Dell Inc. is making friends on Twitter.
The computermaker has generated more than $2 million in sales from the social-networking service by directing users to Dell’s online outlet store. An additional $1 million in orders came from Twitter users who purchased products elsewhere on Dell’s site, the Round Rock, Texas-based company said.
More than 600,000 of Twitter Inc.’s users have signed up to receive notices about returned, reconditioned and slightly damaged computers sold through the outlet store, said Stefanie Nelson, a marketing manager for Dell’s U.S. outlet site. That’s up from 11,000 subscribers in March.
“I’m always looking for ways to get news out very, very quickly,” Nelson said. “We want to get it off the books so it doesn’t age or lose value.”
Dell, the second-largest personal-computer maker, started using Twitter two years ago to reach new customers. The company sends out about six weekly tweets — 140-character messages — with special offers on its inventory, Nelson said.
The popularity of San Francisco-based Twitter, used by everyone from President Barack Obama to pop star Britney Spears, has raised awareness about Dell’s outlet specials, she said.
While $2 million is a fraction of Dell’s $61 billion in annual sales, the Twitter effort requires little in terms of marketing dollars, Nelson said. The main danger is sending out too many messages, she said.
“We’ve been trying to find the ‘tweet spot’ — what’s the right amount of messaging, so that people don’t want to not follow us,” she said. “We’ve found that weekends are not great for posting for my audience. Earlier in the day, earlier in the week works better.”
Dell ranks behind Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard Co. in PC sales.
