

Dell reveals it has made $6.5m out of Twitter - access_denied
http://community.brandrepublic.com/blogs/gordons_republic/archive/2009/12/08/dell-has-made-6-5m-out-twitter.aspx

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raganwald
The article seems to suggest that twitter makes up a sales channel that
generated M$6.5 in revenues. That isn't M$6.5 in profits for a margin-
challenged business. Also, there is no indication this is incremental revenue.
For all we know, Twitter simply displaced existing email newsletter revenue or
RSS feed revenue.

It could still be a very good thing, for example if it lowers costs. But I
would like to understand whether this is incremental business or simply
replacing another mechanism.

I'd like to think that the retweeting phenomenon really could lead to Dell
getting entirely new business from people who follow people who follow Dell.
But I don't know.

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Timothee
I agree with you. Nothing indicates that it's business it wouldn't have had
otherwise. Yes, their Twitter account is where the traffic and sales came
from, but what part of it wouldn't have resulted in a sale without Twitter is
the key element.

One thing is sure though: it costs a lot less for them to send tweets than to
send emails.

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ct
And Twitter has made $0 from Dell.

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brianobush
They still have intentions on making money, though I think it will come from
their recent partnerships with search engines google and bing.

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ivankirigin
Is this a lot? Dell has a $25B market cap.

The brand relationship management on twitter is a bit overhyped, in my
opinion. CRM tools don't scale well. This becomes (as others here have
mentioned) just another channel. Facebook pages are another. Email is another.
The company blog is another.

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modoc
This is one of the first hard data 7 figure sales number from a zero cost
channel I've seen. That makes it important I think:)

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ivankirigin
This is not a zero cost channel. The companies very active on Twitter have
full time people dedicated to it.

