There seemed to be a lot of talk this morning on Twitter about Dell listening.

Okay, actually Dell and Radian6 listening. But, that’s Radian6’s job so that should be no big deal. And, hasn’t Dell been listening? It’s made great, positive headway for how it has become involved in social media — and connecting with and listening to its marketplace.

Within a short time span, I counted six tweets about the Dell listening post.

And, I’m sure there are others I missed.

My point is about why Dell needs to tell me how it’s listening. Should we really care about the how?

I know it is listening because I’ve experienced it* and have read about it. (*Shortly after I noted my wife and I purchased a Dell Dimension E510 in a comment a couple years ago, a rep or two contacted me.)

I’m not picking on Dell. Essentially, do we really need to know what vendors any company uses?

Some years ago, I coordinated a client meeting and new product demonstration with a bunch of publications at Meredith. The morning of the meeting, the client’s VP of marketing ask me how everything was going. I replied, “Perfect — as far as you know.”

As I do, he understood that it didn’t matter what last-second tasks and other issues I had to deal with to get the job done. Just as long as everything was perfect for the meeting. And, it was.

Hey, if companies want talk publicly about their vendors, go ahead. But, to me, unless there’s another point, it’s a waste of  resources.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how you do it, just get the job done – ethically, legally and morally.

-Mike

(In the big scheme of things, Dell’s post was no big deal. It just struck me funny how many people gave a link to a post announcing a company’s vendor and why Dell would even publish it. And, I in no way mean to rag on Radian6. My company doesn’t use it, but from the demo I saw earlier this year, it’s a worthwhile service. Relatedly, if you are looking at social media monitoring tools, have a look at a rundown I did in March, which was picked up by Media Bullseye.)