If you’re looking for a credible assessment of the strategic role of social media in supporting business objectives, look no further than this video interview with Andy Lark, VP Global Marketing at Dell.

The interview was conducted by Jean-Baptiste Su during the press conference in San Francisco last month to launch new Latitude laptops, featuring an experiment with Twitter.

Andy’s unequivocal view about social media and business:

The social media stuff is probably the most important we do today, from a marketing stand point. The other elements of the marketing mix have sort of become more and more transactional and more and more tactical in nature. Social media stuff is much more strategic… Use social media to power the fundamental of the business. That’s what we’re focused on.

(Via Uberpulse via Sherilynne Starkie.)