When Dell’s Chief Marketing Officer, Karen Quintos, stood up in front of hundreds of social media gurus to tell her admirable, successful social media journey with Radian6, I was ready to listen. If such a big corporation could realize the opportunity of social, implement it and succeed at it, then there was increased opportunity for other brands to follow suit.

But let’s go back.

Dell came to a realization that seemed to spawn their entire culture shift – social media is real. It plays a huge role in infinity and loyalty to customers and runs deep into cultural beliefs. So Dell made a move.

On day one at Social 2011, these facts were spewed all over the #social2011 twitter stream:

• 9,000 Dell employees are trained on social media
• 25,000 conversations about Dell are happening each month (which Dell rightfully refers to as “25,000 opportunities”)
• One woman with big ideas came forward to Dell and was soon hired as the Chief Listening Officer (@SusanBeebe)

Dell has clearly woven social into the fabric of their brand. They treat customer communications as a dialog versus a monologue. With tracking in their command center, they have demonstrable ROI. They understand their homepage is not Dell.com. It’s google.com, youtube.com, twitter.com, qq.com and so on.

This session was inspiring, but not because of the story. I knew the story. I’ve read the articles. The way Karen Quintos told the story is what got to me. She truly understands today’s media mindset and was engaged in spreading her solution.

As I work on the agency side of things, I help clients “get it” and be engaged and excited about their solutions. But it’s a journey. Hearing experiences like these should motivate marketers like me to work even harder.

You’ll find more awesome photos from Day 1 of Social 2011 here.

Amanda Nelson is a New York and Connecticut advertising campaign manager for over eight years. She’s worked on all facets of advertising from interactive (her personal favorite area) to traditional media. She enjoys creating unique, on-strategy campaigns. She also enjoys her border collies, tap dancing and her husband Tom. She blogs at a-media-mix.com. @mileigh13

Tags: Dell, Radian6 Social 2011, Social Media