Radian6.com cited this Innerarchitect post: 6 Elements of Effective Social Media Benchmarking
First adopters of social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and blogging understand that their success can be measured and based on audience engagement, recognition, and involvement. Yet, Social Media’s Achilles heel, in the eyes of corporate decision makers who still utilize Web 1.0 analytics and measurement for their marketing, sales, and promotion efforts, is the lack of compelling ROI case studies: until now.
Dell’s Twitter Strategy: ROI of Engagement
The Washington Post reported on Claire Baldwin’s article in Reuters “Twitter helps Dell rake in sales“:
- Twitter: Dell established their Twitter account two years ago
- Measurement: Dell measures and “track sales with proprietary software”
- ROI: Dell “has raked in more than $3 million from Twitter followers who clicked through its posts to its Web sites to make purchases.”
- Trend: Dell has “made more than $1 million in the past 6 months” utilizing Twitter
@DellOutlet: Dell’s Twitter Strategies
Dell has over 650,000 followers on Twitter. Although they are only following 23, they are known as a value provider:
- Coupons: Dell distributes valuable discount coupons through Twitter
- Customer Service: Dell answers questions and solves problems by engaging with their audience
- Crowdsourcing: like their efforts at Ideastorm, they crowdsource their Twitter network for ideas on products, services, processes, and anything related to making their consumers satisfied
- Network: Dell brilliantly and seamlessly integrate their Twitter network of followers with their Facebook fans for their Facebook company page. They convert many Twitter followers to Facebook fans and vice-versa
- Bookmark :
- Digg
- del.icio.us
- Stumbleupon
- Redit it
13 Responses to “Twitter ROI Case Study: Dell Generates $3 Million in Sales Utilizing Twitter”
Case study history is often the basis for ROI discussions. How many of those ROI questions included citing “discount coupons” as a source of engaging an audience of consumers?
Valid point, and well made, But the real question i feel is being over looked is, how much did it cost Dell to set up, maintain and quantify thier ROI? Say compared to the equivalent advertising over a 3 year basis.
Brook,
You are missing the point here. There is no more comparing print advertising costs from an industry that is on it’s last decade or less of relevance.
You can reach a conclusion on ROI measuring the sales (via coupon codes) vs. the labor costs associated with monitoring the social networks.
Here lies the reason ROI is not just a dollars and sense equation. If Dell did not plunge themselves into Twitter and FB they would be ignoring the vast majority of their audience that has adopted those networks. Combine this with the fact that Facebook will soon replace Google as the #1 tool for people to SEARCH for information and you have all the reason in the world to adopt social media.
Simply put this is not a measure of the cost of advertising vs social networking. The real issue is that Dell, a cutting edge technology firm, would look foolish (stupid actually) if they did not embrace and sell to their audience on Twitter and Facebook.
Perception is reality. In this case Dell’s reality is a lucrative monetary and customer relationship management gain across the board.