“Rumor Has It You Need A ”

1. “Rumor Has It You Need A ” Group 5 Eric Hyde, Ryan Jech, Brooks Keller, Mary Reichert, & Bryant Taylor

2. Background • Facebook (5,404,906 likes) • Twitter (1,487,955 followers) • LinkedIn (88,414 employees on LinkedIn) • Google+ (312,019) • Slideshare (161 slideshares, 464 followers) • YouTube (13,749 subscribers, 17,636,629 video views) • Flickr (15,003 items, 66 contacts) • Storify (53 stories, 101 followers, following 74) • Pinterest (651 followers, 157 pins) • Xing (German) • Orkut (Brazilian) • RenRen (Chinese) • Weibo (Chinese)

3. Tools • Focus group of 12 college students • Interview with Dell’s Social Media Director • Online survey of over 50 college students

4. What benefits does a college student wish to receive by liking or following Dell on social media?

5. Secondary Research • ¼ people on Facebook follow companies for a benefit • Updates • Discounts • Show interest to others • Increase social status

6. Primary Research • Focus Group • Special deals, discounts, and funny updates • Campus events: Hackathon, sweepstakes • Dell’s philanthropy • Interview • Promote events: Webinars, Google Plus Hangouts, tweetchats • Survey • 40% Helpful posts • 63% Interesting posts • 52% special offers or deals • 29% Exclusive udates

7. How do consumers want Dell to respond to a problem using social media (i.e. blogs, twitter)?

8. Secondary Research • Quick and timely response • Convenient Solution • Helpful advice on posts • Humorous and enjoyable interactions with Dell employees

9. Primary Research • Focus Group • Quick and timely response • Someone that is American and not outsourced • Interview • Convenient problem solving • Survey • Facebook responses 23% and updates 27% • Twitter responses 18% and updates 14% • YouTube Tutorials 49% • Over the phone help 72%

10. Conclusions & Suggestions • Quick and timely response to customer problems • Friendly interactions with Dell Employees • Advertise and make a name for quality service on social media sites

11. What variety of media does Dell use that retains consumers on their social media outlets?

12. Secondary Research • Dell IdeaStormis a website launched in 2007 to allow Dell "to gauge which ideas are most important and most relevant to" the public • Dell's Social Media Command Center Monitor & Respond: You need to protect your brand. Educate and Inform Establish Thought Leadership

13. Primary Research • Focus Group • Students prefer more interesting posts that are funny in balance with promotions • They feel Dell could sponsor an event or sport to increase brand awareness and popularity • Interview • Employees are able to becoming SMaC (Social Media and Community) certified • Survey • 93% log on to Facebook ‘often’ • 45% said they spent 2-3 hours a day on social media site • Humorous and interesting posts were the top two answers for • 85% of respondents said they haven’t been on any Dell social media website

14. Conclusions and Suggestions • Dell has shown with the launch and implementation of consumer ideas that IdeaStorm is beneficial and especially with the Command Center how dedicated Dell is to interacting with consumers by the integration of social media into their brand • Suggest that Dell should generate more followers and likes on websites and buzz in general with posts relating to contests, giveaways, and funny stories through pictures/video • Target more younger adults ages 18-24 who use social media every hour to further expand their brand

15. What innovations is Dell creating to stay competitive in their industry?

16. Secondary Research • Dell has realized that Apple and H.P. are taking the lead in innovation • Finally, an all-in-one that's ready to move.Introducing the world’s thinnest and lightest portable all-in-one featuring an 18.4" Full HD touch display and the best battery life in its class. • New XPS 12 convertible ultrabook- more geared college students • Competes on price and quality

17. Primary Research • Focus Group • Students want to carry around a functional laptop/tablet which is lightweight and user friendly all around • They felt that Dell’s commercials could feature the products’ capabilities that set them apart more than just focusing on the quality of animation • Interview • Claudville, Virginia, has never had wireless broadband internet service, until now! Due to Dell piloting the first wireless white space network • Converging the IT Fabric With 10-Gigabit Ethernet- Dell is laying the foundation for customers to evolve their IT infrastructure from multiple topologies to a unified fabric based on Ethernet technology. • Survey • 3.8 for music/video editing and 5 out of 10 for being trendy to have a Dell • Agree Dell is innovative and value for the most part, but mediocre in popularity • Majority of participants rated Dell a 4 on average from a scale from 1-7 • 71% said that haven’t seen any XPS ads from Dell (not a good sign)

18. Conclusions and Suggestions • By unleashing the XPS laptop, ultrabook, and convertible tablet, Dell’s lineup of products are not only innovative, but fluid and functional • Dell needs to figure out ways using social media to grab attention of students and show them Dell has changed through innovation for the better • We also suggest that even though Dell’s mainly a business company, they need to engage with their younger adult target market with their new trendy products, by making their presence felt on mediums and campuses where students can get the message

19. What efforts does Dell use that attracts the consumer to Dell’s Facebook page?

20. Secondary Research • 5.3 million followers • Humorous videos with over 1000 likes • Polls • Seasonal promotions • Video game contests • Special promotions are themost successful

