enterprise2.0
Complexity Models in Social Marketing (Part deux)
“Social media is maturing and being widely adopted by companies everywhere – many are still not prepared for it.”
In the last post, the aspects that create complexity in social marketing were presented and in this post we look at how to evaluate them.
Aside from the mis-steps in content itself (witness the faux pas of many major brands, ranging from JetBlue, Wal-Mart and GMC and countless smaller organizations) there is, to me, an obvious challenge in identifying the layers of complexity. This post will explore the complexity relating to organizational readiness and how to understand what you’re up against before you even begin.
Complexity in Social Marketing Content for the Enterprise
I read a recent study that was titled ‘Enterprise Content Management’ because I’ve been thinking about the complexities inherent in the world of social marketing for the corporate and large enterprise and I was hoping they had some insight to the kinds of issues I’ve been seeing – short answer is they did not, at least in this report, and not along the lines I’ve been thinking. They did look at a dozen odd vendors, put them in a 4-quadrant rating and declared who exhibited the best vision and execution around what is defined as Enterprise Content, but they left out what I’m seeing as enterprise ‘social marketing content’ management. In this post I introduce the issues at work and in the next few posts show how to anticipate complexities.
Why Social Media is Not Just a Gimmick for Dell SMB
![ROI_SMGraphics_LG1_thumb1_thumb[3]](http://www.socialmarketingconversations.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ROI_SMGraphics_LG1_thumb1_thumb3.jpg "ROI_SMGraphics_LG1_thumb1_thumb[3]")
The opportunity to speak with the global Director of the Small to Medium Business Division for Dell was a chance to get some insight into how a Global 500 company leverages social media to market their products and services to both the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) and our time with Michael Buck was no disappointment.
![dell_logo480_thumb[1]](http://www.socialmarketingconversations.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/dell_logo480_thumb12.jpg "dell_logo480_thumb[1]"){kind=logo}
Michael is the Director and General Manager for the Global Small and Medium Online Business at Dell, and is responsible for the overall online business and strategy for Dell SMB worldwide. When he spoke with us from his offices in Stuttgart Germany, Guy Powell and I were able to find out a great deal about how Dell manages and measures their social marketing and their online presence.
![Mikebuck7Web_thumb[1]](http://www.socialmarketingconversations.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Mikebuck7Web_thumb12.jpg "Mikebuck7Web_thumb[1]")
In our first episode, we learned about the Four Pillars of the online marketing strategy they employ and in episode 2 we heard about the five Customer Value Drivers and the five key metrics they apply to measure the success of their online efforts. In our last episode, Michael shared how Dell works hard to present a broad offering of online communities and communications options to support the B2B and B2C initiatives and to give customers a chance to have their voices heard and to drive the innovations in products and services they want to invest in from Dell.
In this episode, we wrap up the conversation with Michael with him sharing how Dell is absolutely committed to social media as a fundamental tactic because they see success in it and they see how well the customer base responds to it. He also points out that the massive increase in social engagements in other geographies, away from North America, to other regions that including Brazil, Russia, India and elsewhere.
How Dell SMB Supports Customers in Diving Deep in Social Media
![dell_logo480_thumb[1]](http://www.socialmarketingconversations.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/dell_logo480_thumb11.jpg "dell_logo480_thumb[1]"){kind=logo}
The team at Dell really gets social media in its various applications for the enterprise. From monitoring the social media ecosphere for customer support issues, to creating $19M in revenue via sales connections made on Twitter. Blogging, micro-blogging, forums and online social networks are all part of the Dell toolset. There is no doubt though that the processes developed by the Dell people are firmly rooted in an ROI strategy that demands efficiency.
![Mikebuck7Web_thumb[1]](http://www.socialmarketingconversations.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Mikebuck7Web_thumb11.jpg "Mikebuck7Web_thumb[1]")
In previous episodes we met Michael Buck, who is the Director and General Manager for the Global Small and Medium Online Business at Dell, responsible for the overall online business and strategy for Dell SMB worldwide. He spoke with us from his offices in Stuttgart Germany and first told us about the Four Pillars of the online effort at Dell that are a part of everything they do.
![ROI_SMGraphics_LG1_thumb1_thumb[1]](http://www.socialmarketingconversations.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/ROI_SMGraphics_LG1_thumb1_thumb11.jpg "ROI_SMGraphics_LG1_thumb1_thumb[1]")
In our last episode, Michael shared how the approach differs for a business-to-business (B2B) customer versus a business-to-consumer (B2C) customer and how they make sure the top Customer Value Drivers are embedded in their tactics. In that episode he also shares what the top five metrics are that they apply to their online marketing and social media efforts – all really great information.
In this episode, Michael declares that ‘Marketing is the New Finance’ because with the power of social marketing, Dell is able to affect both the revenue and the expenses of the organization. He tells us that eCommerce is not the beginning of a relationship with their customers – it is an outcome of the relationship they build via the online elements they deploy to connect to their customers. Michael goes on to share that they have been benchmarking social tactics versus traditional and find that social elements are so powerful that, in the SMB education they provide to their customers, in some cases social elements warrant a clear consideration to perhaps flat out replace some traditional components.
What the 5 Customer Value Drivers and Top 5 Metrics are for the Dell SMB Social Presence
In our last episode we met Michael Buck and he shared with us the Four Pillars Dell relies on for their online presence. This is a presence that has supported millions of dollars annually in revenue and support call center avoidance.
In this episode Michael suggest that while there are distinct differences in employing social media to connect to the business-to-consumers (B2C) and the business-to-business (B2B) audience, both groups benefit from the engagement between the vendor and other customers.
What Michael shares with us is that the B2B sector is not as active or engaged in popular social media platforms as B2C and that B2B requires a bit more facilitation to get them to interact and participate. What he also tells us is that there is a much broader set of influencers and decision makers in a company setting that need to be addressed and that Dell deploys a broader set of communication tools in the effort to reach them.
How Dell Does Online Media – The Four Pillars
So far in this series of podcasts we have had truly powerful participants from businesses all over the world and we look forward to many more as we continue to explore what works and does not work in measuring and managing the Return On Investment (ROI) of social media for business; what we refer to as social marketing.
One of the big names that always comes to mind for social marketing success is Dell Computers. They adopted social media early on for a number of reasons, primary of which is the belief that listening to a customers wants and needs is the best way to market to them. It has not always been perfect – the ‘Dell Hell’ posts by Jeff Jarvis on the BuzzMachine.com was a wake up call back in the 2005 and it seemed to get Dell to invest more heavily in tools like Twitter.
The headquarters for Dell is in Round Rock, Texas, just outside of Austin. Austin is the host city for an annual event that showcases the best in social media, South by Southwest (SXSW), which is an art & technology event that many social media participants and technology providers launch new products and capabilities – Twitter was debuted there in 2006. So being near ground zero in social media may have had an impact as well.
Dell has been regularly referred to in case studies too, many of which point at the $19M in revenue they attribute to the social media effort and others point at the call deflection that saves them millions in customer support costs – with all that history, we could not wait to get a chance to talk with Dell about their social media programs.
Our co-author Jerry Dimos of LiTMUS Group in Singapore helped set up the call and it was a great pleasure to talk with and interview Michael Buck who is the Director and General Manager for the Global Small and Medium Online Business at Dell, responsible for the overall online business and strategy for Dell SMB worldwide from his offices in Stuttgart Germany.
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