Dell has embarked on a Twitter journey in the last three years with four emerging Twitter accounts created to aid sales, brand engagement, information and support. Here Kerry Bridge, Dell’s Social Media Manager explains how Dell has successfully reached a formalised strategy.
Revealing your personality and passion is key to building relationships and being successful in Twitter. In the past three years Dell has evolved its use of Twitter from a core team focusing on experimentation and innovation to a formalised strategy and structure for a broad team to engage. Today, customers connect directly with Dell employees to discuss technology related topics, discover exclusive offers, to connect directly on Dell news and more recently for customer service.
Four flavours of Dell Twitter accounts emerged over time by listening and aligning our business objectives with what customers told us they need.
1. Sell: Providing easy access to Dell offers, our most mentioned Twitter account is @DellOutlet, ranked at #137 according to Twittercounter**. With over 1.5 million followers, earning millions in revenue and nestled amongst the celebrity accounts, this level of success tells me that we have provided something that our customers value. A success now being replicated across the globe.
2. Engage: Connecting directly with customers, various Dell people use Twitter for different business purposes (to answer questions, solve issues, chat about tech and Dell initiatives). Two examples are @paradigmshift, Mark Weston our lead technology and education person, as well as @edu4u, Brianne Brewer, Education Social Media Manager. Talking about education in Technology, both are influential and having meaningful conversations with the Education community.
3. Inform: Accounts like @Direct2Dell, run by Lionel Manchaca, our Chief Blogger, share information that can help customers. These are a combination of conversations and new headlines fed into Twitter from our blogs and other sources.
4. Support: In May 2010, Dell launched a customer support service on Twitter with @DellCares, following in the footsteps of support accounts like @comcastcares. The team is there to listen, help and provide information to our customers. They have already supported over 1,400 customers, close to 95 per cent we discover and outreach to proactively and around 5 per cent who come directly to us. We are finding that our customers are shifting their expectations and expect us to be present where they are.
What works? There are common elements to effectively connecting via Twitter no matter what “account flavour” or business needs you are fulfilling. Since the early days in 2007, we’ve concentrated on expanding on what works and it’s not rocket science.
The human element is critical. I like to connect with people who are similar to me and your customers are no different. Let your employees find their voice online and share information about the areas they are passionate about. Have a conversation rather than a monologue – and be fun, newsworthy, engaging, helpful and insightful. Sharing a little bit of personality as well as business goes a long way to building authentic relationships.
Cross promotion is another key element. We are all used to best practices when it comes to website design and navigation, but when you have nearly 2 billion interactions with customers every year, like Dell, how are you making sure your various paid, earned, owned communication channels are easily navigable for customers?
Does Twitter live up to the hype? In terms of opportunity to reach a potential audience in the UK, certainly Twitter is not as popular as Facebook or YouTube, but there is a much lower barrier to entry in terms of cost and resources. Once a Dell employee has gone through training, a new Dell account can be set up and running in little time with limited resource.
One question I get a lot is what resources you need to get started. We have embraced many Dell employees who were already participating in social media in their personal lives who also had the desire and ability to listen and engage on behalf of Dell. Social media enthusiasts exist within every organisation and common traits make them easily identifiable.
Firstly, these people will be early adopters of social media. They will be actively using multiple social media tools and will already have mastered the appropriate way to behave and build relationships within several networks. They will also tend to be natural conversationalists and passionate about a personal area of interest, actively engaging in conversations and networks around that, possibly even writing a personal blog.
At Dell we send interested employees back to school at the Social Media and Communities University. After they are given an overview of our principles and policies, employees decide which tools will enable them to have better connections and conversations with our customers. Guidelines and online principals training is a critical step in enabling a Dell team member to connect in a way that benefits the individual, company and online community.
Microblogging social software such as Twitter will become mainstream in two to five years according to analyst firm Gartner, in its 2010 Social Software Hype Cycle*. Now is the time for companies to be getting past the experimenting/innovation phase in short order. In the coming months and years, those companies that do not embrace social media will be left behind.
I count myself as very fortunate to work for a company that actively embraces social media innovation as part of its business strategy. Dell’s employee culture and heritage of direct customer connections and online leadership are the seeds of our drive to be a social media success. Social media gives us more opportunities to listen, connect and engage directly with customers than ever before – genuine interactions that will help Dell evolve and become a better business.
Kerry Bridge
Dell Social Media Manager
Twitter: @KerryatDell
Dell Blog
*Gartner ref: http://sherrilynnestarkie.com/2010/08/11/gartners-2010-hype-cycle-social-software/
** http://Twittercounter.com/delloutlet