21. Primary Research • Focus Group • None had been to Dell’s Facebook • Interview • “Nerd” humor and updates • Survey • 72% said very unlikely to visit Dell’s Facebook • 65% said humorous post attract them to company pages

22. Conclusions & Suggestions • Dell is focusing too much of their Facebook posts towards the “nerd” demographic and not towards the target market • We suggest posting more things that theaverage college student will be interested in: • Exclusive discounts & promotions • Humorous videos & pictures • Campaign following humorous college student in entertaining scenarios • Extreme videos or videos with celebrity sponsors • Picture sharing

23. What are college students looking for as far as technical support on Dell’s different social media pages?

24. Secondary Research • Many users that post on the Dell Facebook page are asking for help with a computer problem or complaining about the poor costumer service they have received-- Most of these posts do not receive responses • There is a support tab that takes you to different support links • The @DellCares Twitter has a 4 member “Social Media Outreach Team” which responds to tweets complaining about problems and directmessages these users forassistance • @DellCares also tweets helpfultips and solutions to commonDell problems

25. Primary Research • Focus Group • Students are looking for interaction from the company • They want links and helpful tips posted about Dell products • Interview • Links on the Facebook page that offer technical support • The support tab goes directly to the Social Media Support Team • Survey • 71% said customer support meets their standards • 49% said they were looking for YouTube tutorials • Dell’s customer support was rated an average of 2.49/5

26. Conclusions & Suggestions • Dell has been doing a pretty good job with their social media customer support as far as being responsive on Twitter and using links on their Facebook page • We suggest that they spend some time addressing the issues that people post on their Facebook page so that it is not overwhelmingly negative and these users find the support they’re looking for • We also suggest that they use their YouTube page to create how-to support videos that can be posted on their other sites

27. What relation do college students observe between Dell and different seasonal holidays?

28. Secondary Research • Accounts for 12.1% of market • Years end • “Back-to-School” • Increases advertisements • Increases coupons

29. Primary Research • Focus Group • College Students are broke • Receive computers for graduation • Receive computers for holidays • Survey – How often is Dell seen for advertising during seasonal holidays?” • 13 responded “never” (16%) • 14 responded “less than once a month” (17%) • 11 responded “once a month” (13%) • 13 responded “2-3 times a month” (16%) • 13 responded “once a week” (16%) • 5 responded with “daily” (6%).

30. Conclusions & Suggestions • Buying happens in the winter holiday months • Buying happens during “back-to-school” • Continue advertising strategy • Increase social media blitz • Create more deals • Emphasize price

31. What are college students’ perceptions on Dell’s YouTube promotional videos?

32. Secondary Research • Super Bowl 2013 • 108 million viewers • Thomas: Creator of an Alternate Universe • 5.1 Million views • Dell total 13.5M views • 15,631 subscribers • 5/thousands/50 • Apple total 29.3M views • 1.1M subscribers

33. Primary Research • Focus Group • Interesting looking commercial • Product ambiguity • “[He/She] think they should have focused on the computer a lot more. [He/She] is really interested in the idea of a tablet and computer, but [he/she] didn’t learn about it because the commercial was not really focused on the actual product.” • Did it catch your attention? • Price

34. Primary Research • Survey • 1 billion people watch YouTube per month • 84% are on YouTube • 7/79 viewed Dell’s YouTube • 85% - Never been on Dell’s social media • Reaction to Super Bowl commercial

35. Conclusions & Suggestions • Super Bowl Commercial • Too many videos • Too complex

36. What kind of updates is the Dell consumer wish to find by liking or following Dell on different Social Media Networks?

37. Secondary Research • Facebook • Functionality Issue Recommendations • $50 off new Dell XPS 10 Tablet • Adobe January 2013 security bulletin update • Twitter (@DellOutlet) • Savings on refurbished Dell products • Coupon offers • Price cut notifications • Consumers respond to software updates, product discounts, and coupon/gift card opportunities

38. Primary Research • None of our focus group respondents have visited any of Dell’s social media sites • 85% of survey respondents have never visited a Dell social media site • Survey • 52% looking for special offers or deals • 29% looking for exclusive updates • Respondents thoughts on company status updates: • Interesting 30% • Informative 51% • Boring 27%

39. Conclusions & Suggestions • Advertise discounted products, software updates, and other exclusive deals through most popular social media channels (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook) • Make exclusive offers or trials available only by liking or following their sites • Advertise hidden features that aren’t well known

40. What efforts does Dell use to maintain Facebook participation?

41. Secondary Research • Post pictures, videos, questions, riddles, etc… to invoke consumer participation

42. Primary Research • Survey • 11% of survey respondents have visited Dell’s Facebook page • Focus Group • Deals & promotions, humor, sponsorship, and events would help Dell maintain participation

43. Conclusions & Suggestions • Focus on gaining more followers • Use earlier suggestions • Balanced mix of funny, interesting, and informative posts that appeal to 18-24 year old demographic • More interactive posts that appeal to college students • Contests and coupons with sharing pictures

44. Conclusion • Although Dell has been staying current with social media marketing they have not yet successfully appealed to the college student demographic • Millennials are the largest age segment in the US so there is a lot of opportunity here • With our suggestions they will be able to take over this market