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%

Social media is very much existent in China, but it’s like it’s on steroids: 298 million internet users, 105 million bloggers, 91 million members on their Bulletin Board Systems or BBS (discussion forums around different topics), and 58 million people on social networks. Group purchases, in the model of Dell Swarm , are on the rise. 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:

Not surprising - it goes a long way to protect the company from fallout if/when staff do ignore the social media guidelines in place.  Media companies: For Journalists entering into public debate  [link] Dell’s Online Communication Policy  [link] Managing staff who participate in social networks. This list also includes policies called; Staff blogging policies, enterprise social network guidelines, Employee Blogging Policies, Staff engagement in online communities, and so on.

Earlier this week we wrote about Thomson Holidays and how a blogger can impact your brand reputation and how with social media, complaints have moved from being a customer service issue to being a branding and corporate reputation one. Earlier this week I was running a ‘masterclass’ in social media and customer service at the Call Centre Focus & Customer Strategy Conference 2009 . Image by JMC Photos via Flickr The session looked first at the different types of social media that businesses use and the reasons for and benefits of this.

Euan Semple started the BBC intranet on a box under his desk and the seasoned community practitioner Dawn Lacallade (previously Lead Stormchaser at Dell and now at solarwinds ) tirelessly waded through the politics at Dell to extol the benefits of the early Dell communities. Many social media projects start as skunkworks projects and sometimes this is the only way to gather the evidence that the demand and the benefits are there. I’m at the Communities 2.0 conference in San Francisco this week.

As Michael Brito put it, in his post: In social media, listening is only half the battle : Listening and responding are only half the battle when engaging with consumers online. Second, we engaged in a content marketing strategy using blogs, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, online press releases and a number of other online media. Southwest Airlines At Southwest Airlines , the social media team includes It’s really helpful to look at what some good examples of what companies are doing with their listening skills: deflecting customer anger, researching new products, or correcting mis-information.

Marketing Magazine name Industry Head of Social Media for Australia. What commodity does social media create, to make an industry? Kate Kendall ( @KateKendall ) from Marketing Magazine approached me a little while ago to write a piece on the “state of the social media industry”. hunkered down and tried to figure out what I’ve seen change What is an Industry? What is an Influencer?

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 how GlobalGiving uses online community and social media strategy for global good. ...Tags: This month we're featuring two video interviews Bill Johnston conducted at the Online Community Summit in Sonoma, CA in October. In In

We did an internal exercise recently that produced a list of the advanced features we think are crucial for a successful enterprise social media platform. Easy uploading, tagging, and sharing features will create a robust social media environment, greater user satisfaction, and increased engagement. Mobile The demand for social media in the mobile space is undeniable. In the marketing realm, Dell’s The idea is that functionality for user participation across every owned venue should draw upon a central system, enabling a multifaceted approach to CRM, data analysis, reporting—and ultimately leveraging distributed corporate efforts to generate enterprise business intelligence. I’ll share the results of that exercise here, with the caveat that this is undoubtedly a partial list only.

For any brand getting started in social media , the most important thing is to be able to show the impact you are having. There is a lot of talk about social media measurement and it is true that in isolation it is difficult to know where to start. But for businesses with a clear social media strategy, it is actually much easier than many people think. Image by Marco D via Flickr To be able to evaluate and assess what is working and what isn’t having the results that you might expect.