Editor's Notes
- #3 Consumer – small & medium business – Large Enterprise – Public (Education, Healthcare and Government)Mobile devices – computers – servers – storage and IT servicesIT End to End SolutionsSecurity offerings
- #4 28 years ago.At the age of 19
- #5 We achieved the highest revenue in the history of Dell.
- #8 Support of CEO is important. We are lucky with Michael’s vision on Social Media.
- #11 I wont run you through this whole chart, but with five years of experience under our belt, thought a couple highlights and failures are worth mentioningIt all begins in early 2006 with a special tech support swat team working to respond to tech support matters being raised by bloggers…followed by our early launch of one of the first corporate blogs to expanding our outreach beyond tech support as we recognized the conversations across the web could also include commentary about our latest news release, our corporate reputation or business processes.Interesting to note that Michael Dell noted very early on that our social web activity was not just about marketing or tech support…but connecting with customers to constantly improve and build a better businessAlong the path we launched a ‘viral video site ‘ sort of a take off on the television show “The Office” only focused for IT folks. It didn’t garner IT folks attention nor did it go viral. You don’t plan viral videos…..and IT directors have tough jobs, not to be laughed at, I supposeWe had a microsite focused on mobility, but with few resources, strong content and lacking focus it died a quiet deathIn June 2007 we joined Twitter and have had great success in connecting with customers on everything from tech support, to IT for small business, to our corporate social responsibility and green IT efforts, as well as folks looking for special offersWe have both a business and consumer Facebook page. In 2009 we launched Dell Tech Center, a community for IT pros, and it grew rapidly that first year….in the area of 400%
- #15 Lesson 2: If you go into the social web with only your agenda and messages you failListening to 25,000 conversations everyday about Dell is crucial to putting the customer centricity at the forefront of these effortsWe have over 180 different search profiles that help us parcel up those 25000 conversations and make sense of the volume of discussions related to Dell.For those interested in a little more detail, yes… those 180 search criteria include things like geography, reach, sentiment, subject matter of the discussions, where they are taking place on the web… and more
- #16 Lesson 3 and I have touched on this…but over 5 years we have found the conversations touch every part of Dell’s business……well, I'm not sure accounting has many customer conversations about them To realize business value from the customer, it is important that web interactions and conversations are heard by those who are most impacted, the relevant Dell team members and various parts of the business.
- #19 Lesson 4 builds on Lesson 2 and 3. Listening is one thing. Recognizing that customer conversations are not just about products or tech support but can impact building a better business across all business and customer segments as well as business functions…well that requires action to follow up on what we learn, and raises the question of how to scale.First: Listen, then engage and connect and finally act to build a better business. Input from customers can mean questions about the status quo, and action by business on what we learn from that input. Social media does not always mean saying Yes, but it does mean we have a responsibility to listen learn engage and act where it makes sense and leads us to being a better more customer centered business. That’s where the medium becomes two way and all about customer connectivity -- not just messaging By thinking of social media more like a tool, like email or the telephone, the possibilities to scale can also be realized.
- #20 Lesson 5 relates to giving employees the tools to do their job…that means training.At Dell, We have put in place a robust social media and community curriculum that covers everything from our policies about transparency and protecting company and customer information to how to best use tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and bloggingWe continue to evolve the training program offerings. Our training is also global, and includes innovative unconferences (held in the US, the UK, China and India last year and more planned this year). Today, we have more than 15 courses offered in person and using Live Meeting….and there are more in the worksAnd, we see an amazing thirst for this as more than 5,000 Dell employees have taken at least one course; more than 2000 Dell certified professionals have completed 4 courses/8+ hoursThat’s commitment and interest from employees
- #21 Perhaps one of our most important lessons is there is no single ROI….or using a revenue number that is attributable to social interactions fails to accurately account for the significant business value to be realized in using social media. Our experience to date shows signs of real business value in social media. That value is found and realized where something is of value to our business and the customer. Those intersections do not just happen at a point of purchase or with a transaction. In fact, these happen around the full or complete life cycle of the customer relationshipsBy delighting and connecting to customers, they are coming back for more and we are able to focus more on exactly what it is that enables them to do moreour work in measuring what matters, we now know that social media is a decision factor in both the consumer and b2b space; social media is about more than awareness or brand sentiment…it is that;but it is also about every aspect of the customer lifecycle and impacts the complete customer lifecycle….Social media can impact loyalty, and the amount returning customers purchase from Dell. This work is not done, but we are well on our way to really understanding both the metrics and business value and we know where we are going Improves Dell’s reach and share of voice; we know there is causality between social media activity and purchase, it provides high business value and contributes to demand generation, Social media based support improves sentiment and correlates with higher revenue Engaged social media customers improve loyalty
- #23 Lesson 7: Finally let me say, the interactive web is still growing and morphing. The use, business value and application of the social web to every day business activities continues to morph and “emerge”There was no Google Plus several months ago; Facebook changes features and rules regularly , automated sentiment analysis and natural language processing are evolving fields; the “social stack” and the ability to plug it into traditional and legacy CRM systems is like using bubble gum and bailing wire to hold things together….But to really use social media as a tool to be a better business, we learn and evolve, rather than simply think of social media as yet another medium in which to broadcast messages
- #25 So is it time for marketing to be less about campaigns, advertisements, glitz, big new ideas and noise and really about reconnecting with people who are or should be our customers.