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Executive Video Interview: Why Dell Continues To Use Social Media

Categories: Interview, Social Media, Video, Web Strategy ShowPosted on November 25th, 2008

Bob Pearson (Twitter at bobpdell) Vice President, Communities & Conversations at Dell invited me out to Microsoft’s Architect Forum to co-lead a session on social computing.

I let my twitter community come up with questions, and I took three from the dozens to pose to Bob, select questions from: Cece Salomon-Lee, Ravit Lichtenberg, and oemporor (can’t find his tweet)

Here’s the questions I posed to Bob, if I could only spit the words out as well as I could write them:

  • Is IdeaStorm increasing revenues?
  • Is social media impacting the bottom and top line of Dell?
  • How Dell has made $1mm in revenue from Twitter.
  • Is social media superficial branding, or does it truly change the company?
  • How does an economic downturn impact Dell’s social media efforts?
  • Is it better for customers to self-support each other rather than calling Dell Support?
  • What’s the URL of your corporate webpage?

    • It’s great to learn first hand from Dell how they’ve used these tools to increase revenues and reduce costs –it’s time we focus on the business aspect of things rather than the feel good branding only. You can see one of Bob’s recent video interviews on the Direct 2 Dell site.

    Or, see this visualization of the same interview by VizEdu

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    This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 25th, 2008 at 8:49 am and is filed under Interview, Social Media, Video, Web Strategy Show. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    51 Comments »

    51 Responses to “Executive Video Interview: Why Dell Continues To Use Social Media”

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    1. I know that guy…!

      Looking good.



      2. Posted by John (Human3rror) on November 25th, 2008 at 9:02 am

    2. Awesome. Excellent questions and excellent answers. Glad to see big business get it.



      3. Posted by Andrei on November 25th, 2008 at 9:09 am

    3. Great interview – it was quick but relevant and informative. Bob and Dell’s approach to social media is spot on with how companies should be using social media. Like he said, its not just about being on Twitter, but allowing your customers to tell you what they want and providing it. More people need to look beyond a flashy new tool and see how using them can impact the relationship with their customers. I’ll be passing on this video. Thanks Jeremiah!



      4. Posted by Lauren Beyer on November 25th, 2008 at 9:19 am

    4. Brilliant! My favorite question and response was about the Home Page not being the real home page and instead all search results lead to the actual home page.



      5. Posted by Prakash on November 25th, 2008 at 10:29 am

    5. Bob and the team at Dell are leaders in the space. They were early pioneers and continue to be an inspiration to many other major brands. Nice job Bob and Jeremiah.

      Blake Cahill
      Visible Technologies



      6. Posted by Blake Cahill on November 25th, 2008 at 10:52 am

    6. [...] Blog Your customer has evolved into a community. Have you joined it? from Jon in 60 seconds Executive Video Interview: Why Dell continues to use Social Media from Web Strategy by Jeremiah. Bob Pearson,  Vice President, Communities & Conversations at [...]



      7. Posted by Virgin Trains, wi-fi and customer comms. Too little-too late? on November 25th, 2008 at 11:19 am

    7. Jeremiah,

      Great interview! What especially struck me were the following commentaries of Bob:

      - ‘during a downturn, social media become even more important’

      - his title is VP of Communities & Conversations -> ‘we don’t just want to dump information, conversations with customers are important to us’ (or similar wording)

      - ‘listening to your customer is very important (product reviews etc)’

      It is great watching this interview on video, after having read about Dell involvement in social media , in the book ‘Groundswell’ written by your colleague Josh Bernoff and (former) colleague Charlene Li (Forrester)

      Regards,

      Jeroen de Miranda



      8. Posted by Jeroen de Miranda on November 25th, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    8. Great video, Jeremiah. And Bob, hope you are reading this, nice job and keep up the good work. Hope we cross paths again soon. – Adam Christensen



      9. Posted by adam christensen on November 25th, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    9. [...] Owyang (again) has a nice and short interview with Bob Pearson from Dell. After a bumpy start, Dell has really gotten their act together in social media, and now they seem [...]



      10. Posted by Dell is going full throttle | Kristofer Mencák on November 25th, 2008 at 2:13 pm

    10. [...] Why Dell Continues to Use Social Media [...]



      11. Posted by Raleigh NC| Dell’s Idea(l) Storm on November 25th, 2008 at 2:36 pm

    11. You had me at “VP of Communities & Conversations.”

      Next up: VP of design ass-kickery.



