Dell makes small fortune from once-a-day Twitter account

June 12, 2009 | Paul Boutin | Comments | |

One of Dell's many Twitter streamsDell has 34 Twitter accounts, some of which post links to special offers. The company claims 600,000 followers. Once you know these numbers, it doesn’t seem crazy that Dell racked up $3 million in sales through Twitter so far. More than a million of those dollars came in within the past 6 months.

Three million is nothing to Dell, which posted $12.3 billion in revenue during Q1 of 2009.

Dell’s press release quotes Gartner analyst Allen Weiner on Twitter’s potential as a sale-maker:

Certainly one of the ways Twitter can begin to think of itself as a money-making operation is to facilitate a lot of these things, build it as part of the infrastructure. So if you’re a company, you can pay Twitter a certain amount of money and they can directly distribute coupons on your behalf, or clear transactions.

Most of the sales have come through the Dell Outlet account, which tweets only 6 to 10 times per week. Most Twitterati would think that too low a frequency. Why would anyone follow you? That line of thinking leads to a good question: If Dell can make $3 million by tweeting a few times per week, what would happen if the company tweeted its specials a few times per day? Think how little it would cost to put one employee on the task. Hey, I’d do it. Just saying.

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About the Author, Paul Boutin

Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • I wonder what other companies like: apple, gap etc' will make from twitter in the year 2015?
  • Interesting article.

    Dell is able to leverage it's BRAND to push outlet priced deals to drive sales through Twitter. There would be a few "small" hurdles if the brand isn't as highly recognized in the consumer space yet.

    Still, it's great to see the potential of Twitter for businesses ;)
  • Good effort from Twitters's side to improve its business....
  • That's some claim, I wonder how many of the people would have bought a Dell anyway. Twitter may be good for business with the right strategy, what that is, who knows!
  • So what. If it wasn't twitter, it would be ... anything else. It's the Dell name people trust, not twitter.
  • I can just see it now, twitter pro accounts are swirling in their heads.
    Wouldn't they love to get a cut of that.

    Chris
    http://worstiphoneapps.blogspot.com
  • Paul
    I would say that 6-10 tweets per week is good enough. I mean, how interesting are specials anywayz?? It would be overwhelming and boring if it was more.