[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) has come a long way since its inception as a pin-to-pin messaging service for BlackBerry smartphones. Today it’s evolved to become a real time engagement tool offering text, voice, and video chat as well as screen sharing capabilities. It connects friends, family, and colleagues across international borders as a true communication and collaboration tool. With millions of active fans of BBM worldwide, continued growing integration from the developer community, and the new opportunities with BlackBerry 10, we’re just getting started.

What is BBM Channels?

Today we’d like to introduce BBM Channels; a new way to connect you to your social network and communities of interest. We see BlackBerry Messenger as a platform with endless opportunities for growth and for connecting individuals and groups to what they’re passionate about. BBM Channels allows you to connect to the communities, personas, and brands that you love – in real time.

Choose which channels you’d like to follow, and as a subscriber you can receive, comment, and share timely updates that allow you to stay on top of your interests and communities. Essentially, BBM Channels gives you the immediacy of an instant communications experience but with access to a much wider community.

You also have the option to create your own channel – a great opportunity for large groups, brands, businesses, non-profit organizations, sports teams, and you to reach fans and followers. Simply setup a channel profile, add in a description and welcome message, upload an image, list contact information, and other optional information. Owners of a BBM Channel are able to manage and share content from both a BlackBerry smartphone and from a web-based administration console. You can customize your channel in a variety of ways, not the least of which is choosing to allow community forums threaded into the newsfeed or enabling one-on-one chat between owners and subscribers.

Connecting on BBM Channels

Once you register for the beta and download BBM 8, you’ll notice a new tab in the interface for BBM Channels. You can join a channel by browsing the carousel or using a keyword search, or through a channel’s PIN number, or QR code. Once subscribed, you’ll be able to see posts, content, and offers from your subscribed channels. You can also comment on posts, hit the Like button, and share interesting updates with friends. Here’s an overview of the new features:

• Create a channel – Create, edit and publish in an instant and there are no limits to the number of followers you can have. Manage your Channel from either a BlackBerry device or from a web management console.
• Discover channels – Check out the BBM Channels carousel to discover new channels. BBM contacts can share Channel invites within a BBM chat, and they also can be added via Channel PIN or QR code.
• View – View profiles for each BBM Channel you choose to follow.
• Subscribe – Subscribe and receive timely and relevant updates, giving you instant access to news, deals and events and choose to receive notifications when new posts are available.
• Participate – Participate and engage in conversations with your favorite communities by “Commenting” and “Liking” posts from channels you subscribe to. Even chat one-on-one directly with certain Channels*.
• Monitor engagement – Easily use built-in measuring tools to assess and monitor follower engagement and interaction

Why BBM Channels?

BBM has over 60 million monthly active subscribers, and on any given day 51 million of those individuals are each using it an average of one and a half hours. This is an incredible level of engagement and represents a significant opportunity for you to get the word out there about your business, community, or cause. We focus on the mobile needs of people, while other social networks are desktop-first. Our BBM customers are sending and receiving billions of messages each day – and over 50% of those messages are read within 25 seconds!

We’re continuing to innovate with BBM and explore new ways that it can be leveraged as a real time network of closely monitored conversation and communication.

What’s new with BBM version 8 for BlackBerry OS 5 through 7 and BlackBerry 10 smartphones?

• Enhanced Navigation – BBM 8 offers tabbed viewing for quick and easy access to contacts, chats, groups, recent updates and BBM Channels.
• Enhanced Profile – BBM 8 allows you the option to share your enhanced profile information with BBM Contacts – such as your birthday, gender and location.
• BBM Channels – Connecting you to your communities of interest.

Join the open beta!

BBM 8 with BBM Channels is currently in open beta for BlackBerry OS 5 through 7 and BlackBerry 10 smartphones; register now by heading over to www.blackberry.com/beta.

How will you use BBM Channels? Share in the comments below and discuss on LinkedIn.

Back in February we asked you how you use your BlackBerry smartphone for business. The results are in and it’s clear that BlackBerry Messenger is a favorite feature for staying connected and keeping in touch with colleagues while on the go.

