Kelly Gerards……..The Video, Social Media and Mobile SMS Marketing Blog.

Dell said on Thursday it has raked in more than $3 million from Twitter followers who clicked through its posts to its Web sites to make purchases. The company, which has posted to Twitter about two years and tracks the sales with proprietary software, made more than $1 million in the past 6 months.

“We’re going to watch it over time to make sure it’s tracking at the right level,” said Lionel Menchaca, Dell’s chief blogger. “It is trending upward and that’s what we’re going to be looking at overall.”

Three million in sales over two years is a pittance for Dell, ranked by IDC as the world’s second-largest PC maker in the first quarter of 2009. Dell posted $12.3 billion of revenue in the first quarter of this year, alone.

But the PC maker has become one of the first public examples of how companies might profit from Twitter.

Twitter does not charge companies for such benefits, but does not rule out doing so in the future.

“For now, monetization of this type of activity remains unknown,” Twitter spokeswoman Jenna Sampson said in a statement. “However, as the network grows, the company will be committing more resources toward profitability.”

Gartner analyst Allen Weiner said such financial success could provide a model for Twitter, itself, to make money.

“Certainly one of the ways Twitter can begin to think of itself as a money-making operation is to facilitate a lot of these things, build it as part of the infrastructure. So if you’re a company, you can pay Twitter a certain amount of money and they can directly distribute coupons on your behalf, or clear transactions,” Weiner said.

Twitter is building add-on tools and services for businesses and professional users, co-founder Biz Stone told the Reuters Global Technology Summit last month.

Dell said it posts 6 to 10 times a week to its DellOutlet account, which is where the majority of Twitter-based sales have come from. Stephanie Nelson, who manages the account, said almost every post includes a coupon or a link to a sale, and about half of the posts are Twitter-exclusive deals.

The PC maker, which has about 600,000 followers, is one of the Top 100 most-followed accounts on Twitter, according to private trackers TwitterCounter and Twitterholic.

Other non-media companies ranked in the Top 100 include Whole Foods Market Inc, Woot.com, Zappos.com, JetBlue Airways Corp.

Whole Foods and JetBlue said they have not tried to monetize their Twitter presence. Woot.com and Zappos.com were not available for comment.

Twitter had approximately 17 million unique U.S.-based visitors in April, and about 24 million worldwide, according to Nielsen. Its number of users has grown by more than a thousand percent over the last year.

Small companies are also finding financial success on Twitter. New Orleans-based Naked Pizza, which turns $1 million in sales annually, is “betting the farm” on its Twitter presence according to co-founder Jeff Leach.

The company, which created a Twitter presence about two and a half months ago and has about 4,300 followers, last week said nearly 69 percent of sales generated during a one-day Twitter advertising blitz came from customers drawn in from the site.

Leach posts 1 to 15 times a day and said his company sees a sustained 20 percent of sales dollars from its Twitter presence.

Leach recently put up a billboard advertising the company’s Twitter presence and is planning mailings bearing the company’s Twitter contact information instead of a phone number.

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin in San Francisco; Editing Bernard Orr) SAN FRANCISCO
Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:25am EDT Reuters

Engagement on Social Networks Top Priority for Marketers
JANUARY 26, 2010

Earned media spending to see biggest increase.

Though not immune to the recession, digital marketing rode out the downturn, and marketers worldwide are bullish about the space’s prospects in 2010, according to research from the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA).

The “2010 Digital Marketing Outlook” report found that 81% of the brand executives surveyed expected an increase in digital projects in 2010, and one-half will be moving dollars from traditional to digital budgets. Further, more than three-quarters think the current economy will push more allocations to digital.

Senior marketers reported that social networks and applications were their biggest priority for 2010, followed closely by digital infrastructure. While social media marketing looks set to stay top of mind, a majority of respondents considered a range of digital activities at least “important,” with only games failing to inspire widespread interest. For Complete Article Click Here.

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

25% of small business owners said they plan to spend more on social networking in 2010, according to the Ad-ology Small Business Marketing Forecast.

Facebook ranked as the most beneficial social network for small businesses, followed by LinkedIn and Twitter, according to the November 2009 report. The 1,100 small business owners surveyed said the biggest benefits of social networking were the abilities to generate leads, keep up with their industry, and monitor the online conversation about their business. For the Entire Article click here.

Google does NOT want you to know this…

My pal Ryan Deiss found a HUGE backdoor into
Google advertising that cuts costs by up to 90%
and boosts conversions 10X.

There is one little downside…

He’ll explain it on this 13 minute video
in this big secret video.

Kelly Gerards

P.S. He WILL pull down this video right away!
So, if the page is blank, you missed it.

One of the big debates in the “Social Media Marketing” space revolves around..”Does this really work in driving traffic, building my primary business, and if so..how can you prove it?”
This is something that kept coming up with one of my clients.

I kept mentioning there had to be evidence on what ever “website analytic tool” his SEO company was using in tracking his primary websites. With this client I had created his blog, facebook, linked in, youtube, and twitter accounts with keyword rich content going out daily both in text and video….daily, so I knew the primary business site had to be getting traffic right? Keep in mind the angle on this account is Branding the individual as the expert, not branding the business…but driving traffic from the nerve centers, such as his blog, facebook, youtube accounts, etc. to the primary business, or money sites.

So here’s the proof, that over time..Social Media Marketing WORKS,  CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE YOU BE THE JUDGE.

Here’s another case study about how quickly you can get ranked, not only once, but multiple times on the first page of the search engines with Social Media Marketing Techniques effectively with proper keyword and search term placement. This case study is for getting ranked with “Merchant Loans New York City” and “Business Cash Advance New York City”.

Over 60% of traffic on Google is video and even YouTube is being used more an more as a Search Engine, because people would rather watch video content for information than other platforms.  The key though is using the right submission tools to massively get your content out to the search engines quickly, with content that has value, such as a frequently asked questions….not just a sales pitch.

So click here now, it’s only a few minutes long…straight to the point with real social proof.

And please, don’t hesitate to ask any questions, or make comments.

Thanks for your time and to your success!!