Selling the right way is OK

By Molly Flatt

Sceptics of social media ROI take note: last week Dell announced that links from its @DellOutlet Twitter account have now generated over $3 million in actual sales. Excellent as this is, ReadWriteWeb has used the news to reinvigorate the debate about what exactly brands should be using Twitter for. Should we be expecting social media to deliver these kind of direct sales? Does it encourage brands to think in terms of one-way messaging without respecting microblogging’s two-way, conversational roots?

Regular readers of this blog will know how much emphasis we put on helping clients understand the value of word of mouth beyond precisely measurable stats and sales. However, it’s important that we don’t forget that consumers out in social media also want a brand to be a brand: to provide easily accessed, accurate information and expertise – in fact, to sell us stuff, albeit good stuff, that we want, and that has been developed thanks to plenty of listening to our feedback and needs.

As ReadWriteWeb point out, Dell can get away with tweets geared towards ‘hard’ ROI because they also invest in ‘soft’ ROI by engaging in listening and conversation as well as pushing deals and product pages. OK, so @DellOutlet is only following 23 people – not exactly a model of reciprocity – but its 644,016 followers don’t seem to mind. They know what it’s there to do. Dell keeps its tweets regular, simple and up-to-date, and the strength of its voice and clarity of its purpose – to help people find the best products for them – is refreshing.

Many companies I talk to have a crisis of confidence in social media, almost feeling that they should hide their commercial priorities under a patina of irrelevant chat. The truth is, I don’t really care what the CEO had for breakfast or what he’s listening to on Spotify. Branded social presences need to strike the balance between listening and responding to consumers, but also actually being open, direct and unashamed about who they are and what they have to offer.

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Brought into the world on Monday, June 15th, 2009 and filed under Uncategorized.

  • http://www.danielgoodall.com Daniel Goodall

    Check some of my colleages recent posts about this topic:

    “Supplying” is the S in the PESH model from Arto Joensuu:

    http://artojoensuu.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/introducing-the-pesh-model/

    Also, this is great stuff on “Parasocial Relationships” by JP:

    http://erkkola.net/2009/03/parasocial-relationships-and-twitter/

  • Molly Flatt

    Thanks Dan, some really interesting reading there. Good to see others looking at how to create an open and yet honest and focused brand voice…

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