Twitter isn't making money, but....via USA Today

Twitter isn't making money but @DellOutlet Is

It seems the Twitter guys aren't in any real hurry to come up with a business plan for making money. But Twitter is helping Dell sell computers.

Dell said it has earned more than $2 million in revenue at@DellOutlet since 2007, attributed directly to the company's Twitter activity.

"We’ve surpassed $2 million in revenue in terms of Dell Outlet sales, but we’re also seeing that it’s driving interest in new product as well," Stefanie Nelson wrote just after midnight Friday in the official Dell corporate blog. "We’re seeing people come from @DellOutlet on Twitter into the Dell.com/outlet site, and then ultimately decide to purchase a new system from elsewhere on Dell.com.

If we factor those new system purchases that come from @DellOutlet, we’ve actually eclipsed $3 million in overall sales."

That's a drop in the bucket for a multil-billion company like Dell, of course. But it suggests all sorts of possibilities for how Twitter may ultimately earn some loot.

The Dell Outlet sells refurbished Dell products at a discount. "But inventories fluctuate," Nelson writes "making it difficult to know when products are available or on sale. Dell Outlet uses Twitter as a way to message out coupons, clearance events and new arrival information to those looking for Dell technology at a discounted price." Nelson says @DellOutlet has more than 600,000 followers who offer retweet some of the best deals.

We're exploring different ways to "build our reach," she says.

Dell moved gingerly back in 2007 as it started experimenting with Twitter. Nelson says Dell didn't want to do anything improper at the time so it emailed Twitter for guidance "We didn't want to be blacklisted," she says. Dell heard back from Twitter's Biz Stone who said, "please go for it."

Though there weren't any specifics Nelson could reveal publicly, she told me that Twitter these days is soliciting feedback from Dell and that the two companies are testing out new features. Who knows? Maybe Twitter will get around to that business model, sooner rather than later?

By Ed Baig USA Today