attempt to strengthen brand awareness, marketers are using social media to enhance customer relationships by putting strategies in place that foster a sense of intimacy, satisfaction, and loyalty among customers and employees. By 2004, Dell had fundamentally changed its interaction with customers by making a major commitment to social media. By fully exploiting the potential of Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels, the company has developed the capacity to engage customers more directly than ever before.

On Facebook, Dell can directly target a variety of market segments, with separate home pages for home users, different size businesses, and separate entry points for other countries. It has a Facebook Marketplace, a trendy page with ads and special promotions. Dell uses walls and links on Facebook to offer users a variety of options. Users can plug directly into Dell Support's online forums, which feature a scrolling list of live conversations on many topics, for example, how to burn a CD. Other links move in a hipper direction. The Lounge is an edgy Facebook wall with an online "social media salary guide." The Social Shop offers the scoop on how "real people use and rate their computers." The Buzz Room has links to breaking news from the major media, with each page also streaming a relevant Twitter feed. The Ask Rev link serves up weekly YouTube-like video updates from Dell staffers.

Twitter gives Dell an entirely different stream of conversations with users. Its main Twitter page links to Dell's multiple Twitter accounts. These offer product news, provide product support in multiple languages, and even allow users to tweet directly with Michael Dell. Dell.com's blogs facilitate active dialogue between user-subscribers and company leaders. These include Direct2Dell, the company's flagship corporate blog; DellShares, providing investor updates; and DellSoftwareNews, which discusses software products, pricing, and licensing. Working professionals who access Dell through LinkedIn find product updates, recent blog posts, and direct links to Dell managers. Through Google+, Dell offers product news and updates but also invites users to join the group conversations, or circles, that interest them. Dell has also come up with the ultimate digital suggestion box: IdeaStorm.com, which facilitates crowd-sourced suggestions, inviting customers to collaborate and prioritize product and service improvements.

These multiple channels allow Dell to build a positive sense of its brand while also gathering insight from thousands of users who personally text, post, and tweet their comments daily, in real time. Dell understands the importance of listening to customers and of analyzing the information it collects. It partners with Radian6 to monitor over 25,000 user conversations daily. Dell has a new Social Media Listening Command Center, which provides almost instantaneous support in 11 languages to customers around the world. Annual training updates and Dell's Global Social Media Policy guides all listening conducted by its social media staff. This connection of listening to customers has a powerful impact on customer loyalty and strengthens the brand.

The Command Center is used not just to listen, but also to identify key discussions early so employees worldwide can be given the tools to respond to customers. According to a Forrester Report, that approach has enabled Dell customer support to reach 46 percent more users and has produced additional tangible results, including quicker response times; improved issue recognition, mitigation, and management; enhanced coordination and response consistency; and an early warning system to avoid faulty product launches.

From its earliest days, Dell has been driven by the potential to connect with and engage its customers. With a corporate culture that has fully embraced social media connectivity, today's Dell is leveraging more powerful interactions with consumers to improve products and services, retain loyal customers, and increase revenues.

------------------

1) Through social media connections, marketers and customers share information by

Multiple Choice

• connecting customers with ways to buy media time.
• connecting people to financial advisors.
• media buying.
• uploading pictures, music, and videos.
• connecting customers online to share personal information.

2) In the 4E framework, Dell understands the importance of _______, which leads to action, the potential for a relationship, and possibly even loyalty and commitment.

Multiple Choice

• education
• excitement
• enhancement
• experience
• engagement

3)Dell has several blogs. Its flagship blog is Direct2Dell, which is a _______ blog.

Multiple Choice

• micro
• corporate
• professional
• macro
• personal

4) One advantage for Dell in using blogs is ______ to customers while engaging in conversation that builds better relationships.

Multiple Choice

• listening
• controlling
• entertaining
• communicating
• talking

5) Dell analyzes data from social media to collect consumer comments about its products and company. Dell can then further analyze the data to distill customer attitudes and preferences. This technique is called

Multiple Choice

• sentiment analysis.
• bounce rate analysis.
• click path analysis.
• conversion rate analysis.
• keyword analysis.

6) Which of the following does Dell use in its social media strategy?

Multiple Choice

• All of the answers are correct.
• Twitter
• Facebook
• blogs
• LinkedIn

7) One advantage of using Facebook is that it gives Dell the ability to

Multiple Choice

• facilitate crowd-sourced suggestions.
• tweet with customers.
• offer users gamified apps.
• significantly lower its costs.
• carefully target different segments.