Dell Invites Partners to Blog On PartnerDirect
A few weeks ago, Dell gave The VAR Guy an open invitation to write a guest entry on the Dell Channel Blog. The VAR Guy has been a bit distracted — and perhaps a bit perplexed — so he never took Dell up on the offer. Now, Dell is extending the offer far more broadly — inviting partners to submit a guest post on the Dell Channel Blog. Wow. This could get interesting. Here’s why.
Lots of folks assume Dell will sanitize or censor a guest blog. But The VAR Guy begs to differ.
Dell continues to listen to criticism and constructive feedback whenever possible. When channel magazines and legacy print publications trash Dell for its direct sales heritage, it’s difficult for the PC giant to fight back — or at least engage in a dialog. Sure, you can submit a letter to the editor…. and wait… and wait… to see it show up in print.
In the online world, Dell is more than happy to interact with its critics in realtime. The Dell Channel Blog is the latest in a growing list of Web 2.0 sites from Dell. One of the most engaging is Ideastorm — where readers submit and vote on ideas. And Dell actually acts on a few of them.
The blog is designed to be an open forum for the greater PartnerDirect community. That’s why at anytime, you’re welcome to submit a guest post.
So far, Dell’s channel blog has been pretty tame. When The VAR Guy first heard Dell was preparing to launch the blog, our resident author said he had five hopes for the new Dell blog:
- Engage MSPs
- Stop Dwelling On HP
- Bring In ISVs
- Exploit Niches
- Bring In Your Critics
By inviting partners to write blogs on the Dell site, it looks like Dell is tackling items 1 and 5 on The VAR Guy’s list. If you’re interested in stirring up some discussion, here’s how to submit your blog to Dell.
Thank you for reading the Dell Channel Blog and for spreading our Partner invitation announcement.
Your personal offer is still open, let me know when you’re ready to guest blog!
Sincerely,
APaxtonatDell
Dell Channel Community Manager
http://www.direct2dell.com/channel
Interesting.
In all honesty I’m totally confused about the whole Dell social media and blogging nonsense. Direct2Dell and Dell Forums have at times almost draconian moderation. Dell Forums and IdeaStorm use a bizarre word filter that stops you using mundane everyday words.
And then there’s the new blogging site. Dell YourBlog. There’s no real blogging interface that you’d recognize as a blogging interface. Blogs are submitted by e-mail for approval and then posted on your behalf.
But to even get a blog in the first place you must submit your blog idea for approval. Why is it called “YourBlog”?
It’ll be interesting to read what Dell partners get away with posting. If it’s sanitized it’ll show.
@aikiwolfie If it’s Draconian to expect civil, non-profane and relevant discourse, I guess we’ll have to plead guilty. Regarding Your Blog, which I administer, the only “blogging interface” other than reverse-moderated comments — which is how we operate — would be to grant full access the backend admin tool. That’s not going to happen for obvious reasons. Submitting post content via e-mail and then us ensuring it meets some industry-standard terms amp; conditions may not be as quick as you’d like, but it does provide a means for meaningful, unsanitized conversation, such as this: http://yourblog.direct2dell.com/author/aikiwolfie/
The other challenge, quite frankly: Not everyone can write a good guest blog. Dell must be getting some pretty lame submissions that the world never gets to see. Heck, even The VAR Guy had writer’s block once in the past 15 years…