      12. Posted by olivier blanchard on November 25th, 2008 at 4:53 pm

    12. I enjoyed the video as a whole, but was disappointed that Bob didn’t directly answer the question about the impact on the bottom line.

      Reading between the lines, it appears IdeaStorm has not had a direct positive impact on the bottom line.

      The Fortune article on Dell also stated there was no information available regarding the financial impacts of IdeaStorm.

      I appreciate Dell isn’t going to reveal industry sensitive information, but I would have assumed a yes or no to the bottom line question would have been sufficient.

      Regards,

      Mike Hickinbotham



      13. Posted by Mike Hickinbotham on November 25th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

    13. To Bob’s credit, no exec will talk about revenues without first getting clearance –this is a typical answer, but I had to ask anyways.

      I’m waiting for Dell to report numbers to us, give them time, I’m confident they will.



      14. Posted by jeremiah_owyang on November 25th, 2008 at 7:20 pm

    14. [...] Nel video qui sotto Bob Pearson (su Twitter come bobpdell) Vice President, Communities & Conversations risponde alle domande poste da Jeremiah Owyang. [...]



      15. Posted by DELL aumenta le vendite per un milione di dollari usando twitter | Aghenor di Stefano Vitta on November 26th, 2008 at 1:03 am

    15. Nice interview, Jeremiah. Bob has a great perspective on things and has a very good way of communicating the “Ah Ha!” of social media for corporations.

      The cool thing is that Dell isn’t standing still and you will see continued leadership moves from them in 2009 as Bob alluded to.

      Thanks for your continued coverage of this important space.

      Marcel
      CEO, Radian6



      16. Posted by Marcel LeBrun on November 26th, 2008 at 6:12 am

    16. [...] of Bob Pearson (Twitter at bobpdell) Vice President, Communities & Conversations at Dell, Jeremiah Owyang, Sr Analyst at Forrester Research: Social Computing asked Bob some questions raised by Jeremiah [...]



      17. Posted by Santa SEO Melbourne Australia » Blog Archive » Why Dell continues to use Social Media on November 26th, 2008 at 8:13 am

    17. Thanks for sharing this with us. It’s very inspiring and convincing for B2B companies, like the one I work for.



      18. Posted by Samuel on November 26th, 2008 at 8:48 am

    18. Really enjoyed the interview and I enjoyed Bob’s perspective. Thanks for sharing.



      19. Posted by Shiv Singh on November 26th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    19. [...] Bob Pearson, VP Communities & Conversations had some great points in this video that I wanted to highlight here. He was interviewed by Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester who published the video in a post on his blog, Web Strategy by Jeremiah. [...]



      20. Posted by Interview with Dell’s Bob Pearson – Social Media Becomes More Important In A Recession | Power Shift - Social Media Blog on November 26th, 2008 at 6:01 pm

    20. [...] Another fellow blogger added an interesting post on Executive Video Interview: Why Dell continues to use Social MediaHere’s a small excerptAbout · 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 … [...]



      21. Posted by Email Marketing Systems » Blog Archive » Executive Video Interview: Why Dell continues to use Social Media on November 26th, 2008 at 6:10 pm

    21. [...] Another fellow blogger put an intriguing blog post on Executive Video Interview: Why Dell continues to use Social MediaHere’s a quick excerptAbout · 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 … [...]



      22. Posted by Email Marketing Strategy » Blog Archive » Executive Video Interview: Why Dell continues to use Social Media on November 26th, 2008 at 6:43 pm

    22. [...] wird sich weiterhin stark im Bereich Social Media engagieren. Die Erfolgsgeschichte rund um Idea Storm gibt dem US- [...]



      23. Posted by Social Media & Dell - Liebe auf den zweiten Blick | ethority weblog on November 28th, 2008 at 4:01 am

    23. [...] Executive Video Interview: Why Dell Continues To Use Social Media [...]



      24. Posted by Social Media & Dell - Love on second sight | ethority Weblog for Online Marketing and Research on November 28th, 2008 at 6:14 am

    24. [...] מה שאומר בוב פירסון, סמנכ”ל קהילות ושיחות(!) ב-DELL, בראיון לג’רמיה איואינג מ-Forrester. מה זה אומר? זה אומר ש-DELL לוקחת מאד ברצינות את התקשורת [...]



