How Dell recovered from a disastrous social start

This event report discusses how Dell, from an inauspicious start in 2005 with the online furor and negative word of mouth surrounding "Dell hell", has made social media a core aspect of its operations.

How Dell recovered from a disastrous social start

Geoffrey PrecourtWarc

A corporate timeline for Dell Inc.'s social-media engagement begins with a notation from February 2006: "Michael Dell asks, 'Why don't we reach out and help bloggers with tech-support issues?'"

That notification, sadly for the company, had all the credibility of a weather report the day after a tsunami that only remarks on the calm seas following the storm.

In April 2005, journalist Jeff Jarvis used his own blog at BuzzMachine "to whine about the lemon of a computer Dell sold me and the customer service I didn't get." Jarvis...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands