Sean McDonald, Director of Communities and Conversations at Dell, about the strategies, viewpoints and initiatives Dell has undertaken to give both customers and employees a voice in the brand. Through the effective use of Web 2.0 technologies, Dell has enabled interactions that result in direct consumer feedback and decreased support costs.

1. YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE
TALKING ABOUT YOU
Sean McDonald
Director, Communities and Conversations
Global Communications
Twitter: smcdonaldatdell 1

2. Real Life?
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3. COMMUNICATION IS
DIFFERENT NOW
© Hugh McLeod
– Human beings talk with each other – a conversation
– Traditional corporate communication is a one way
communication – easy to ignore
– Web 2.0 opens up ability to have conversations
3

4. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN
ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS
The Break Up
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5. SO WHY SHOULD A
COMPANY CARE?
You have an online presence
You sell or service customers
You spend $ on advertising
You spend $ on branding
You want customers to be your marketing force
Your customer know how to use Search (Google
anyone?)
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6. WHAT HAS CHANGED?
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7. Trends that are quietly
changing our world

12. 8 million 3 new DSL 2 new blogs 2 million
text messages subscribers are created e-mails
25 1400 videos 1200
Mobile phones 7 PCs sold viewed on google
sold YouTube searches
23 new 7 people logon 18000
17000 IMs
domains for the songs illegally
sent on Yahoo
registered first time shared
EVERY SECOND…

13. The number of text messages sent and received
every day ……exceeds the population of the planet.

14. OUR WORLD IS
CHANGING…
People - the online population will double in 4-5 years from
1bn to 2bn
– Fast growing and emerging markets are leading the way
– 120 MM people online in China…less than 10% of the population
Content – it is exploding
– More content on YouTube in 2006 than on the web in 2000
Media Transformation
– Customer communication can start from anywhere today
– Single blog posts can have as much power as major news stories
– Citizens are now publishers and content providers

15. Digital Data Explosion
Six-fold increase in digital data in four years 2010:
988 Exabytes
Amount Of
Digital
Data Online
•95% of data unstructured
2006:
•Average F1000 company has
161 Exabytes 1 petabyte (50x increase
in 3 years)
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Source:DELL CONFIDENTIAL
IDC, March 2007

16. CITIZENS ARE NOW
CREATING AND
PUBLISHING
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17. Why has this happened?
 Customers, Employees, Shareholders get
information from more trusted sources
– Pervasive use on internet as a
communication tool
– Content creation, information sharing,
and publishing have shifted
– We get our messages from variety of
sources
– Web 2.0 technologies move content
faster than ever before and across
languages
Enterprise is no longer in control of
information/communication 17

18. WHAT HASN’T CHANGED?

19. HUMAN BEINGS
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20. TRUSTED OPINIONS
STILL MATTER

21. 78% RANK
CONSUMER
RECOMMENDATIONS
AS THE
MOST CREDIBLE
FORM OF
ADVERTISING.
-NIELSEN

22. THESE EXTERNAL CHANGES
ULTIMATELY DRIVE
CHANGES IN YOUR
BUSINESS
AND IN YOUR LIVES
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23. WHAT CAN A COMPANY
DO?
1
•Listen
2
•Join Conversations
3
•Tell YOUR Story
• Collaborate with
4 Stakeholders

24. HOW DOES DELL
LISTEN AND ENGAGE?
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25. IT IS 10% TECHNOLOGY
+
90% PEOPLE & PROCESS
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26. BUT GREAT TECHNOLOGY
FACILITATES BETTER
PROCESSES AND WAYS
FOR HUMAN BEINGS TO
CONNECT
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27. SOME TOOLS
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28. PEOPLE & PROCESS
Give people a place to have a discussion
and join them
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29. “A company this size is
not going to be about a
couple of people
coming up with ideas.
It’s going to be about
millions of people and
harnessing the power
of those ideas.”
Michael Dell
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30. ROI
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31. ROI
DEPENDS ON YOUR
OBJECTIVE
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32. OPEX $
– Volume and views of
AS yield answers to
benefit all forum users
and saves Support
OPEX $
– Challenge – make user
generated content
easier to find and use
– Quickly identify solved
Q&A for content
creation
4318
– Rewards and
encourages users to
2656
generate answers
1381
February March April
DELL CONFIDENTIALAccepted Solutions OPEX $ Savings
32

33. CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
“I got all my research done while on Dell.com. The ratings from other
customers helped me so much in deciding what computer/laptop I want
to purchase.”
“That you think enough about your customers to care what they think of
your product.”
“…customer reviews. Very informative”
“Dell's come a long way since the Dell Hell
days on the community front, but this is the
first time I've seen some press on the email
front. Love them or hate them, there's
definitely some great content in email
…Injecting website ratings and reviews into
Dell's email channel. Bold, direct, and much
more effective than generic customer
testimonials”
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34. CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
1,000,000 votes on 7900 Entries
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35. EXTERNAL VALIDATION
- GOOD FOR BRAND
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36. Questions for you…
1. Do you know where your company is mentioned?
2. How many times your company is mentioned
(online)?
3. How many times your competitors are mentioned
(online)?
4. Who are influencers for your company and your
competitors?
5. What are the ideas that your customers and
employees have that can help prioritize your
business?
6. Do you want your customers to be discussing your
brand and products on your site or elsewhere?
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37. LEADERS WILL ENTER & BECOME RELEVANT
IN CONVERSATIONS THAT OCCUR
EVERY DAY
IN EVERY LANGUAGE
ALL AROUND THE WORLD
ABOUT THEIR COMPANY OR PRODUCT
Companies that cling to the past may not realize it,
but they will lose relevance.

38. PARTNERS AND TOOLS
Blogs, Forums, Wikis,
Groups, Galleries
Product Ratings &
Reviews
IdeaStorm
Social Media Monitoring
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39. One last thought…
SMILE MORE
makes your customers happy and
your competition worried
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