But Dell tell a different story. How is Dell doing it? Dell sells refurbished computers through @ DellOutlet and has about 600,000 followers. And whilst $3 million revenue is a relatively small proportion of Dell’s overall sales, this does mean that they have taken an average or $5 for every follower they have on Twitter. Image by Alex via Flickr There’s been a lot of talk about Twitter so far this year - starting with the incredible growth in number of Twitter users to more recent discussions about a Harvard Business Review report that 10%

I’m at the Communities 2.0 One of the hot topics raised at the ROI symposium was the thorny issue of getting internal buy in for your online community from across departments and management levels. It’s often the hardest part of getting an online community started and even when you are rolling, how do you keep the visibility of it high to ensure continued investment? conference in San Francisco this week. It’s such a beautiful and diverse city and sadly not enough time to explore (sigh).

Group purchases, in the model of Dell Swarm , are on the rise. and here is another interesting one on the development of iWOM and online communities in China . Tags: conferences Amazon China CIC Dell Facebook Inc qq Sam Flemming social media social network I was at a talk on how internet word of mouth (iWOM) works in China a couple of weeks ago. There were a few noteworthy things that Sam Flemming , CEO and Co-Founder of CIC , said:

The ROI that businesses can get from online customer service communities. Dell is an example of ‘bad turned good’ and has moved from its period of ‘Dell Hell’ to being perhaps one of the best example of businesses having an integrated approach to social media. We discussed in the workshop the case of how Dell make $3 million on Twitter , and how their forums are so well used that peers are solving others’ problems and saving Dell significant amounts of money on support costs. Image by JMC Photos via Flickr Earlier this week

This month we're featuring two video interviews Bill Johnston conducted at the Online Community Summit in Sonoma, CA in October. In the first interview, Bill Johnston talks with Vida Killian of Dell about the value of online community at Dell as well as lessons learned from her experience with community and social media. In Bill's second interview with Mari Kuraishi of GlobalGiving.org , Mari share's In In

About Contact Web Strategy Vault Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing Jeremiah Owyang discusses how web tools and social media enable companies to connect with customers The Four Tenets of the Community Manager November 25th, 2007 | Category: Community Manager , Community Marketing , Web Industry Summary The budding Community Manager industry holds 4 tenets; these values resonate as a common thread within the role. The include community advocation, brand ambassadorship,

One powerful use of online communities is to help get new ideas into a business; taking advantage of the fact that many (if not most) of the best ideas for your business are likely to come from outside, from people who don’t work for you. There are some well know examples of businesses working with consumers on co-creation in this way: MyStarbucksIdea and Dell’s Ideastorm being among the most well known. Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr Most of these sites use a similar process: people can join the community and then suggest their own idea, comment

Web Strategy by Jeremiah » Feedback Websites appear: The extranet is no longer owned by the company A fantastic startup offers Digg-like presentation and voting for your community. See more >> Webtime stories Are you Listening? | Rob the Geek Americans Expect Companies to Have a Presence in Social Media Michael Dell Friends his customers See more >> Feedback2.0 en fr About References Contact Blog Home Site Home Register to receive our newsletter : Exalead Jobmeeters Ziki Current operations SNCF Symantec Liligo Cofidis Exalead See more >> Agenda feedback2.0 : Web and Breakfast See more >> They talk about us Headshift :: Behind "Enterprise 2.0"

These are just some of the objectives that brands may have for using online communities and social media , and all of them are measurable. In the online communities that we manage at FreshNetworks a lot of time is spent defining the objectives and then working out first what metrics should be measured against these, and then monitoring and reporting on these to make sure we understand how the community is performing. Example: Image by Marco D via Flickr For any brand getting started in social media , the most important thing is to be able to show the impact you

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