While a majority of web business and webmasters are debating whether Twitter is a good place to market their products Dell.com has announced that it has made its first million via Twitter.
Dell says Twitter has produced $ 1 million over the past year and half through sales alerts. People who sign up to follow Dell receive messages or tweets when discounted products are available at the company’s Dell Home Outlet Store .
I am not surprised at this and you should not be if you know the power of Twitter as a marketing tool. It’s proved that its not only an updating tool but also has the capability to go viral.
Dell start to experiment with Twitter in March 2007, there are now 65 Dell accounts or Dell Twitter Groups on Twitter including Direct2Dell, StudioDell, DigitalNomads, and more with 2,475 followers for the Dell Home Outlet Store
What did Dell do to make it happen, while others are still playing the wait and watch game.
– Fast to adopt :
While its competitors watched how the new entrant to the social media scenario would perform Dell set up its strategy and used Twitter as a channel of distribution to sell their products, taking the leadership stance and approach.
– Segment users :
Dell had a very clear strategy and focus to leverage Twitter, its strategy revolved around studying the model and its users. Dell segmented twitter users demographically by setting up different twitter accounts (ie. They started Dell Twitter for NZ users , Dell Twitter for UK users, Dell Twitter for Canada users ) Each of these twitter accounts spoke to users in a different country with localised product offerings.
– Created special offering for each of its segments :
With the segmentation strategy was adopted for different markets, it backed it up with special offers for each of these segments. Thus adapting the ‘Think Global, Act Local’ approach for their overall Twitter marketing strategy.
– Created a following and build a trust factor :
Companies that have built communities have always been successful in selling their products. Dell leveraged its online brand identity and trust factor to create and build a large community on Twitter. They built a strong and loyal following of more than 2000 users.
– Targeted Sales messages to the community :
Once they had a following they strategically leveraged their offers and promotions in form of Tweets or messages on Twitter to their following.
Dell on Twitter is a good case study for any marketer and business owner skeptical about Twitter as an online distribution channel.
55 comments
Wow that’s awesome. Now that Dell has succeed in using it, I’m sure that tons of other producers will start doing it. I wonder how many hours it took to produce that first million, like if they got a good enough hourly wage to make it worth it. I think that’s awesome because most offline businessman thing twitter is a toy, and so for somebody to actually make money using it, is really encouraging.
Jonathan Mullers last blog post..Strategies for Affiliate Marketing
Wow! that is really cool. What I want to know is how Twitter makes money.
Tom – StandOutBlogger.coms last blog post..I Need People To Review My New Blog Design Before It’s Coded….
They don’t have any revenue stream as of today…VC backing of about 20-30 million
ZKs last blog post..Dell makes $ 1 million in revenue via Twitter
What exactly is the return that the VC’s are getting?
Wow!! That is a great return on a free service!! Assuming it is still free for dell to use like that
Taris Janitenss last blog post..Monster trucks? MINI Monster Trucks?? HUH???
Hi Taris :
Twitter is a free service for everyone, they do not have any fees for anyone including large corporates.
ZKs last blog post..14 Thoughts Leaders on Social Media in 2009
Not yet. 😉
That goes to show you exactly how powerful Twitter can be with the right audience!
Taras last blog post..Market Leverage Affiliate Network Review
Nice write up.
I’ve been hearing soo much about twitter in the past month and with all these people pulling money and traffic out of twitter I think I need to start using it.
Blog for Bloggerss last blog post..How Much To Post: That Is The Question
Actually thats quite a motivation there huh.. But dell is a big company, can we get this result too?
Ben Peis last blog post..Do You Have These 10 SEO Plugins?
I don’t see why any other online business can’t get results via Twitter, it’s certainly not like pay per click where a large organisation can get traffic and sales by bidding high on keywords.
ZKs last blog post..14 Thoughts Leaders on Social Media in 2009
It is really amazing to hear that twitter is helping so much in marketing. Even big companies like Dell is making use of Twitter. Thanks for the share.
