Dell Generated $6.5 Million in Sales via Twitter

Dell recently announced that they have generated $6.5 million in sales from interactions originating from their 12 Twitter profiles, including their ever-powerful @DellOutlet profile that boasts 1.4 million followers.  Though nobody is sure when they began tracking these figures, it has definitely grabbed my attention.  Even if this figure accounts for a minuscule fraction of their overall annual sales ($60 billion, last I heard), it brings to the surface the discussion of social media ROI.

Any manager will want to know what to know ROI for their social media expenditure.  This is where it gets sticky.  Most social media experts will tell you that social media serves more as a branding function.  More specifically, social media serves as a listening post for brands so that they can course-correct their marketing and customer service strategies.  Dell, however, has turned that notion on its ear by delivering these new sales figures to the public.  This is a little dicey.

Are small businesses, Dell’s competitors and other verticals to believe that social media is now a sales pipeline?  Dell would have you believe that to be so.  Dell has the resources, products/services, infrastructure and support that enable their leveraging of a social media channel like Twitter.  But, can Kenny’s Curry House in Anytown, USA expect to realize any sort of major sales by simply creating a Twitter account?  The answer is “no”.

The truth is that Dell employs 100 people  across 30+ Twitter profiles to send out tweets.  This compared to a small business that leaves their social media strategy and execution to a college-aged intern illustrates the chasm separating big business and small business strategy and implementation.

While I don’t fault Dell for releasing these impressive numbers, I do caution business owners and marketers.  What happens in the rarefied air of major global brands may not be sustainable at sea level marketing and sales.