Dell tweets $3m in revenues
Money to be made after all
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Twitter itself can't be bothered to come up with a business plan, but Dell at least seems to be making out gangbusters on the micro-blogging service.
The PC vendor said Friday it's generated more than $2m in revenue directly through promotions on its @DellOutlet Twitter feed. An additional $1m was earned via the web 2.0 naval-gazing technology from folks starting at Dell on Twitter and following links to purchase a system elsewhere on Dell.com.
About $1m of Dell's direct sales were in the past six months alone, Redrock said.
Dell's outlet arm, which punts returned or refurbished computers at a discount, began posting on Twitter back in 2007 according to Stephanie Nelson, the company's tweeter-in-chief. Nelson says her secret to success was regular posting and doing more Twitter-exclusive offers, which helped expand their follower base.
"Dell Outlet sells refurbished Dell products at great prices, but inventories fluctuate, making it difficult to know when products are available or on sale," Nelson wrote. "Dell Outlet uses Twitter as a way to message out coupons, clearance events and new arrival information to those looking for Dell technology at a discounted price."
Let's be realistic: $3m in two years is a minuscule amount for a company that generated revenue to the tune of $13.4bn last quarter alone. But it does show there's profit to be had on Twitter if you look really hard - at least, so long as you're not the one stuck operating the service. ®
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COMMENTS
@Charles
twittards? No, I think you mean twits.. or just tw*ts
To be fair
Using Twitter takes absolutely minimal costs - less than email. (No mailing list to maintain, no server or ISP capacity to worry about, very time-effective, far less manpower) So in terms of publicity, it's very cheap, if not entirely effective. (They can punt cheap and discounted deals easily enough, but normal sales would be hard for most brands)
What we want to know from Dell now is: How much revenue have they generated from Second Life?
Naval-gazing
Eying up the sailors won't get you anywhere.
Navel.
Using twitter now is like using blogs last year or billboards 5 years ago. Just another way to get stuff in from of the tards. Twitter is all about ego boosting and there are probably quite a few who want to tell their mates that they bought something through twitter to score points with other twittards.
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