Twitter earned Dell $9 million

 

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By Stuart Turton in Hannover

Posted on 3 Mar 2010 at 12:13

Dell has claimed that direct sales of its products through Twitter and Facebook earned it $9 million in 2009, as the company urged small business to make best use of social networks.

Speaking to delegates at CeBIT, Stephen Felice, the president of Dell's small and medium business group, claimed that businesses needed to lose their fear of social networks.

"We interact with 3.5 million people through Twitter, Facebook, blogs and Flickr, and we generated $9 million in direct sales through Twitter and Facebook. These are powerful tools," he said.

"But, we don't just use them for generating sales. Social media gives you information that you can use in real time, and base decisions on.

Most people think that the use of innovative technologies are used by enterprises, but they’re not, they’re first deployed by SMBs

"This is a really powerful tool for SMBs, who don’t have the marketing dollars for traditional advertising. Social media offers a cheap way to form a really personal relationship with customers," he said.

He went on to warn small businesses from continuing to play it safe as the economy stabilises, claiming they were the ones who needed to lead the recovery.

"Most people think that the use of innovative technologies are used by enterprises, but they’re not, they’re first deployed by SMBs," he said.

"If you look at Dell, Google, Facebook, they were invented in dorm rooms by people not going to class. Innovation isn't the domain of the enterprise."