Dell’s Twitter account generates $6.5 million in revenue over 2 years
Twitter.com may not have a revenue model in place, but that isn’t stopping other companies from making some green off of the social networking site. Bloomberg is reporting that since it began using Twitter over two years ago, Dell, Inc. has been able to track just over $6.5 million in sales from promotions run exclusively via the tweet. The $6.5 million is the product of 100 employees tweeting in 35 different channels reaching customers in over 12 countries; Brazil Twitter users have spent over $800,000 in the last eight months. For a company this large and with so much effort behind it, the number sounds less impressive but still… Anyone out there taken advantage of a Twitter deal from Dell?
Read Bloomberg
Read Dell’s Twitter Offerings
I have! I usually purchase from Dell outlet. I have used discount codes from twitter on at least 2 occasions.
“The $6.5 million is the product of 100 employees tweeting in 35 different channels”
The fact that it took 100 employees really diminishes the impact of the $6.5m figure. Tweeting isn’t that hard. If it was two guys in the marketing department, $6.5m would be a huge figure. But $6.5m over 100 employees for two years… I doubt that even recoups half of their salaries.
Not liely that these are FTEs doing FTWork on Twitter. I’m sure there’s quite a bit of profit in that 6.5m.
Long-long ago sales ppl went door to door to sell stuff.
Now they knock YOUR tweeter account. Much easier, costs less, and much faster.
Wow, that sounds very unimpressive when it gets down too it. If you figure $50,000/employee, which would probably account for benefits and equipment and stuff as well, that adds up to 5 million before you even get to the cost of the manufacturing of the computers. So basically, it lost them a bunch of money, because they definitely do not have a 77% margin on their computers that they’d have to have in order to break even at 1.5 million after the twitter only expenses.
@aerimus
The $50,000 may be a little high, but if you think about all the expense that goes into each employee it’s probably close. It would be low here in the united states, but it’d probably be closer to $25k or 30k for an indian employee with added employee expenses. However, even with those numbers, they’d still need to have a greater than 50% margin on their computers in order to break even, and I assure you they don’t operate at that high of margins.
When I read the headline I was impressed, then I saw that 100 employee figure.
Assuming $50K/year/employee that is $10M in salaries over two years. I don’t know why people are downvoting you, though it doesn’t seem like this is necessarily working quite as well to Dells favor.
figure 2500/month/employee average cost for the company. So for 2 years with 100 employees that’s going to cost them $6 million. Now take into account that as mentioned those sales came from special promotions which then imply that Dell’s margin is even lower than it usually is, I am certain it did not make them a dime after all things are taken into account!
Who here really thinks Dell has 100 full time employees who OLNY tweet? Really? Oh, and they are paying people $50k to sit and use twitter all day? Come on, think critically….
Liked.
+11
Well said!! Reading through the posts I was thinking the very thing. 100 employees spending maybe 30 min each bringing in $6.5M sounds like a pretty good ROI.
Concur’d follow logical thinkers.
And also, in Brasil a employee doesn’t cost 50k/year, is more like 6 to 8 k / year for this kind of job ( I’m Brazilian and responsible for web development in a local advertising agency ). and then this should be part jobs for most of these people with cheaper salaries.
Well that is the magic of twitter marketing. Because of its viral reach companies other then Dell are also doing good business.
im sure these employees did more than just tweet all day. it was probably an added responsibility. And it was probably rotational responsiblities. A few reps this week, different reps the next week, etc.
Do you idiots really think that they have 100 people sitting around tweeting all day and getting paid 50K + benefits? lol
What companies you work for where they have this type of employment structure and pay rate? And how can I get down?…
I’m sure that Tweeting is a very small part of their job duties, which probably includes tele-sales and other more traditional avenues of acquiring sales.
The comedic “denseness” in the BGR comments section never ceases to amaze me.
LOL @ the idiots in this thread, at least some peaple have critical thinking skills
In fact, the tweeting was likely *in addition to* the normal duties associated with these people’s jobs. So it cost Dell next to nothing to add this service. On the other hand, many of the people who bought from these tweets would probably have bought Dell products anyway, and at less of a discount to boot. So I would be surprised if the net profit from this venture were more than $1M, if that. Not bad for “free,” but if you’re going to harness that much employee time, there are probably better ways to make money at it. Like, for instance, “do your job but for an extra 15 minutes a day”.
KL
I would have to agree with you guys, the thought that 100 employees dedicated to tweeting and being compensated 50k plus benefits is ridiculous. The act of tweeting over the two year time span would not even require a full time position. Hell, I want to be compensated 50k just to tweet and that would be a sweet treat…lol
Didn’t anyone tell you? Everyone is a millionaire on BGR. 50K is just a night out for these folks.
Just wanted to clarify… like others on this thread have said, 100+ employees support Twitter in addition to their other job duties. Their time on Twitter is a fraction of what they do.
Thanks,
Lionel
wow,sounds gr8.ya these companies are really earning good
i think i should try this out ……. but … i dont know
btw if they pay people to twitter all day sounds like a great job for me lol
—Phone lover
The highlight of this article is that recently there has been chatter that Twitter has no revenue model, nor can it introduce one without backlash from its users.
However, other companies have been able to build a small revenue stream from the service, and the cost benefit seems to work for them well enough to report on it for the webosphere to know.