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Dell (DELL) has been beat up in the last few years as it has struggled to gain market share, compete at retail with its consumer PCs and take on a resurgent Acer, which recently replaced it as the world's second-largest manufacturer of PCs. One thing Dell is doing right: using social networking to make sales that would have been most likely lost otherwise.
Dell's Twitter account for its outlet (used and returned) product has generated $6.5 million for the company since its inception. A hundred or so of Dell's employees tweet at its outlet account daily as a way to move product at a discount. Apparently, it works well. Dell also uses Twitter accounts in Brazil and Canada, which contributed to that sales figure as well.
So, is this a good example of a company using a social media presence to sell bargain product? You bet it is. By its own account, Dell has doubled its sales related to using Twitter in the last six months and, amazingly, Brazil has contributed more than three-quarters of a million dollars to that figure. So, not only is Twitter working well in the U.S. for Dell, but it's been great for them globally, too.
And, Dell is only using Twitter in 12 countries right now -- if it expands to others where Twitter usage is continuing to grow, social networking could be as important to Dell's bottom line as selling used computers from its own website. Just like in retail, you have to go to where the customers are -- don't expect them all to come to you.
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