Great video from Dell. They explain how they are using twitter to drive sales and cross link blogs and web sites.

One statistic that was mentioned towards the end that was particularly interesting was how many people found out about part of the Dell websites doing special offers via twitter. They quoted 30%. What is also interesting was how they have changed the process of using twitter (embedding the discount coupon code) and the timescale of the offers (from that day to a week) to maximise sales.

Any company looking for yet more ways to help boost sales and revenue should check the video out.

Great post from Neville Hobson on how Dell creatively used twitter and webcasting to maximise outreach at yesterdays product launch event. Not only does it engage with a bigger audience at the time but it creates an online buzz and ongoing WOM marketing.

Dell is very active in community engagement already with Direct2Dell, and IdeaStorm.

What is even more exciting is that there is nothing Dell is doing that could not be copied by anyone else.

The latest research on the value of online communities shows the following benefits:

• 35% increasing word of mouth
• 28% increasing brand awareness
• 24% bringing new ideas into the organisation faster 
• 24% increasing customer loyalty

Other research is showing that over 6 out of 10 people who search for products or services say they are influenced by 'peer reviews'. Word of Mouth recommendations carry through to the bottom line.

When you also factor in the near 1/4 increase in customer loyalty you can see it online communities not only attract membership but help retain them.

Certainly the experience of Lego, Dell, HP, GM and others has shown that online communities are highly popular and self-sustaining and generate extra retained and new revenue.

Shel Israel has another great interview this time with Richard Binhammer, Director of Corporate Communications at Dell.

Richard talks about how they had become detached from their customers and suffered the loss of their number 1 position. They have been working hard over the last two years to use social media to help engage with their customer base. They have made mistakes, learnt and come back again the stronger for it. Richard talks about how listening and then acting on customer feedback has reduced negative sentiment by over 50%. Listening he feels is key.

Whilst ROI measurement is needed it is not the only driving force behind their strategy. Having customer communication pipelines via social media tools and knowing who is saying what about you online could be considered basic business needs.

Richard also comments on how they identified, tracked and analysed what the online community was saying about them. Whilst they are looking at a richer set of online reputation tracking and management tools much of it is still 'cut,paste and manually analyse'.  

A great post by Shel Israel of an interview he has just done with Michael Dell of Dell computers.

Dell suffered a blogosphere 'firestorm' over poor service a couple of years ago. That combined with other issues led to a drop in revenue and market share and reduction in share price. Dell reviewed the situation and entered the social media scene with a blog and user forums. It llater also started a financial analysis blog - one of the few large Fortune 500's to do so.

It is interesting to see what value a CEO sees in blogging and social media.

Dell are doing some remarkable things. A real turnaround from the 'dark days' of a couple of years ago. They are not fully recovered but are getting there. Shel Israel has just posted that Dell are moving ahead of many in the blogosphere by having an Investor Relations blog called Dell Shares.

As Lyn Tyson, VP, Dell Investor Relations says in the first post

"Dell Shares is not just about us and Dell financial information.  It is also about you. Relationships are two way streets with shared benefits and responsibilities.  So, we expect to listen and learn from you - our investors and those participating in this journey. "

I know how amazing this is as I managed IR for a major technology company for 3 years back in the late 1990's and have helped a lot of large UK multinationals prep and practice their analyst presentations over the last 8 years. Every comma and pause for breath has to run by Corporate and legal as it is a mine field of regulations and potential legal class actions.

So how are they addressing these issues? Before getting to the blog posts you arrive at a Disclaimer page and have to sign an acknowledgement form. Neat.

FIR (For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report) has a podcast interview with Lyn Tyson.

It is often difficult to qualify the value of blogging but here are some quotes from Dell who started to engage with boggers after it suffered terrible negative publicity over poor customer service. It was accused of ignoring peoples issues, being difficult to talk to and evasive in giving direct and honest answers. Frustrated customers started blogging about their unhappiness and some posted videos of batteries overheating and catching fire. Something Dell’s customer support teams did not respond to over the phone, e-mail or letter.

Here are some quotes from Dell2Dell, their company blog started in mid 2006 and how they see the situation

I can't speak for Apple, but I can give you Dell’s perspective. Media coverage isn’t the real issue—it’s really about our customers’ experience when they deal with Dell. No question that incidents of poor customer service resulted in bad PR for us. And it wasn't just Jeff Jarvis. Could we have handled that situation better than we did? You bet. For us, there wasn't an arbitrary tipping point—things were bad so we've tried to fix them and will continue to do so. In several of her posts, Laura has outlined Dell's ongoing efforts and investments to improve our customers’ experience when they need to contact us.

Beyond that, we've created a team to find customers needing assistance in the blogosphere, entered Second Life, recently re-vamped the Dell Community Forum and have plans to offer more options for customers to provide feedback at CES and beyond. 

This is the issue Dell was (is) facing. Look at what a customer blogger said they see as the potential negative impact if Dell did not listen. See how they have articulated the challenges companies face with social media and small interconnect worlds.

Me? If I am unhappy with dell and shop elsewhere, Dell will miss selling me probably 5 more computers in my lifetime, add in 5 for my wife too... (we won't calculate friends who learn of our nightmares and also choose not to shop Dell, the figures are too hard to quantify here), so no big deal in the grand scheme of things, BUT if they also lose (for example) my daughter, her friends, their friends, etc. they stand to lose a further 12 sales (for each person based on a purchase of one computer every 5 years) in their lifetime! On Facebook alone she has 162 friends! This should be setting off alarm bells across the board.

A popular video on youtube at the moment which is a parody of a well known pop song and is aimed at Dell has attracted 225,000 viewers. The video is also available at a number of other sites for which I don't have figures but it is easy to see the damage being done to Dell's reputation just from this one. Ouch.

So what does Dell think has been the value of them blogging and starting to use the blogosphere as a natural extension of customer service?

“…I can share with you that since we began entering conversations last August, the negative tonality of blog commentary on Dell has been reduced by slightly more than 50 percent. Is this improvement attributable entirely to our proactive blog outreach? Of course not. But we know it’s the right thing to do and that it’s making a difference.”

Disclosure: I have bought PC’s and desktops from a number of vendors over the years including Dell and Apple. I currently use a Dell laptop.