What Your Business Can Learn About Social Networking From DellWhat Your Business Can Learn About Social Networking From Dell

You might think of Dell as a giant hardware maker that has nothing in common with small and midsize companies trying to leverage social networking. You'd be right about the first part, but it turns out that smaller companies can learn some important lessons from how the big boys use social networking.I recently spent some time with, Bob Pearson, who runs Dell's 40-person Communities and Conversations team, and Vida Killian, who manages Dell's IdeaStorm project. IdeaStorm is a Facebook-powered community where people can submit and rate ideas for Dell products and enhancements. So far, it's collected more than 10,000 ideas from 45,000 registered users, and Dell has actually implemented more than 200 of those ideas.

To make the most of the ideas submitted, Dell allows users to vote on which ideas are most promising, and is always evaluating the top ideas. The company also pays attention to the most recent activity on IdeaStorm to get an idea of what's hot at any given time. The site is also broken up into categories, and different parts of the company pore over the ideas in the category that relates to their work. Dell engineers, for example, surf IdeaStorm during the development process for new products, looking for good ideas to incorporate. And chairman Michael Dell responded to questions on the small business category.

Once identified, an idea from IdeaStorm goes into the process just like any other idea, and Dell uses the IdeaStorm blog to tell users that a particular idea has been implemented, is under review, or even simply, "no thanks." And to build loyalty, Dell sends contributors an engraved box/pen set as a reward for ideas it implements.

By now you're probably thinking, "That's great for Dell, but my company is never going to be able to do something on that scale. There's nothing I can learn from that."

Again, you'd be right about the first part, but not so much about the second part. " According to Killian, "It doesn't matter how big you are, if you have a brand that people care about" or are in a business that people care about. If you're even a midsize company, she says, "People are talking about you online. Do you want to be a part of that conversation?" Dell uses Digital Nomads to monitor where people are talking about Dell online.

But there are opportunities even for companies too small to engender much online chatter. For example, Killian says, "If you're a fishing tackle shop, no one's talking about you. But they do talk about fishing." You need to monitor where those conversations are taking place, she says. At least start there and get to know those people.

Once you get started, you can use forums, blogs, Twitter to expand your network. Pearson suggests that "Twitter is a good indication of whether you are relevant. People will either follow you or not follow you. You'll know very quickly" whether anyone cares about what you are saying.

In addition, both Pearson and Killian say smaller companies actually have some advantages when it comes to social networking. "SMBs are innovators in social media," Pearson contends. A higher percentage of them are blogging (compared to enterprises), because they can just do it if it makes sense. And " finding the right voice is easier" for smaller outfits, Killian adds, because top execs are often closer to customers.

It's not just smoke. I recently heard from a small company called Bill4Time, which tracks billable hours for professional services companies, like lawyers and consultants. This tiny company, with just 40 customers, created a sub-site at ideas.bill4time.com that resembles Dell's IdeaStorm. Bill4Time has received dozens of suggestions that has led to more than 30 updates to the service.