Categories: Articles

BlackBerry Messenger

I have been a fan of the BlackBerry PIN function but always found it cumbersome – it’s not obvious to find your own PIN and then you have to track down those of your colleagues. All of that changed today when I got an invite to join in a BlackBerry Messenger conversation. I dropped everything to check it out and it is awesome.
The new BlackBerry Messenger gives you the look and feel of a standard instant messenger program but is built on the PIN technology. The new BlackBerry Messenger also gives you group-chat and some other great little functionalities including time compression. Yes, time compression.
Here’s what I mean: sure, you can email from it or PIN someone in a meeting, but this new Messenger client literally puts you live with someone right away (kind of like a typing version of the instant talk system being offered by wireless carriers). I was heading to a meeting and used BlackBerry Messenger to get back in touch with someone at the office, and I got a response way faster than making the call or waiting for the email. I felt connected and it felt much faster than an email or regular PIN – that, to me, is serious time compression.
BlackBerry Messenger is also highly viral (it’s no fun chatting if you have no one to chat with).
In the past I have held two stances on my BlackBerry:
1. It has changed my life by allowing me to be in touch and how I want to be in touch without being at a fixed location.
2. It is an email tool that has a phone built-in and other great functions but none of them are perfect.
The new BlackBerry Messenger continues my Lovemark dedication to this device. What a very cool and simple tool.
I am very curious to see how viral it goes in the coming days.
You can check it out here: BlackBerry Messenger.

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.