Embedding Social Media to become a better business

Simone Versteeg PR & Corporate Communications Manager Dell – @simoneversteeg

A leading global provider of technology solutions

Founded by CEO Michael Dell for

$1,000 in 1984

Over $60bn revenue

110,000 team members in

64 countries

7

SM B2C & B2B

12,000 Dell employees participated Social Media trainings

of which 7,000 are certified

25,000 online posts about Dell each day

98% resolution rate on Social Outreach Services (like @DellCares @DellLuistert)

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Our Journey to Becoming a Social Business

Dell saw Social Media as an opportunity to build and further nurture customer relationships through listening to, and engaging with, customers in meaningful ways.

• Realization: Social was impacting many parts of the business

• Challenge: Establish a framework that could scale across the business

• Solution: Define a platform-agnostic strategy, a governance model to manage, a communication system to educate / inform, an insights program to measure impact and a culture that embraces it

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January 2008 Dell aligns organization for success

August 2006 Blog outreach expanded beyond tech Support

December 2006 Ratings and reviews launched on Dell.com

July 2006 Direct2Dell launched Today Direct2Dell exists in English, Spanish, Norwegian, Japanese and Chinese.

February 2006 Michael Dell asked Why don’t we reach out and help

bloggers with tech support issues?

January 2007 StudioDell launched Dell’s video and podcast site, with helpful tips and tricks. Eventually expanding this into the YouTube channel making sharing easier.

February 2007 IdeaStorm launched A voting based site allowing customers and others to submit ideas for Dell.

June 2007 Dell joined Twitter

EmployeeStorm launched Internal Blogs Launched for Employees.

October 2007 Michael Dell quoted in Business Week In response to Jeff Jarvis question around whether companies want to be part of the online conversation: ”My argument is you absolutely do. You can learn from them. You can improve your reaction time. And you can be a better company by listening and being involved in that conversation.”

November 2007 DellShares launched The first investor relations blog by a public company.

March 2008 Accepted Solutions launched on Community Dell France begins Online Community Outreach May 2008

Dell Outlet achieved $0.5M in sales via Twitter

April 2008 Inside IT launched Blog focused on business customers, and Cloud Computing.

June 2008 Channel blog launched

January 2009 Dell Organizes into four customer focused business units

Spring 2009 Members of Community and Conversations deployed within each of the new Dell Business units

June 2009 $2M+ Sales via Twitter

2009 Dell TechCenter

June 2009 Global Twitter revenues of $6.5 M

December 2009 Huffington Post Blog

March 2010 Dell joins Sina Weibo in China

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

Altimeter recognized Dell

with “Open Leadership Award for Innovation and

Execution”

Social Media & Community University (SMaC U) launched 5,000 team members trained by end of year

B2B pages on Facebook

Dell named the No. 1 most social brand

6 Awards for the Social Media Listening Command Center

June 2010 CAP Days launched In-person events for vocal online customers

December 2010 Social Media

Listening Command

Center launched

More than six years of social media experience

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2012

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IdeaStorm

Purpose

Our goal through IdeaStorm is to give our customer an avenue to share their ideas on Dell Products, Services and Operations.

Statistics

• 60,000+ User Accounts • 18,000+ Ideas • 739,000+ Votes • 97,000+ Comments • 520+ ideas Implemented

Value

• Revenue from IdeaStorm members is ~50% higher than non-members

• Purchase frequency is 33% higher • Higher Lifetime Value

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Listening to Be A Better Business, across the Business

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Think of it as a tool, not a channel

Listen + Engage = Act. It’s at the heart of all strategies…

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Integrate where Customer & Business Value are realized across all business functions

Product Development

• Feedback Loop • Early Warning • New Product

Ideation

Marketing

• Demand Forecast • Lead Generation • Message Reach

Online Presence

• Ratings & Reviews • Communities • Customer Stories

Sales

• Collaboration • Thought Leadership • Blogs

Customer Service

• Listening • Support Widgets • Outreach

Communication

• Rich Media • Brand Reputation • Influence • Reputation

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Educating Employees: Social Media & Community University

Principles

Policy

Processes

Training & tools

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SMaC U Today

• > 12,000 employees trained

• > 7,000 employees certified

• We train globally in 55+ countries

– Focus on regions where our largest marketing, sales and product teams exist

• Launched a Training Ambassador program, where certified employees may apply to teach on behalf of the University.

• SMaC Champions: Certified employees given a list of social activities that they can participate in. One is crowdsourced translations of social media content.

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The quest for a single ROI? Business Value across the full customer lifecycle

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Look across the entire customer lifecycle. It can be used everywhere …

• Insight: Social media improves Dell’s reach and share of voice

• Insight: Social Media provides high Business Value and contributes to demand gen vehicle

• Insight: SM keeps customers engaged, provides solutions and improves loyalty.

• Insight: Social media based support improves sentiment and correlates with higher revenue

• Insight: Established causality between social media activity and purchase

Awareness

Research and Consideration

Demand / Lead Gen and Sales

Support

CLV (loyalty) Dell.com

External Communities

Our Communities

CSR: American Red Cross Disaster Operations Center – Powered by Dell

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Social Think Tanks: live, real-time dialogue with social industry leaders on tech topics

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• * Listen and connect • with vocal social

influencers online and in person

• * Capture meaningful insights to improve relevancy of Dell products and services

• * 11 events since 2011

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• No shortage of other places for companies to publish online….

Do Blogs Still Matter?

• But blogs still offer the best way to aggregate and centralize conversations from around the web…

• Blogs tend to be more flexible (lots of hyperlinks, ability to embed multiple videos, other objects like audio, SlideShare decks, etc.)

• Official corporate presence in other social networks can help extend the reach of important blog posts, and they also provide more link opportunities.

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1. Write to educate and serve

2. Provide context for a range of customers

3. Write about topics that matter to your customers, especially the tough ones

4. Be authentic, be human

5. Let your passion and personality show through

6. Provide an inside look

7. Don’t be afraid to disagree… if you can back it up

How to Blog the Right Way

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Insights

• Social media engagement improves Dell’s reach and share of voice in the marketplace

• There is a causality between social media activity and engagement leading to Dell purchases

• Social media engagement positively attributes to demand generation

• Social media support improves sentiment, which correlates with higher customer revenue

• Social media engagement keeps Dell and customers connected and that improves loyalty

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Thanks &

Join the conversation

@simoneversteeg @DellNederland @DellLuistert