How and Why You Should Build a Corporate Blog

Lionel MenchacaChief Blogger, Dell Inc. April 30, 2009

OBJECTIVE:

Engage customers by sharing information that matters to them

RESULTS:

DIRECT2DELL

– Direct2Dell exists in 5 languages– About 200K page views per month– Almost 1,000 posts since July 2006– Over 25,000 comments – More than 100 contributors

1. BLOG LANDSCAPE

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CURRENT BLOG LANDSCAPE

According to their 2008 report, Technorati indexes about 133 million blogs

• A 2008 Center for Marketing Research study showed that 39% of Inc. 500 companies are blogging

• According to SNCR, in 2009 81 (about 16%) Fortune 500 companies maintain a blog

Fear of losing control

Lack of executive support

IT security concerns with allowing access to social media sites

Legal hurdles and other fears

WHY BIG CORPORATIONS ARE SLOWER TO ADOPT BLOGGING

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2. WHY BLOG?

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REASONS TO BLOG Customers trust their friends and family more than they trust you

A blog done right can go a long way to humanize a company

Engaging customers through blogs and other social media tools builds credibility and their trust in you

Customers will talk about your brand with or without you

© Hugh McLeod

3. HOW DELL DOES IT

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HOW DELL DOES IT – OUR BLOG POLICY

Dell’s blog policy is simple: be transparent and abide by Dell’s Code of Conduct

WOMMA’s Code of Ethics is also a core part of Dell’s policy

HOW DELL DOES IT – RULES OF THE ROAD

1. Understand that customers are in control

2. Remember that real conversations are two-way

3. Think before you talk, but always be yourself

4. Address any form of dissatisfaction head-on

5. Be aware that any conversation can become global at any time

6. Don’t be afraid to apologize, then do what’s necessary to help Dell avoid making that mistake in the future

HOW DELL DOES IT – WHAT GOES THROUGH LEGAL

Any issue that is safety-related (all posts related to the battery recall)

Any post that calls out a competitive product by name

Any post about a Legal issue (Ex. A Tale of Two Processors in China)

Any post that explains how we will support many customers based on an issue (Ex. the NVIDIA GPU issue)

When in doubt, apply some common sense

HOW DELL DOES IT – COMMENT MODERATION

Dell publishes more than 97% of the comments submitted to our network of

blogs

1. No profanity

2. No personal attacks directed at other community members or Dell employees

3. No solicitations for Legal action

4. No comments that contain private customer information

4. WHAT’S NEXT

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WHAT’S NEXT?

Blending of e-commerce and community sites

Agree with Jeremiah Owyang’s Irrelevant Corporate Website concept that community content will augment our Dell.com content

WHAT’S NEXT?

Content Syndication = go where the conversations are happening

Dell Community600,000 users per

quarter

Dell.comOver 100 million users per quarter

Total online population = more than 1.5 billion

Thank You

Lionel Menchaca

www.direct2dell.com

Twitter: @LionelatDell

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