Dell + Twitter = $1,000,000.

Twitter has made Dell $1 million bucks in revenue. This is such major news for 2 main reasons.

1) It proves Social media can be "cash in hand" profitable
2) It begs us to examine the "How the hell they made this happen?"

I'm sure the article from Internet news will spark a gazillion emails from CEOs and MDs down to line level digital managers telling them to get their ass on twitter. Although those may not be the exact words, i'm sure some "leverage", "explore", "forefront", " maximize" was thrown in for good measure.

So is Twitter the new revenue stream for brands to take notice of? Will tweeting about your latest product promotions ( like Dell does) bring about a new spring of cash? The answer i feel lies in Dell's background. First off, lets not just look at "Dell + Twitter = $1,000,000". The equation goes much deeper as we examine some of Dell's social media position.

Dell has been conversing with its customers ever since Michael Dell took over back in 2007. The best thing he has done is to have made customer focus his only focus. ( It stuns me everytime someone in a meeting says we need to focus on several things) By thinking about what his customers want and hearing those comments enabled sites like Ideastorm and DirectoDell to take place. In the words of the man himself " "If we don't do that at Dell.com, it's going to be on CNET or somewhere," Michael Dell says. "I'd rather have that conversation in my living room than in somebody else's."

From redefining customer service to customer driven product innovation, Dell has over the last 2 years proven to be sincere about this shift in focus. As a result, their tweets are received by a multitude of followers that resulted in this million dollar revenue opportunity.

There is no shortcut to engagement and the equation certainly isn't as clear cut as it seems. If you are suddenly thinking about getting your 15% store discount on twitter. Stop. Go back to the chalkboard and look at the origins of the equation. Yes, you can make revenue from promo tweets but the pre cursor is your followers need to be your friends and top priority.

Song of the blog

Cheated on me by Gavin Degraw