Hack:
Dell's grassroots, internal conference on social media

By Bill Johnston - Head of Global Community at Dell

October 22, 2010 at 10:09am

Community

social media

management 2.0

deploying knowledge

sales and marketing

Moonshots

Humanize the language of business

Experiment more often and more cheaply

Enlarge the frame of management education

Summary

Dell's marketing and communications organizations rely more and more on social media and community (SMaC), with some people blogging on internal or external sites, others developing community-focused sites, and still others reaching out to external communities focused on the areas of Dell's business. To share the learnings of these many efforts, we organized a one-day Unconference, bringing together 200 employees who are passionate and knowledgeable about the topic. Anyone could present a session based on something they had learned or were trying in social media -- and 37 of them presented in different tracks during the day. It was an effective and energizing (not to mention relatively inexpensive) way to share best practices throughout these MarComm teams and identify where our strengths were and where we needed to apply more study. It was so successful that we have since repeated the program, taking it on the road to Dell facilities in China and the United Kingdom.

Problem

Communications professionals throughout Dell, in many different departments, have been learning a lot about social media as they integrate it into their communication efforts (and their personal lives). The company could have invested millions bringing in social media experts to dispense best-practice advice based on their research and observations. But executives also realized that with so many people working on so many different things -- one person blogging, another managing outreach to social media channels, a third developing a community-focused site -- they had plenty of expertise and learnings to share from the people in the company.

Solution

To share the learnings, we borrowed from a techniques from other open, spontaneously organized conferences to createa a simple one-day conference. We called it the Unconference, because it aimed to be informal. Anyone with some interesting learnings on social media and community (SMaC) could sign up to lead a session.

The response was tremendous: 200 employees with 37 focused sessions on topics like

So You Want to Run a Twitter Contest
Full-Time Listening: A New Model for Engagement
Managing Product Leaks in Social Media
KPI Revolution at Dell

The high ratio of sessions to participants showed how engaged the group was, and we've received a good deal of feedback from people who attended, telling us how much they learned.

Practical Impact

We learned a lot about our interest in social media and community and came away with an assessment of Dell's position on SMaC:

Social media should be an integrated part of any campaign or initiative. It's no longer a separate push or an afterthought, but part of the planning of any program.

We should measure relationship success rather than individual success. Since social media is about building lasting relationships, we must find metrics that idenitfy that success and give credit for it.

Use social media to give Dell a human face. As our customers get to know us as real people, through our blog posts and conversations online, we can move away from formalities like stock photos on web sites (why not use real employees?) and blogs that are overproduced.

Our expertise and opinions -- our thought leadership -- are in demand by customers. In community spaces, customers respond well to our contributions. This kind of leadership needs to be integrated throughout our marketing and communication efforts.

We're on the leading edge. There was a consensus that Dell is walking the walk on SMaC, looking at social media as a lasting change in the way that companies and customers talk to each other.

Credits

Manish Mehta, Liz Bullock, Amaris Tennison, and Kerry Bridge were also instrumental in setting up the series of Unconferences.

Images

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January 15, 2011 at 1:31pm

Allen Roberts

Offering the credits at the end is a key element in giving this concept life, as it offers a profile, indicates a willingness to put your self out there, takes responsibility, and indicates a willingness to share and build expertise and knowledge.

January 20, 2011 at 5:32am

Christine Ferrere

Excellent challenging initiative and nice to see that the International angle is part of the game (Would love to see the outcomes with UK and China). Furthermore SM should not only integrate the communication departments and my so-called "direct customer bubble", it should in my mind be the root for any delivered outgrowth within an organization.