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Dale Larson

An entrepreneur interested in marketing, mobile and social media

Obama’s Blackberry: “They’re going to have to pry it out of my hands”Yesterday

The NYT explains about Obama’s Blackberry: “Attached to his belt for years, he has vigorously argued, [it is] an essential link to keeping him apprised of events outside his ever-tightening cocoon.”

Obama on why he’s being asked to give it up: “This is a concern, I should add, not just of Secret Service, but also lawyers.”

I still propose that Obama should not give up his Blackberry, but keep it and put it to even better use!

iPhone vs. Blackberry: Touchscreen no substitute for good user experienceYesterday

A new study of user satisfaction thirty days after purchase confirms what some have been saying all along (see previous post Storm vs. iPhone: Experience not Features).

Touchscreens no substitute for good user experience.

Despite several shortcomings, the iPhone user experience is great for a variety of consumer and smartphone uses. The iPhone UX isn’t a function of the touchscreen (or any other feature) but of overall design.

On the other hand, all but the Blackberry Storm are great purpose-made devices for reading and writing email. Highly recommended if that’s your primary use for a smart phone. RIM optimized the Blackberry UX

The Storm, on the other hand, just blows.

The Tale of Despereaux: World’s First Live-Twitter Movie Review?December 17 2008

In the middle of a press screening for the movie The Tale of Despereaux last Saturday morning, Ken Twittered me:

I replied:

dalelarson: @kyeung808 Yes, live tweeted the press screening, but not new. Did something similar in 90s with Star Wars: Episode 1, fax and web. 11:47 AM Dec 13th from Twittelator in reply to kyeung808

In other words, while I was in the theater seeing the movie a week early, I was Twittering whatever lines I found interesting. Ken asked if that was really what I was doing. And what it meant.

I’d done the same thing with an AC/DC concert the week before. Actually, there I tried to work song titles into witty sentences. Last year, I was asked to speak on Twitter to a conference at Stanford after live-tweeting Barry Bond’s record-breaking home run (from the fence, with the Sports Illustrated photographer who captured the moment).

All my unedited Tweets of The Tale of Despereaux are after the jump, and feel free to skip to the end for the actual one-tweet review. Since I’ve done mobile marketing for films from many studios, I have to wonder: what, if anything, does this change about how we share our experiences

One Best Business Strategy for Facebook, Twitter, Digg or LinkedInDecember 17 2008

In Twitter isn’t the point, Holly Ross of NTEN comments on a study showing that influence and word of mouth are becoming more important than ever to consumer behavior, and more of it is happening online. She goes on:

I think we’re missing the mark, though.  It’s not really about Twitter.  It’s not about Facebook.  It’s not about whatever the next buzzword is.

It’s about friends.

It’s about building real relationships that inspire people to act on your behalf.  That’s the skill we should focus on building. Whether it’s Twitter or Digg or Facebook or LinkedIn, it’s about those relationships.

We have to teach ourselves to operate that way again.

We commonly use phrases like “Facebook Strategy” or “Mobile Strategy,” but we’d never talking about building a house in terms of “Hammer Strategy.”   The technologies are just tools and our language is tricking us.

When we’re wowed by case-studies showing off the power and effectiveness of these tools, we’re really being impressed the underlying strategy, a powerful one that we can all take advantage of.

It’s easy to forget that it has always been one of the best business and marketing strategies to make friends. We do that by focusing on others, on listening to them and meeting their needs. How will your business be making friends and thriving in 2

WSJ: Respond strategically to Web 2.0 or be left behindDecember 17 2008

If you haven’t already, read what the Wall Street Journal has to say about: The Secrets of Marketing in a Web 2.0 World.

It’s short, well-written, and says again what we need to keep hearing about how companies need respond strategically to Web 2.0. It’s not just implementing promotional marketing programs there as if it were a new media channel to add to the mix.

Remember how companies were left behind in the nineties. It wasn’t because they didn’t develop a web site or an email list quickly enough, it was because they didn’t have a good response to the changing environment and competition. They needed to add offerings and/or change positioning to carve out a new niche in the new world. Mobile and social media are causing even bigger shifts.

Consumers are flocking to blogs, social-networking sites and virtual worlds. And they are leaving a lot of marketers behind.

• A New Approach: Marketing these days is more about building a two-way relationship with consumers. Web 2.0 tools are a powerful way to do that.
• The Pioneers: A growing number of companies are learning how to collaborate with consumers online on