Engaging Channel Partners with Social Media Training

Having an open dialogue with channel partners is the best way to deliver products and services that best address real market needs to make them and their customers successful. Four years ago, Jeremiah Owyang saw the opportunity for social media to improve the relationship between vendor, partners and customers, and at Dell, we wholeheartedly agreed.

Through consistent, honest and direct interaction via the @DellChannel Twitter page and our Dell PartnerDirect LinkedIn Group, social media has become one of the most effective ways for us to learn from our partner community, and they have expressed a desire to learn more. We continually strive to help our partners fully leverage social media tools to improve the lines of communication while elevating their own marketing efforts.

That’s why Dell recently rolled out a dedicated social media page on the PartnerDirect partner portal. This new resource gives our channel partners access to a number of useful social media tools and tips, including links to all of PartnerDirect’s social media platforms, a Q&A forum, registrations for both a live virtual training session and an on-demand refresher course. These in-depth courses will allow our PartnerDirect partners to leverage Dell’s social media best practices and presence to invigorate their own business strategies. Topics that will be discussed include:

• What is social media?
• How social media is used in the B2B sphere.
• Leveraging & engaging with your PartnerDirect’s social media teams.

We’re excited to be connecting with partners through live virtual training sessions. These real-time online meetings will promote interactive discussion and Q&A among participating partners and the Dell representatives. The on-demand digital training course gives partners a great reference tool whenever they need to brush up on social media strategies.

The user-driven experience is engaging and unique, providing partners with creative tips on how to make the most of today’s social media tools.

These training courses and the other tools will allow our partners to build on their awareness of social media and its benefits from a B2B perspective. We will also educate our partner community on how best to engage with PartnerDirect on social media in ways that can boost their marketing campaigns and overall exposure.

As social media becomes more and more integral to B2B channel marketing strategies, technology vendors will have to expand their efforts to engage with partners through multiple channels. At Dell, we’re looking forward to working hand-in-hand with our partner community to ensure our collective social media efforts are optimized to best support their business goals.

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