With BBM for BlackBerry 10, keeping in touch is easier than ever, and now you can video chat and screen share over BlackBerry Messenger. Screen sharing allows you to collaborate with colleagues while away from the office and BBM video allows you to stay connected with friends and family while you’re travelling.

Check out the video below for even more ways to use screen sharing over BBM and video chat:

[YouTube link for mobile viewing]

Do you use video chat and screen share to stay in touch with colleagues? Tell us about your experience in the comments below!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Screen sharing over BBM is a fantastic way to speed up your workflow by allowing collaboration while you’re mobile. Combined with the cloud storage integration and the fantastic functionality of the redesigned Documents To Go application suite, BlackBerry 10 is designed to keep you and your business moving. And while you’re traveling for work or pleasure, what better way to stay connected with friends and family than through BBM Video?

Pro-tip: Hook up a micro HDMI cable to your BlackBerry 10 device for a big-screen collaboration or video chatting experience.

How will you use BBM video chat and screen sharing for work? Share in the comments below.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) is one of the main features that attract customers to BlackBerry® smartphones. Used by over 60 million customers worldwide, it provide instant communications, allows you to break down the barriers of costly international messaging, provides efficiency in the transfer of data, and allows you to keep on top of your work and social life. Today we’re excited to announce that BBM 7.0, with a new feature called BBM Voice, is now available.

BBM now has Voice

With BBM version 7.0, you’ll have the ability to voice chat with your BBM contacts over Wi-Fi®. This is a significant update to the platform and its capabilities, and gives you the choice of text or talk. If you’ve got news that’s too big to share through text chat, simply hit the call button and jump into a call. You can toggle between text and talk, and you can see whether a contact is available for a voice chat.

Additionally, you have the ability to multitask while on a BBM Voice call – browse the web, check email, use other apps on your smartphone, or send BBM notes to another contact. BBM Voice is also compatible with the accessories you have now for your BlackBerry smartphone. Use a headset or Bluetooth® accessory and easily switch between them through the onscreen menu during the chat (you can also talk through the speakerphone on your handset).

BlackBerry ID Integration

In addition to BBM Voice, you’ll be able to synchronize your BBM contacts between smartphones now that BBM is associated with your BlackBerry ID.

Why this is good news for business customers and professionals

I’ve long been a proponent of using BBM for business purposes. A little over a year ago I published a post entitled “How to Use BlackBerry Messenger 6 for Business” – and the opportunities to do so with version 7 are greater than ever.

• More than just text (and now voice), BBM allows you to share calendar invites, voice notes, photos, and attachments up to 6 MB. This is great for sharing files quickly and efficiently with coworkers to increase collaboration.
• International businesses can use BBM as a fully-functional text, voice, and data transfer platform for communicating at a low cost. Companies such as Homex India Private Ltd. have found significant advantages in using BBM to span time zones and locations for speedy collaboration.
• Groups and categories allow you to stay organized and in regular contact with your team in the office, and using BBM often allows you to get directly in touch by cutting through the mass of email that many individuals face. This gives you quick answers and a quick connection – and using BBM Voice as part of this process is icing on the cake.

How will you use BBM 7.0 with BBM Voice for business? Share in the comments below!

“Communication is the key to our international success, and BlackBerry holds that key for us. It’s a two-way street between sharing and receiving information and our BlackBerry solution helps us achieve goals that we’ve set for ourselves.” — Vikas Sharma, Business Process and IT Head, Homex India Private Ltd

When Vikas Sharma became Business Process and IT Head at Homex India Private Ltd., a subsidiary of Desarrolladora Homex, S.A.B. de C.V, he soon realized the challenges of corresponding with the company’s head office in Mexico, thousands of miles and many time zones away. Inquiries would often go unanswered for hours and it was difficult for Sharma to efficiently support a number of projects.

