Dell PR dialed up Jeff Jarvis today. I guess it took a BusinessWeek story for them to finally move on this.
Unfortunately, from what Jeff writes, it sounds like they still are living in a unidirectional rather than a mutli-directional world. Sir Jeff says …
“There is no realization that there is an opportunity (and, don’t they now know, a danger) in this era of the empowered consumer-as-publisher. I kept coming back to that as my uncompany line: You have the chance to talk with consumers, to build a new relationship with the public in public…But they refuse to see that they could connect one to the other: Rather than just talking to consumers, they could talk with consumers.”
Link: Dell: In the Bloghouse
To my friends at Dell, here’s some free advice that can help you turn this around. You are now passed the point of no return. Dell needs to act now. Here are just three of the steps you might want to take to re-build your credibility with bloggers …
1) Host a Blogger Day – Fly all of the key influencers who are writing about your service issues to Round Rock to meet with your quality-assurance team and perhaps even Michael himself. Let the bloggers see first hand all of the steps you are taking to improve our experience with your products. Give them a tour of your customer service nerve center. Allow them to politely probe. Be transparent. Show, don’t tell. You can keep this manageable by picking the most influential bloggers and having serve as “pool reporters.” Let them field questions from others who have blogged about your latest issues.
2) Set Up Special Dell Complaint/Praise Tags on Technorati – On your Web site put up a link to two separate Technorati tags that bloggers can ping with their Dell complaints/praise. One is called “” the other is called “.”Mine these like mad and try to contact as many of these bloggers as possible to learn more. Use the public utility.
3) Launch a Self-Effacing Blog Promotion – Don’t take yourself so seriously. Come down from the Austin hilltops and show us that you can take your lumps and laugh this off. For example, you could roll out a scavenger hunt. The first 100 people who find Jeff Jarvis’ picture hidden on your Web site win 50% off a new PC.
These are just thought-starters. I am sure you have even better ideas. Regardless, dudes, the time for Dell to act is now.
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.
