Success in a competitive environment can be measured and achieved in different ways. HP once had a reputation for rock solid hardware: reliability was their hallmark. In our times of commoditization, perhaps that is more difficult to achieve. Still, Toyota (have they recently slipped?) and Honda built similar reputations.

I vote for positive and strong customer relationships. I’ll continue to watch Dell’s progress, while offering my $0.02 worth now & then. So far, I would say their effort is amazing and has the potential to set a most valuable precedent.

I believe the case studies will come, but right now my sense is the early adopters that will drive these case studies are experimenting and getting small wins. When they take those experimental wins and scale them, the real case studies will emerge. Right now I’m beginning to believe the search for case studies effort is about finding those early indicator experimental wins.

I really enjoyed your post and have to say that although Dell is committed to make social media work from a business perspective, it isn’t a magic bullet. We also realize the need create compelling products that are available in more and different places, and a consistently excellent customer experience at every touch point. We’re working hard on all these things, and more. But we have seen measurable results and I’d like to reiterate what was reported above: When we started our social media initiates in August ’06, our online word of mouth was 48% negative. As of last week it is 24%. Is all attributable to social media? Of course not. But we believe we’re on the right course for what will surely be a very different marketplace sooner than later.

Might want to check out what Geoff Livingston over at the Buzz Bin has to say about the dynamics of social media adoption — in short there are no quick successes but there can be negative implications for corporations that do not adapt. http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/blog/2007/10/08/corporations-have-anti-social-cultures/