How “Dell” has implemented SMM

In my last blog I discussed the main idea of Social Media Marketing (SMM). I mentioned the key point of entering into a dialogue or a relation with the target group. In this blog I’m going to explain this a bit more by giving an example of a company who has implemented SMM. But first I’m going to elaborate on an action plan in order to have a good SMM strategy, which is crucial and forms the basis of your campaign, like I mentioned in my previous blog.

Action plan
First of all, you have to define a mission. Try to come up with a few goals and convert these goals into success factors. Next, make sure to have a nice budget and employees who want to go for it and who believe in your idea. Important to keep in mind is that SMM is not something you do “in a week”. A good SMM campaign requires time. Do some research and determine where your target group is and which social media they are using the most. Then start online with reputation management. First, you need to find out what your target group is saying about you or your products and services on the internet. Subsequently, participate in conversations, convince “opponents” and help, inform and interact with (current) customers. Develop blogs, forums and unique content to increase brand awareness. Try to stay innovative and keep interacting with “your people”. Evaluate new things you tried earlier and measure the effects. Important is to improve weaker points and optimize your results. Companies want to see the difference as fast as possible and they are a bit impatient, but it is important to be patient and to evaluate and improve if necessary.

Dell
In 2009, Dell implemented SMM in their organization. Dell started its own community site, where the customers have access to twelve blogs, dozens of forums, media galleries and the successful “Dell IdeaStorm”. The Dell IdeaStorm is a digital place where (potential) customers can drop their ideas about current products or just “wild ideas”. It is Dells intention to react on all comments and ideas, whether it is positive or negative, but just to give a signal to the people that Dell stands for customer loyalty and that they want to help out customers with problems.

Tons of useful ideas were send in and a few were actually used to improve their assortment and to listen to their customers. This is very smart, because those customers think that they are “a part of the organization”. This is how you create commitment. Next time, customers who feel that they are taken very seriously by Dell are definitely coming back to Dell. If you have already read my previous blog, you know that customer retention is much cheaper and easier than attracting new customers. Conclusively, Social Media Marketing can be very advantageous and profitable, but make sure to have a good strategy and try to be patient!