Sharma’s role has recently expanded to include the company’s new Saudi Arabia office. This move has prompted him to create a reliable communications strategy that effectively connected each office and took advantage of the security provided by the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server. Building upon the company’s existing BlackBerry® smartphone deployment to its senior management and project leaders, Sharma encouraged the employees to better leverage the many features offered on their BlackBerry devices.

Protecting private corporate information was also a key consideration. From an IT administration perspective, Homex effectively managed the BlackBerry deployment through IT policies via the BlackBerry Enterprise Server. This gave Sharma the confidence that company material was securely managed.

The BlackBerry Advantage

“It started with a broader use of the BlackBerry solution,” said Sharma. “Since we have offices spread out across several different time zones, we’re essentially online as a company at all hours, and by educating staff about the reliability and security of the email function on their BlackBerry smartphone, I was able to start working with other BlackBerry features.”

Sharma educated employees about the benefits of working with BBM™ contact information, encouraging them to send him messages whenever they had an inquiry or issue. Working with BBM allowed Sharma the flexibility to manage two offices at once, whether in India or Saudi Arabia, where he travels for 15 days every three months.

“BBM allows me to address any concerns very quickly,” said Sharma. “The fact that I know when the messages have been delivered and read help minimize the geographic barriers in a sense. I don’t have to wait a day, as is the case with email sometimes, to follow up on any outstanding projects and everyone just seems much more organized when we use BBM.”

The company’s improved communications has resulted in much faster and more effective responses to its SLAs, which Sharma calls the backbone of any IT function. Whether rectifying the problem immediately or connecting with the Mexico office to find a solution, Homex now has a solid and robust continuation system for its SLAs.

Homex’s BlackBerry solution has also resulted in an estimated savings in overall communication costs by up to 40 per cent in some cases. Rather than rely on more costly and oftentimes less reliable international mobile services, the company takes full advantage of the BlackBerry smartphone’s data efficiency and Wi-Fi® connectivity to save money, especially during trips to other offices.

“At the end of the day,” Sharma said, “the company’s IT departments are now far more integrated and employees more attentive because of the improved follow-ups on deliverables.

“Communication is the key to our international success, and BlackBerry holds that key for us,” said Sharma. “It’s a two-way street between sharing and receiving information and our BlackBerry solution helps us achieve goals that we’ve set for ourselves. My BlackBerry smartphone is always in my hand.”

Have a success story similar to Homex? Tell us at success@rim.com. Do you use BlackBerry® Messenger for business? How has it provided benefits to your internal and external communication? Share in the comments below.

With an ever-changing work schedule and a heavy volume of incoming email messages every day, Graves relies on her BlackBerry® solution to communicate with her team efficiently. NCompass International’s offices are spread across the world, from London to New York City.

“NCompass has been a loyal BlackBerry shop for many years and allocate only BlackBerry smartphones under the company’s corporate plan” said Graves. “Personally, I can’t function without it. I use BlackBerry smartphones as an extension of my job and my life, and they’ve always worked for me.”

NCompass International often runs branding events at concerts that take place in stadiums bursting with thousands of screaming fans. Despite the loud noise and commotion, Graves and her team communicate with one another using BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™), a reliable method that is crucial to the success of her events. Graves has even incorporated BBM into concert performances, encouraging fans to message will.i.am during the Black Eyed Peas’ BlackBerry-sponsored World Tour in 2010.

Graves and team leverage BlackBerry smartphone features to keep track of the many moving parts involved in NCompass’ brand activation events. For a recent launch, NCompass planned a large three day live event involving 10 separate initiatives in one 16 acre location, with more than 500 journalists. In the lead up to the launch, Graves took advantage of her integrated calendar functionality to ensure all timelines were met, and used her BlackBerry smartphone throughout the event to communicate with staff, anticipate any potential issues, and monitor social media activity occurring in near real time.

“In this business you need to be able to access information immediately and coordinate a lot of different people,” said Graves. “There is a lot of pressure because you need to be the best of the best, and consistency and reliability in your communication is a crucial part of that.”

