6 Ways Dell Uses Social Media to Drive Sales and Improve the Customer Experience

In her keynote presentation at last week's eTail East conference in Baltimore, Zita Cassizzi, vice president of Dell.com, discussed how the computer technology giant has used social media to engage consumers online and ultimately drive sales. As one of the first companies to launch online forums and online support, Dell has a track record of being at the forefront of the social media movement. Here's a recap of Cassizzi's presentation.

The Future of E-Commerce?
Social media is a buzzword that's often thrown around by retailers. If enough people are talking about it, it must be important, right? To Dell, the medium offers another way to engage consumers online, but also another outlet to make money in. The value of social media is in commerce and customer loyalty, Cassizzi said.

But to make money via social media, you must first engage consumers in the channel. Here are some of the recommendations Cassizzi offered to the audience, based on her personal experiences with Dell:

• Put a heavy emphasis on engaging with bloggers. Dell illustrates this with its Community page, where consumers can access blogs, support forums, how-to articles and more.
• Listen, engage, learn and keep trying, and measure. Take risks with your social media campaigns, keep the failures small and scale what works, Cassizzi said. Dell first launched a Twitter page three years ago, for example. By Cassizzi's own admission, it was disorganized and didn't have a purpose. So the company began testing different uses for the micro-blogging site, and found that offering deals to followers proved particularly effective. The result: Dell quickly gained 1.5 million Twitter followers. Today, Dell uses Twitter to accomplish four things: inform, sell, engage and support.
• React to what you learn. When Dell realized that many of its Twitter followers were going to the site to voice their customer support issues, it launched Dell Cares, a website designed to proactively reach out to consumers to help them resolve their problems.
• Be super relevant on Facebook. Dell's initial experience on Facebook was much like its start with Twitter — it lacked direction and didn't know what to give to consumers. Adapting to consumers’ interests, Dell has launched support widgets and apps on its Facebook page designed to allow customers to reach out to Dell Support from within Facebook.
• Use social media for B-to-B as well. Dell's social media tools — Facebook, Twitter, blogs, ratings and reviews — aren't focused solely on the B-to-C marketplace. We leverage social media to build awareness, drive consideration, showcase solutions, and engage existing and potential B-to-B customers, Cassizzi said.