Company Updates

Deepening Our Roots in Second Life

By   |  

Recently, the VP of Marketing at HP blogged about why they are not in Second Life, and I think the title of his post says a lot about our differences in approaching this medium – “Top 10 Reasons as to why I still need to be convinced about marketing on Second Life“.


If someone is just there to market to me—throw up some billboards and leave—then as a resident of Second Life myself, I’m not that interested in them being there either.


However, if you’re approaching the world as an involved resident, then it’s about more than marketing and it has more meaning. Dell entered Second Life to explore new ways we can extend our direct relationship with customers, and to learn new ways to interact with virtual communities so we will be prepared for the 3D Internet.


Because we wanted to add to this fast-growing community, not just market to it, I’m excited today to announce the expansion of Dell’s Plant a Tree for Me program in Second Life. This blog post from Tod Arbogast explains the program in more detail. On our main island in Second Life, we have now ripped out some old industrial-style architecture and replaced it with green park space. There Second Life residents can relax and not only enjoy the scenery, but also take a little bit of it back home with them. Free virtual saplings of the Red Oaks growing there are available for all Second Life residents.


Now, while trees themselves are nothing new to SL, I think we’ve added some pretty neat features to this one:



  • Instead of just one texture for the tree, the tree will change appearance as it grows larger – from sprout to sapling to young tree, to full tree

  • You can select the maximum height of the tree to grow, and you can choose one of a few time-frames for the tree to grow: 10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, or 10 weeks

  • If you reposition the tree while it’s growing, it won’t mess up the growth process

  • You can re-grow the tree after it’s completely grown or even in the middle of the growth process

  • Each tree carries with it a link back to our Plant a Tree for Me page on Dell.com, where we hope residents will take the opportunity to participate and offset a bit of their carbon emissions in the real world.

To celebrate this new space, we are throwing a party on Earth Day, April 22, at Dell Island. Residents are invited to come hear SL musicians Edward Lowell and Dimi Van Ludwig perform from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. SLT (Second Life Time, which is the same as U.S. Pacific Time). Come listen, dance, visit and get your own tree sapling to plant in Second Life! Oh, and you can get there via this direct link, or by selecting Second Life in the country selector of Dell.com, or going straight to dell.com/secondlife, or through our new dell.com/conversations page.


Update: Here’s a StudioDell video that explains how the Plant a Tree For Me program works.

About the Author: Laura Pevehouse

Laura Pevehouse was profiled as one of five “social media mavens” in the March 2009 issue of Austin Woman Magazine and named an AdWeek’s TweetFreak Five to Follow. She has been part of the Dell organization for more than 15 years in various corporate communications, employee communications, public relations, community affairs, marketing, branding, social media and online communication roles. From 2014-2018, Laura was Chief Blogger/Editor-in-Chief for Direct2DellEMC and Direct2Dell, Dell’s official corporate blog that she help launch in 2007. She is now a member of the Dell Technologies Chairman Communications team. Earlier in her Dell career she focused on Global Commercial Channels and US Small and Medium Business public relations as part of the Global Communications team. Prior to that, she was responsible for global strategy in social media and community management, as well as marcom landing pages, as a member of Dell’s Global SMB Marketing, Brand and Creative team. When she was part of Dell’s Global Online group, Laura provided internal consulting that integrated online and social media opportunities with a focus on Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. She managed the home page of Dell.com, one of the top 500 global web sites in Alexa traffic rank, and first brought web feeds and podcasts to the ecommerce site. In her spare time she led Dell into the metaverse with the creation of Dell Island in the virtual world Second Life. Laura has earned the designation of Accredited Business Communicator from the International Association of Business Communicators, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Louisiana State University. Before joining Dell Financial Services in 2000, she worked at the Texas Workforce Commission and PepsiCo Food Systems Worldwide.