Since Graves travels so often, she also benefits greatly from the data efficiency the BlackBerry smartphone offers. Whether working in NCompass International’s Rio de Janeiro office or at an event in Asia, her email, internet browser and messaging all function seamlessly and most importantly, economically.

Graves says NCompass International has deployed about 20 BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets, mainly to its production and new business staff, who consider the portability of the seven-inch screen and the functionality of BlackBerry® Bridge™ as key features. BlackBerry Bridge allows staff to connect their BlackBerry PlayBook tablets to their BlackBerry smartphones and access their email, calendar, BBM and other data.

“In this job, we always need to be ahead of our clients,” says Graves. “And the BlackBerry solution allows us to do that, all the time.”

Have a success story similar to NCompass International? Let us know at success@rim.com. How does your BlackBerry help you communicate more effectively in your work? Share in the comments below.

1. Extending BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) to your BlackBerry PlayBook

The BlackBerry Messenger experience on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet features an enhanced interface and solid functionality. If you’re using your tablet and a BBM message comes into your BlackBerry smartphone, simply pop open the BlackBerry Bridge folder on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and tap “BBM” to read it. I particularly find BBM via BlackBerry Bridge on my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to be useful for viewing photos, voice notes, or files sent to me from BBM contacts.

2. Stay connected without Wi-Fi®

It’s a pretty connected world out there with Wi-Fi at work, home, coffee shops, and airports. When you’re on the move, however, it’s important to stay online without skipping a beat. Thanks to BlackBerry Bridge, my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet comes with me and remains connected the entire time through the wireless radio on my BlackBerry smartphone.

3. Access your smartphone email, calendar, and contacts

With the huge amount of services that we all use (how many email addresses do you have?), unifying access across multiple platforms is paramount. Back-end synchronization of mail, calendar, and contacts is a breeze with BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, but you also have the option to view your BlackBerry smartphone mail, calendar, and contact information on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet over BlackBerry Bridge on the client side. The perk of this feature is the ability to manage email accounts that you’ve set up on your BlackBerry smartphone on the larger screen and interface of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

4. Remote control using your BlackBerry smartphone

This one is a personal favorite hands down, and never fails to raise some eyebrows in meetings. By activating Remote Control within the BlackBerry Bridge app on your BlackBerry smartphone, you can gain full wireless control of your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using your smartphone touch screen as a track pad and the keyboard for input. When presenting, you can even use the volume up and down buttons on your BlackBerry smartphone to control “back” and “next” functions on the slides being presented from your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

This feature is extremely useful for navigating through slides when presenting via HDMI. Walk around, pause for effect, and give a rich presentation all from your BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with no need for a laptop.

5. Share photos and videos

The high resolution of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet screen brings photos and videos to life. If I’ve snapped some pics on my BlackBerry smartphone over the weekend and I want to show a few of them to a friend in the office on Monday, I can easily use BlackBerry Bridge to pull them up on my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Alternatively, gather the family around the TV at home, plug your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in via HDMI output, and showcase your smartphone or tablet photos in this manner. Using the slideshow function to automatically roll through your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet photos makes this an easy one to set up and use for sharing media.

6. Manage files that reside on your BlackBerry smartphone and media card

I often download attachments to the media card on my BlackBerry smartphone and use the file manager to keep everything organized. If I need to review a document or crack open an excel sheet and would benefit from a larger view, I simply use the File Manager on my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to access my smartphone files. With the features of Documents To Go® on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, reviewing, editing, saving, and sending is convenient no matter where I am.

7. Centralize your task list across multiple devices

We all have our habits for staying organized and on top of our responsibilities. The Tasks application on my BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone is my sweet spot for knowing what I need to get done on any given day or week. With Microsoft® Outlook® synchronization, it provides me with one space that is constantly updated. This consolidation of tasks extends to my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet via the Tasks application in the BlackBerry Bridge folder, enabling my tablet to join the circle of devices that I use to add, edit, and complete tasks. To learn more about synchronizing data on your BlackBerry smartphone, head over to the BlackBerry® Desktop Software website.

