In last month’s interview with Lachlan Brahe on social media, we learnt about the importance of learning by listening. This month, we show you how Dell computers is doing just this – but it didn’t start out that way.

Back in 2005, influential blogger Jeff Jarvis took issue with Dell’s customer support service and penned his frustrations via his blog BuzzMachine. Almost instantly, his frustrations made their way into mainstream media.

What did Dell do? It confronted the negative sentiment head on.

Today, Dell has a social media team with 40 full-time employees dedicated to transforming customers into advocates and advocates into evangelists.

This cultural change sees a number of web led offerings that embrace the people’s voice. Here are just a few:

Ideastorm – extensive site for customers to share suggestions, feedback and participate on a number of new product ideas.

ReGeneration – environmentally themed blog focusing on sustainability and based heavily on community interaction.

Twitter – 34 accounts which are segmented, localised and cover off everything from CSR to Retail. Dell proved that Twitter can be a legitimate revenue stream by taking in US$1 million in sales during the holiday season.

In my view, Dell is a great example of a company that has fully embraced the spirit of social media by first listening and then involving the customer.

Thanks to: Dell, Nick Bryant-Smith, Paolo Modolo, Twitter