Cheers
Wei Liang
Wei Liang | Earn Money Onlines last blog post..Lesson 21: Blog Carnival
Definitely not the norm, but something to think on for sure.
Dennis Edells last blog post..What Criteria Factors Into Your Link Love/Round-Up Posts?
Success is always in the minority
ZKs last blog post..14 Thoughts Leaders on Social Media in 2009
1 million may be peanuts for a company that had 60 billion in revenues last year 🙂 But it still shows (1) the power of twitter to generate leads and/or sales/pre-sales campaigns (2) the innovation of such companies to dig out all possible channels to improve their sales and bottomline. The web itself is diversified into numerous potenial channels to trigger sales and the organizations (even those orgs whose main business is not IT or IT related prods) need to innovate continously to sustain – especially under the current market conditions
Ajith Edassery | DollarShowers last blog post..Bail Out Post Ideas to rescue you from Writer’s Block, Boredom or Lack of Time
I am happy to know that Dell keeps up with the goings on in the tech world. I know that Dell had been experiencing significant declines in sales, hopefully keeping up with ‘what’s new’ will help it bounce back… Although, $1 mil is just a drop in the bucket compared with its annual revenues…
Shirleys last blog post..Why The Alexa Widget Is BAD For Your Website
Whoa, dell is the first company to harness the leverage of twitter to increase sales. Increasing your sale just needs you to be innovative. I would be waiting for a success story likes this for a blogger?
Yeah thats pretty nice 🙂
When I started out people tolf me NOT to sell on Twitter…
Regards,
André T
http://www.AndresMarketingEvolution.com/blog
André Ts last blog post..Looking Back At The Traffic Experiment #Day 1
You definite;ly don’t want to overdo it.
Dennis Edells last blog post..Twitter for You and I in ‘09 – The Post You’ve Been Waiting For 😉
Hey I noticed a good growth in your PR there. All the best!
Ben Peis last blog post..9 Indications That You Should Quit School And Start Blogging
The thing is that it works well for them as they have a huge following, which is probably why we should all concentrate on building our own set of followers whether it’s from Twitter, subscribers or from social networking sites.
Sires last blog post..Cool Blog Links Now Live
Great blog ZK, I enjoy and learn many things, I am making a new project to know where my blog limits, I want to make 1000 comments to top bloggers, in return I would have a unique backlinks, the time frame set around 2 weeks.Any input’s from your marketing expertise?thx in advance
Ari Lestarionos last blog post..New Year’s Resolution: Best Natural Foods for Longevity
Depends on your site or blog niche, if its a health based blog or site you may want to comment on health blogs that way you ll get a very targetted audience for your site. You can find the top health blogs or any blog related to your niche on Technorati.com
Impressive. It’s interesting to see how such a large company was able to take a service that’s relatively recent and leverage it in a rather thoughtful way. The options for different, more personalized channels seem pretty well thought out too.
How do you make money from Twitter?Twitter has many appealing opportunities for generating revenue but we are holding off on implementation for now because we don’t want to distract ourselves from the more important work at hand which is to create a compelling service and great user experience for millions of people around the world. While our business model is in a research phase, we spend more money than we make.
jons Gifts shops last blog post..Tips to choose the perfect gift for any occasion
I was thinking about how twitter is actually making money. Now I found the way to make sales using twitter.
Shanavass last blog post..Create a Blog at a Mouse Click
Nice, can you share the info with us of using twitter as sales, looking forward to learn from you.
Ari Lestarionos last blog post..Walking Meditation: An Alternative Natural Healing?
Wow that’s awesome. Now that Dell has succeed in using it, I’m sure that tons of other producers will start doing it.
Twitter is great for business.
It is great that many companies are taking advantage of this.
Now with Dell’s success, I fear that Twitter will become a commercial zoo of endless offers. Other businesses will “smell” the money to be made and commercialize Twitter with offers.
