How many conferences have you been to in the last 12-24 months that have utilized Dell as a case study for the adoption of social media? Probably somewhere between a bunch and more times than you'd care to count, right? Well, I can tell you that all of those case studies applauding their adoption of social are true. I had the good fortune of being invited to participate in Dell's first Social Media and Community (SMaC) Unconference with several people from outside of the organization, including Kelly Feller (Intel), Shel Holtz, Amber Naslund, Chris Barger (General Motors), Katie Paine, Jordan Williams (REI) and Andy Sernovitz. It's hard to encapsulate an entire day of talking about social media with such smart people in a single blog post, but I'm going to give it a try.
  1. Dell's commitment to listening - This is probably one of the biggest takeaways for me, given the role I currently hold with WCG. During our panel discussion to start the day, there were a couple of questions specific to metrics/listening. Dell's commitment to doing listening correctly really showed through in the afternoon sessions. I had the privilege of sitting through probably 2-3 sessions on listening where we talked about everything from categorizing conversations to setting up profiles to filtering through noise. All great discussions, but what really struck me was how committed everyone was to listening to the voice of their customer. Even Dell's Chairman and CEO, Michael Dell, made it a point to mention how important listening was to the organization. NOW THAT IS COOL! If there are brands still on the fence about listening (and I know there are) it's time to get off!
  2. Scaling social media - No surprise, but Dell's social media team is large. Given the size of the group you would think it would be very difficult to coordinate. However, after spending the day with a large chunk of the team it appears they are more coordinated than I could've imagined. Major kudos to Manish Mehta on building a fantastic team.
  3. Measuring social media - Again, no surprise. Everybody is wondering how you measure this stuff. One of the points I made during the opening panel discussion was that a focus on ROI is great, but don't lose sight of other metrics. Categorized more as awareness or assessment metrics. When given the opportunity it's absolutely imperative to show direct linkage to sales, but relationship and trust metrics are just as important when trying to demonstrate the value of social activities. I think that's something the folks at Dell understand, but it's something I worry about for the industry-at-large.
  4. Commitment from the top - Everyone in the audience was excited to hear from Michael Dell at the end of the day. He had a lot of great things to say, but his dedication to social technologies that help the company get closer to its customers was the biggest takeaway for me. C-level executives who are still skeptical about the value of social should spend 30 minutes talking to him. They'd instantly be turned around.
  5. More brands should pull together teams in this format - It doesn't matter how big your social/digital/community team is in this case. Bringing them together to recognize their work (an excellent point made by Shel Holtz early in the day) is critical, but it also helps in building team comradery. That's all in addition to bringing together ideas that someone in another business unit may not have thought of previously.
I could probably go on for days about what I learned yesterday, but i'll stop there. Before I go, I wanted to thank Manish, Bill Johnston and Richard Binhammer for inviting me to participate in the event. It was a great experience for me to talk with so many smart people in the space. Wish you, and your team the best of luck moving forward.