      25. Posted by Blinkit - הבלוג של בלינק » ארכיון הבלוג » מדיה חברתית היא חלק מ-DELL on November 28th, 2008 at 8:44 am

    25. Great interview – one of the key points that Bob mentioned was that customers like to share information with each other… This sharing takes place on many sites (forums, blogs, etc) that the company typically does not have control over, so recognition that the search engine is the true home page is (again) another great point to highlight. It is refreshing to see Dell not only “get it” from this perspective but to also take a leadership role in the business applications of social media. Very cool.



      26. Posted by Sam Taylor on November 28th, 2008 at 2:02 pm

    26. Anyone visiting the new Dell community site looking for user to user technical support will observe that it has become practically unuseable for that purpose. Most of the features that one expects in such a forum are missing. The previous Dell Talk user to user support forum used commercial software designed to provide the features that make such forums easily and efficiently navigable. Evidently the social media tools now used are more suited to social media interactions (blogs, media galleries, wikis, etc.), but not for user to user support technical support forums. Many of the more experienced users who provided much help are leaving, a great loss to other users.



      27. Posted by Jean Rosenfeld on November 28th, 2008 at 2:49 pm

    27. Jeremiah -thanks for linking to us. Your interview was great – Bob provided new pointers to look at Social media
      1) Dell wants to create a Social Media Alert System for deals – to reach customers – where they are – with their permission – on deals they care about. Awesome use of Social Media.

      2) Bob – “Google is the new corporate home page.” Clearly Social Media check has become part of the customer decision making process.

      3) “Resolution Team.” – Clearly DELL wants to talk/resolve/mitigate/help angry customers immediately before it becomes another DELL HELL.



      28. Posted by Sandeep Arora on November 29th, 2008 at 2:57 am

    28. Jeremiah, I participated in the pilot of IdeaStorm, at the invitation of Bob Pearson, and while Dell has been a pioneer in many respects, their global customer base is still an untapped resource.

      My idea for creating the “Dell Customer Corps” hasn’t been implemented thus far, but it’s one example of how IdeaStorm helped to expose Dell to new business model concepts (not just PC product related ideas and suggestions).
      http://dhdeans.googlepages.com/dellcustomercorps



      29. Posted by David H. Deans on November 29th, 2008 at 3:00 pm

    29. [...] Practice: Dell Posted on December 1, 2008 by davids2 Some good coverage from Jeremiah Owyang on Dell using social tools online. Thanks to David Cushman at Faster Future [...]



      30. Posted by In Practice: Dell « Pintarget on December 1st, 2008 at 8:43 am

    30. [...] for PR and advertising professionals so they can be the experts in social media’. Here is a video of Bob Pearson (Dell’s VP Communities & Conversations) being  interviewed by Je… where Bob covers some of the ways that Dell have used these tools to increase revenues and reduce [...]



      31. Posted by Let Them Talk, Let Them Talk, Let Them All Talk « Charlie Four Whiskey on December 1st, 2008 at 7:50 pm

    31. Outstanding – a fantastic reference for anyone wanting to know why Social Media is important, and how it fits with a major player.

      Next thing to do is to find a non-technology example – any come to mind Jeremiah?

      Good point about Dell Hell from Sandeep above.



      32. Posted by Justin Souter on December 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 am

    32. [...] Owyany talks to Dell’s head of commmunity about inetgerating social media into their [...]



      33. Posted by Knitware Blog » Blog Archive » Starred Items on December 2nd, 2008 at 11:06 am

    33. Little late in responding and I’m honored that my question was selected =) Very good interview on how to connect with customers and why social media is a low-cost way to do that.



      34. Posted by Csalomonlee on December 2nd, 2008 at 5:37 pm

    34. [...] Video interview with Bob Pearson, Dell’s Vice President, Communities & Conversations, on their continuation of using social media [...]



      35. Posted by Linkdump 22 | ettf.net on December 3rd, 2008 at 4:16 am

    35. [...] I turn. There are incredible opportunities for brand-building and even transactional results. Dell has sold over $1 million worth of refurbished computers on Twitter. More than ever people want to tell their friends about the things they [...]



      36. Posted by Why Are Advertisers Embarrassed by Advertising? : Bare Feet Studios on December 4th, 2008 at 7:44 am

    36. [...] Quelle [...]



      37. Posted by Interview - Empfehlung: Warum Dell Social Media nutzt | Uhl & Friends – The Media and Marketing Company on December 9th, 2008 at 6:00 pm

    37. [...] Bob Pearson (Twitter at bobpdell) Vice President, Communities & Conversations at Dell say in an interview with Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang that the ‘corporate homepage’ for them is not Dell.com but Google, MSN or Yahoo? See [...]



