Venture Beat and Mashable report this week (via InternetNews) that through use of Twitter Dell has netted $1 Million in revenue. Venture Beat and Mashable argue about the ability of Twitter to monetize their service, but the real story is that a large company is starting to see gains and benefits to participating intelligently in social media. To Dell $1 Million is small potatoes - but given that it's just a family of Twitter Feeds (found here) that's a pretty nice number. Also - it's definitely a cool million that they didn't have before.
Other notable companies use Twitter for marketing purposes as well (see Tesla Motors). Companies are finding that through a re-purposing of Twitter, a service originally intended as (and still used primarily) a user to user communication platform, they can reach out to their prospective customers.
This works for two reasons: First, the companies, such as Tesla, can build a community of followers. By communicating and arming this core group of followers companies are basically recruiting and cultivating their own unpaid sales force.
In the case of Dell's budding Twitter success, the company is allowing that same core group streamlined access to sales and promotions. If I'm interested in buying a Dell laptop a Twitter feed allows me to effortlessly track and participate in those sales.
(Venture Beat, Mashable, and InternetNews)
Other notable companies use Twitter for marketing purposes as well (see Tesla Motors). Companies are finding that through a re-purposing of Twitter, a service originally intended as (and still used primarily) a user to user communication platform, they can reach out to their prospective customers.
This works for two reasons: First, the companies, such as Tesla, can build a community of followers. By communicating and arming this core group of followers companies are basically recruiting and cultivating their own unpaid sales force.
In the case of Dell's budding Twitter success, the company is allowing that same core group streamlined access to sales and promotions. If I'm interested in buying a Dell laptop a Twitter feed allows me to effortlessly track and participate in those sales.
(Venture Beat, Mashable, and InternetNews)
I wish this article would talk more about how Dell did it! Lazy, I know, but I want a brief synopsis!
Posted by: Jeff Hill | December 17, 2008 at 12:26 AM