8. Open On PlayBook for a rich experience

With BlackBerry Bridge you also have the ability to open links, emails, and files directly onto the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Once you’re connected, you can simply hit the menu key and select “Open on PlayBook” from your BlackBerry smartphone. This is great for utilizing the ultra-fast BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser or for reading long emails that contain images or other media. Ty’s favorite use of this feature is to snap a picture using his BlackBerry smartphone and then quickly preview it on his BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Choosing which screen to display your content on is a fantastic feature and allows you to fully engage with what you’re working on.

9. Browse your corporate intranet and engage with web apps

If your organization has enabled corporate intranet browsing on your BlackBerry smartphone via a BlackBerry® Enterprise Server connection, this extends to your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet as well via BlackBerry Bridge. Using the BlackBerry Bridge Browser, you can check out the web apps that your company uses, allowing you to enter expenses, check Salesforce data, or engage with workflow approvals on your corporate network from the crisp interface on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. This one saves me a lot of time when traveling and lets me skip the experience of having to wait until I’m back at my desk. (Missing the BlackBerry Bridge Browser icon on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet? Find out why!)

10. Charging your smartphone? That shouldn’t stop you from using it!

Sliding my BlackBerry smartphone into a charging dock doesn’t mean that I have to stop using it. When I leave it to soak up some juice, I just pick up my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and pick up where I left off via BlackBerry Bridge. As long as I stay within Bluetooth® range – which I don’t have a problem with considering the unfortunate size of my apartment – I can continue to interact with my email, contacts, BBM, calendar, and more.

BlackBerry Bridge has been designed to open up a world of possibilities through a Bluetooth connection between your smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. The information that can be shared, access to files, extension of connectivity, and utilization of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet screen and interface can provide a real boost to productivity and allows freedom of choice to maximize your experience. It’s really a new way for smartphones and tablets to work together.

How do you use BlackBerry Bridge? Share your most frequent use case in the comments below!

For entrepreneurs who start a new business, one of the keys to success is finding the right channel for selling products. For Windy Dana, who designs, manufactures and sells her own jewelry in Indonesia, that channel is BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™).

“In Jakarta, BlackBerry® smartphones are a ‘vital’ communications tool,” said Dana, the founder and owner of the popular blogstore, Antyk Butyk. “When I contact people in Indonesia, they always ask me for my BlackBerry PIN rather than for my phone number or email address. Everyone here uses BBM.”

Dana moved back to Indonesia from Australia, where she got a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s degree in multimedia studies, and she quickly learned that road traffic in Jakarta was so busy and slow that it made selling jewelry in person difficult. So, she started marketing her jewelry through BBM, using the app’s Groups feature.

BBM is an easy-to-use, chat-style app that makes free-flowing conversations between multiple users—up to 30 per group—easy and fast in near real-time. In addition, it allows users to send pictures, broadcast messages and record voice notes, making it easy for Dana to share her designs and products with her BBM Groups within seconds.

“What’s great about BBM Groups is that everyone in the group can see the information in real-time and answer questions, so the group becomes a self-running community where other members help eachother out by answering questions and sharing information, which makes my job much easier.”

For Dana, BBM isn’t just a communications tool – it’s also a valuable business and operational tool. Dana uses her BlackBerry smartphone and BBM as the centerpieces of her business, using them for client and internal communication, marketing, lead generation and even customer service.

“BBM helps me to understand what my customers want, which I can see either by following the group discussions in BBM or by communicating directly with them for customer service.”
BBM is also very cost-effective for Dana’s business, since it uses very little data. She relies almost exclusively on her data plan and makes almost no use of voicemail, which makes her communications bills predictable and keeps them low.

This comes in especially handy when Dana organizes sales events, also known as “bazaars”, to showcase and sell her jewelry. She uses her BlackBerry smartphone to capture high-quality photos and videos and shares them with customers in a matter of seconds, attaching them to invitations to attend her bazaars.