      38. Posted by Is it so strange that Facebook is top UK search term? | Stuart Glendinning Hall on December 11th, 2008 at 10:20 am

    38. [...] Jeremiah Owyang interviews Bob Pearson (Twitter at bobpdell) Vice President, Communities & Conversations at Dell. Isn’t it fascinating that Jeremiah solicited his questions for his interview from twitter followers. [...]



      39. Posted by Ergotron » Blog Archive » Why Dell Continues to Use Social Media on December 12th, 2008 at 10:20 am

    39. [...] Jeremiah Owang hat ein interessantes Interview mit Bob Pearson (Vice President, Communities & Conversations bei Dell) geführt. U.a. wid über folgende Themen gesprochen: [...]



      40. Posted by Video-Interview: Warum Dell Social Media nutzt | on December 13th, 2008 at 4:43 am

    40. [...] von Jeremiah Owyang von Forrester interviewed (das Video des Interviews kann auf seinem Blog “Web Strategy by Jeremiah” gefunden [...]



      41. Posted by Media-Blog » Blog Archive » Warum Social Media von der Krise profitieren wird on December 23rd, 2008 at 2:52 pm

    41. [...] to Bob Pearson of Dell, in an interview with Jeremiah Owyang on his blog, Google is now your home page. “The corporate home page at [...]



      42. Posted by Brainstorm » Blog Archive » The Whole Web is your Home Page on January 1st, 2009 at 2:11 am

    42. [...] Executive Video Interview: Why Dell Continues To Use Social Media [...]



      43. Posted by » Executive Video Interview with Bob Pearson Network-SA, a division of PROMOtivations: Networking in San Antonio on January 6th, 2009 at 11:40 am

    43. [...] professional, cite Dell here. They invited the consumer to improve the product, they listened, they sat down at the campfire (as David would say) and sold over $1million through Twitter alone. The benefits are felt by every [...]



      44. Posted by The Brand & social media « Social Glue on January 9th, 2009 at 4:59 am

    44. [...] Dells’ Bob Pearson was right, a company’s corporate homepage is really Google.com [...]



      45. Posted by The Fight on Google’s Results Pages on January 13th, 2009 at 4:38 pm

    45. [...] Dell’s Bob Pearson was right, a company’s corporate homepage is really Google.com [...]



      46. Posted by ThisGlobe.com Blogs » The Fight on Google’s Results Pages: Community Platforms on January 17th, 2009 at 8:02 am

    46. [...] The computer manufacturer, Dell, is using Twitter to spread special offers on its restored hardware – and has generated more than a million dollars in revenue to date. [...]



      47. Posted by How Communications Professionals Should Approach Twitter « Blogging Me Blogging You on February 9th, 2009 at 4:48 pm

    47. [...] Dell and how they benefit from social media   [...]



      48. Posted by StevenGroves.com - Ramblings about the Success of Strategy, Tools, and Tactics of Social Media | StevenGroves.com on March 4th, 2009 at 11:27 am

    48. [...] uwagę na case Dell i banku Credit Mutuel – ten pierwszy się zanurzył w web 2.0 po szyję, a ten drugi – stoi nad [...]



      49. Posted by Z pokorą do web 2.0 « Brzytwą po oczach on April 14th, 2009 at 3:25 am

    49. [...] qualquer coisa, de maneira que muitos falam que o Google é a sua homepage de fato (a Dell até criou uma homepage co-branded com o Google, que está em todos os seus [...]



      50. Posted by estalo.org » Blog Archive » google e mais nada? bullshit on May 3rd, 2009 at 9:44 pm

    50. [...] Eigentlich schade, denn Monitoring geht schon einmal in die richtige Richtung – mal sehen was in Zukunft die Forschung und die Praxis zu dem Thema noch so bringen wird. Die bisherigen Erfolgsgeschichten wie z.B. Dell stimmen aber ganz hoffnungsfroh. Twittern kann sich also – ebenso wie ein professionelles Monitoring – lohnen und zu zusätzlichen Umsätzen führen, besonders in einer Krise bzw. Rezession. [...]



      51. Posted by Media-Blog » Blog Archive » Monitoring, oder warum es als Unternehmen so wichtig ist zuzuhören on June 8th, 2009 at 8:59 am

    51. Well … yes dell going a Good job.! but i a question !Why Dell Continues To Use Social Media..?? and Dell how they benefit from social media.??? and what is the reason that DELL do it…??



      52. Posted by Cheap Dell Tower on June 21st, 2009 at 2:59 am
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