http://youtu.be/e1ua6uY287c

I recently took a tour of Dell’s state-of-the-art Social Listening Center. You’ll see the various tools, filters and tracking that Dell does to stay on top of discussions about their brand and provide superior customer service. They have been leading this field on the corporate side for several years and it’s impressive how comprehensive and granular their social listening is.

Equally exciting is the American Red Cross Operations Center that the Dell system above inspired. Dell and the American Red Corss have hhas a long term relationship and he we see a powerful example of partnership and role modeling that has created this state of the art tool in Disaster response; the Digital Operations Center (nickname: Digi-DOC).

Powered by technology and a generous donation from Dell Computers, the center can track social media traffic by providing a “snapshot of cyberspace”. This allows Red Cross to see not only trending or emerging issues, but also use this information to better inform its response to disasters. The Red Cross is also using the center to engage citizens as Digital Volunteers, and distribute Red Cross information during times of need.

So together Dell and the Red Cross are using social listening to serve customers better and save lives. This demonstrates not only the importance of social listening to both for profit and non profit companies but also its capacity to change lives.