When Dell needed to sell an unpredictable stream of returned products, it found that the immediacy of Twitter could help it get the word out and move inventory quickly. The computer maker has driven more than $6 million in US sales since 2007 through its @DellOutlet Twitter account and is now using a similar strategy to target customers in international markets. Other brands can learn from Dell's example by first establishing their business objectives and then evaluating whether Twitter is an appropriate platform for achieving those objectives.