Dell Kicks Off Partner Social Media Training, Part Two

Dell (DELL), which began educating channel partners on social media’s possibilities a year ago, now has kicked off the initiative’s second stage, taking a more structured angle this time around not only to boost awareness but also provide tools, tactics and strategies.

After the introductory round to familiarize channel partners with the basics of social media and how to use it to advance their business, the vendor said this next phase of training takes it to the next level, not only with a topic refresh but also to help partners boost exposure and improve communications both internally and with Dell.

“Our partners are an important extension of Dell’s sales capability and play a key role in promoting our brand,” said Kathy Schneider, Dell Global Channel Marketing and Programs executive director. “Together with our solutions and social media trainings, we hope to provide our partners with the knowledge and tools to help grow their business with Dell.”

To go along with the partner social media training, Dell has opened a dedicated PartnerDirect technical community on its TechCenter site, available to all registered partners, to foster communications and collaboration with one another and the vendor’s channel teams. The TechCenter community includes the involvement of some 350,000 IT professionals monthly.

In addition, this summer Dell plans to kick off new brand training for partners that will offer branding principles and a deeper understanding of the PartnerDirect brand, covering elements such as logos and imagery. The goal is to enable Dell partners to articulate the vendor’s products and solutions more effectively with customers.

Dell’s got some data to support its contention that training breeds success. The vendor said last year its top 25 partners based on training investment grew their Dell revenues by 33 percent and enterprise solutions by 52 percent.

A number of prominent vendors recently have pumped time and money into educating partners on using social media for marketing, customer awareness, communication and other competitive purposes. For example, earlier this year, IBM (IBM) disclosed it had remade its entire marketing teams worldwide to learn how best to use social channels, increasing its investment in channel marketing to raise awareness and boost demand. And, in the past few months, Cisco Systems (CSCO) has upped its channel-focused social media training, even hiring a specialist to contribute to the effort.

One Dell channel partner who took part in the vendor’s initial social media training is coming back for more. “The first Dell training session was very helpful, and MCPc absolutely uses social media to engage with Dell,” said Jed Ayres, MCPc Partner Management and Marketing senior vice president. “We follow Dell’s social properties and frequently tag Dell on Twitter. The ultimate goal is to get exposure through Dell, but also it creates a great internal dialog that keeps us aligned on our joint activities.”