Company Updates

A Short History of the #Dellfie

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You may have seen the hashtag on Twitter, or on Instagram, and wondered what the heck #Dellfie meant. With Dell World coming November 4-6, you might start seeing even more of them show up in your social networks, so it seems like a good time to explore the topic.

The #Dellfie is actually not a creation of Dell, although we’ve certainly embraced it. This wasn’t something cooked up by a group of marketers in a conference room looking for the next great "viral" hit. As best I can tell, the first use of that hashtag was by Dutch volleyballplayer Kay van Dijk when he tweeted this photo of himself and his Dell laptop on 29 Jun 2014.

I thought it was a really cool idea, so I retweeted it from our @Dell account.

Simon Salvin standing next to four Dell Optiplex boxes with a cat on topSoon, Simon Salvan of Simple PC, in Nottingham UK, noticed it, added a few #Dellfies of his own, and then tried to blow up the Internet by adding a cat to the mix!

Other Dell fans joined in the fun, as well as other Dell accounts and employees. On Twitter, our @DellUniversity team got meta with a photo of two people taking a selfie with a Dell tablet. And our @DellUK team encouraged fans at the Commonwealth Games to share more with cutout signs that put their faces on athletes’ bodies.

Our Google+ page celebrated them on Social Media Day. The Dell Military Brand Ambassadors have made tshirts. Our team in Hungary turned it into a Facebook contest; and, the Hacker League (sponsored by Dell) recently did, too!

Some of the photos tagged #Dellfie may actually stretched the definition of selfie — which is now officially defined — a bit, though. So, I’ve been asked to clarify what exactly makes something a #Dellfie.

It’s pretty simple really. At its purest form, a #Dellfie is a selfie with your Dell.

This could be your Dell tablet, laptop or desktop. (and Alienware totally counts) It could be your Dell server, storage or networking appliance. But, because we’re about much more than hardware these days, it could also be with you Dell Service consultant. Your Dell software dashboard. Your Dell Toad mascot. Your Dell t-shirt. Your Dell office. Your Dell World attendee badge. (hint, hint)

You get the picture. Now go take the picture!

And if you need some inspiration, here’s a quick look at several #Dellfies I found:

[UPDATE: It looks Rense Hartog from the Netherlands actually beat Kay to the punch, as I’ve just discovered his #Dellfie tweet from 2 Apr 2014!]

[UPDATE 2: I’ve now  been told the the Austin America-Statesman actually put forth the term Dellfie on 24 November 2013, in reference to selfies taken at the Dell Diamond, where our hometown Triple-A Pacific Coast minor league baseball team plays.]

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.