And since BBM allows group members to sync their calendars with each other and send calendar invitations, Dana can keep her group members up to date and remind them of upcoming bazaars.
With the help of BBM and the BBM Group functionality, Dana has grown her Antyk Butyk business, and now employs five employees in total. Her employees help her with the production and delivery of the jewelry but Dana remains the one who sells and markets the products.

“I still design the jewelry myself and my staff helps me to make the quantity that our customers request. Marketing and communication with customers is still handled only by me.”

Dana’s business now is thriving and she is very thankful that BBM provides her with the tools she needs to run her business. She concluded: “Without BBM, I might already be out of business.”

Do you use BBM for business? Share in the comments below.

BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) 6 is now available in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront as a free download for you and your business to take advantage of and it will come preloaded on the latest BlackBerry® 7 smartphones from Research In Motion® (RIM®), including the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 and 9930, BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810, 9850 and 9860! This latest version of RIM’s globally popular instant messaging and collaboration app contains some exciting advanced features – here are a few of the highlights I’d like to tell you about.

BBM Connected Apps

Third-party apps can now integrate with BBM 6, allowing you to invite your BBM contacts to join you in a variety of activities and co-operative application experiences. Not only can you share through apps, but you won’t have to leave a BBM connected application in order to chat. In no time at all you’ll be working together and discovering great new content.

The concept of BBM connected applications for business brings the platform to a whole new level of value. As these features begin to appear in new applications, I’m confident that opportunities to share information, improve workflow, and conduct business socially will only increase.

Here are a few examples of currently available BBM 6 connected applications: Huffington Post, Telemap Navigator, Unvired Workflow for SAP, and PowWow. There are many more available in BlackBerry App World, as well as many more on the way.

Enhanced Collaboration

I’ve personally found the collaboration features especially useful in my day-to-day work. With BBM 6, it’s now easier to share items with your contacts including calendar items, voice notes, and locations. For example, if I’ve changed the location of a meeting that I’m hosting, it’s easy for me to let my contacts know by sending an updated invite as well as my current location. Sharing both files and links has become easier as well. Finally, as mentioned, when using a BBM- connected app with a friend, you can easily chat with them while staying within the app.

Share Apps with Friends and Colleagues

Are you the tech-savvy one of your group, or do you know someone who is? Now you can recommend collaborative apps to your BBM friends and colleagues with ease. Simply invite a BBM contact to use the app with you, and if they don’t currently have it, they will be prompted to download the app to their BlackBerry smartphone. This is a great way to collaborate, and easily get everyone up to speed on the latest tools.

BBM 6 is a big part of the lives of many BlackBerry smartphone users today. As I said, we’re excited to provide even more functionality in this app. Some things are better shared!

How do you use BBM in your business? Share in the comments below!

Being both a busy working mother and a successful business woman is a juggling act – one that Laura Tenison, managing director and founder of children’s clothing retailer JoJo Maman Bébé, has strived for years to perfect. Laura founded JoJo Maman Bébé in 1993, and the company has grown organically whilst keeping its small company values. JoJo now employs over 300 people across the UK.

Like many working mothers out there, Laura is married with two boys and is a firm believer in being able to juggle all aspects of her life – children, a full-time career and a husband – without allowing any part of her life to suffer. In the spirit of this can-do attitude, on Tuesday November 30th, BlackBerry® teamed up with Laura and the popular mother’s forum Mothers Who Work to run a BlackBerry Business Group over BlackBerry Messenger™ (BBM). This group would give working moms the chance to ask Laura directly about how she successfully manages to keep everything ‘up in the air’.

Laura, winner of the 2010 Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award, interacted with readers via BBM for one hour in the virtual discussion group, answering questions around how she coped with managing a new business during pregnancy, giving her top tips for remote working, and talking about how she ensures her family are involved in her business plans.

The BlackBerry Business Group provided the opportunity for readers of Mothers Who Work to hear from a well-known working mother, and also share their thoughts and insights amongst peers. A full transcript of the conversation is now live on the Mothers Who Work website.

Are you a working mother? What tips and tricks do you employ to help maintain a healthy work-life balance?