Twitter itself might draw not a cent in revenue.

But companies are finding more and more commercial applications for the social network.

In April, Keallhauled covered now Xero is using free Twitter searches to locate and message disgruntled customers using rivals’ software. It beats paying around $200 per lead via Google Ad Words.

Now comes word that Dell has clocked $US2 million ($NZ2.95 million) in sales directly though its @DellOutlet Twitter account, and a further $US1 million ($NZ1.47 million) from those who’ve landed on its website via the microblog.

Dell (NAS: DELL), whose e-commerce and social media efforts are headed by its Austin, Texas-based global vice president of enterprise sales, Kiwi-expat Andy Lark (also now a Xero director, incidentally), uses the account for stock clearances, and selling “refurbished” (returned) hardware.

Although it’s a drop in the bucket for the world’s second largest PC maker (Dell clocked $US12.9 billion sales for its quarter to May), the tweets are gaining traction.

Back in February, when Dell started offering Twitter-exclusive deals to US customers, @DellOutlett 11,000 followers according to a post on the company's Dell2Direct blog.

Now, @DellOutlet now has 630,000 followers, and counting, making it one of the 50 most-followed accounts on Twitter (there's also a Dell outlet page on Facebook now, too, taking advantage of the freshly-minited personalised URL or vanity name option).

In total, the company maintains more than 80 Twitter accounts, though most outside America seem to be used for pedestrian promotion of non-exclusive deals, DellHomeSalesNZ certainly is, and accordingly has a modest 358 followers.

But Dell UK and Dell Ireland have started outlet-style Twitter accounts, so let's hope it spreads further around the world, and other IT companies pick up on the concept, too.