I do applaud Dell for being creative and following the “think global and act local” strategy. It worked well for them.
I wouldn’t say that just because they’ve made a million, that we can conclude that twitter is something that the business leadership figures should be devoted hefty budgets to. All dell has proven is that it can be used to update people on discounts, – heck, email was good for that.
$1m in sales for dell is a very small amount – considering their huge brand appeal and good value products – I’d be surprised if they couldn’t make $1m simply from using a service that tells people about their products.
Many Computer Companies start doing business on twitter.
That’s pretty sweet! From what i can understand it’s hard to make any money on Twitter, who knows….that’s super awesome of Dell to make so much on there!
Regards,
Jermaine
.-= Love poems & Love Quotes´s last blog ..Either Make Money Or Make A Million Dollars For Her =-.
twitter is a very good marketing tool and it is not hard to earn 1 million by that. I think this will increase lots in near future.
Well considering DELL is one hell of a large company, I’m sure they would be making more. But I wonder how much HP etc are making too.
I personally love Twitter!
Dell is just a small example of of how Fortune 500 companies are now taking advantage of the Twitter phenomenon. Professionals who are really learning the ins and outs of Twitter have a chance to market their services to these companies.
I can see I very good use for this business model for almost anyone. Just release special coupons or offers via Twitter. When you see the coupon codes convert you’ll be able to track.
.-= Best site hosting´s last blog ..New best site hosting info soon =-.
Dell is the best comuper comany and twitter is nowadays growing very well as social networking site and micro-blogging services. When two greats meet something what you can find are success and profit.
This is a really awesome example of what can be done by leveraging the power of twitter. Dell jumped in long before other corporates were even thinking of getting their feet wet, and their success story should be enough to make people sit up and take serious notice!
as what they say, early bird catches the worm and Dell just proved that with twitter..
.-= oes tsetnoc´s last blog ..My Oes Tsetnoc Entry TKO’d From the Top Ten =-.
damn , 65 accounts !
A company like Dell has so many resources and people it can dedicate to experimenting with systems like Twitter. Im sure they are always investing in experimentation with things such as Web 2…
.-= Abby @ Alice of Wonderland Costume´s last blog ..About Us =-.
I use twitter all the time and find it to be a great tool. Once you get the hang of it there is so much you can put on autopilot that it really becomes quite easy to stay on top of. Twitter is a great way to keep in touch with followers in your particular niche…
wow!
what a big tweet!
anyway, I am a believer of tweeter’s power 🙂
thanks for sharing it 🙂
.-= helen@XP drivers´s last blog ..CD drive or DVD drive is missing in Windows Vista =-.
That goes to show you exactly how powerful Twitter can be with the right audience!
Dell, has already stabilize its brand/name… Is it possible to get that amount to?
.-= Mayweather vs Mosley´s last blog ..Several reasons why Mosley beats Mayweather =-.
DELL makes too much money but they have a lot of overheads too. People dont understand the real profit, it’s just a fraction of what you really see.
Thanks for this great article, it really goes to show the great return on investment that social media has to offer for businesses.
Twitter is definitely a big help in every business I can assure you that. And this post is a testimony that Twitter is a great place to advertise or promote. I can see the effects on my business too, even though I’m a newbie in this Twitter. I must say it’s awesome really!
Twitter is very powerful. I wasn’t even aware of just how popular it was until recently. I’m thinking about joining forces as well. haha
That is really interesting. I do need to break down and start using twitter.
yup twitter is growing and can be good source for traffic as well…no wonder if dell is making so much money from twitter..
dell streak coming soon , hope that makes it money too from social media
Twitter is became of the major current search engines, no wonder dell makes millions. I too get many visitors from twitter not for selling though.
I’ve seen so many businesses who engaged themselves into social networking sites. They even encourage their endorsers to help them with their twitter marketing. It help them achieve their increase in sales.
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