With the explosion of social media activity over the past few years, it has never been easier for businesses to get online, engage, and interact with their customers. From the rise of Twitter® and their 140 million active users to Facebook® now having over 1 billion users globally, the opportunity to connect and engage with prospects and customers in real-time makes social networking a key priority for many businesses.

To help businesses get started and get the right practical help, we’re pleased to announce the launch of our new Better Business Hub brought to you by BlackBerry®. It’s designed to spark inspiration and provide practical advice for helping small business professionals do better business and develop their own social media strategy. We think small businesses need the straight facts in order to maximize social media for their work. We’ll be packing the Hub full of best practice articles, videos, and case studies dealing with mobile social networking, social media, and business relationships.

With so many social networks available, the question many small business owners are now asking themselves is how do they decide which social networks to adopt, and how they should go about developing their company’s profile? To kick things off in the first of our video series, we caught up with Suzy Lloyd, Senior Manager for Social Media at BlackBerry, who has put together some top tips to describe what to consider when starting your business journey on social media.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Is your organization looking to leverage social media for business? What are your top tips for integrating social media in your business? Share in the comments below.

Check out the video below to get a quick overview of the Gala:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

To learn more about Research In Motion’s commitment to the small business community, check out our Q&A with Bryan Lee at the event. We’re very excited to continue working with all of the incredible small and medium businesses in the community, and are looking forward to sharing how the upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform will impact the way that all of us work. Sign up to receive updates about BlackBerry 10 to stay tuned on all of the latest info.

Did you attend the 2012 SMB Influencer Awards Gala? What was your favorite part of the event? Share in the comments below.

We’re delighted to be sponsoring the 2012 SMB Influencer program yet again, and this year’s Awards Gala is in full swing here in New York City. Influencers and members of the SMB community have come from far and wide to honor their peers and take part in the awards ceremony. Research In Motion® (RIM®) is a huge supporter of small and medium-sized businesses around the world, with smartphones and mobile device management solutions that are affordable and scalable. Over the years we’ve heard some amazing success stories of businesses that have used BlackBerry® solutions to help grow, expand, and communicate with customers and stakeholders.

I’ve managed to catch up with RIM Sr. Director for Enterprise Accounts Bryan Lee here at the event to chat about RIM’s commitment to the SMB community, Bryan’s role and impact at RIM, and the SMB Influencer program. Check it out below for the full scoop!

Biz Blog: Hi Bryan – tell me about what you do at RIM

I have the great pleasure of leading our U.S. enterprise sales division, which includes support for both large enterprises and small to medium-sized customers. In addition, I work closely with our VAR community who sell and support the BlackBerry solution.

Biz Blog: How has RIM been involved in SMB communities around the world?

Being connected, keeping your ideas and information secure, and engaging in real-time communication with your customers is crucial for starting and growing a business. These are areas that we focus on and work to constantly improve. Being reliably connected to everyone that you need to be connected with, and having access to all of the information that you need, really enables success. You know, as we’ve designed our business product roadmap and launched business solutions over the past 10 years, we’ve had SMB’s in mind with products like BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express, BlackBerry Business® Cloud Services, and the upcoming BlackBerry® 10 platform. We love the passion and dedication that this community embodies, and we love to support them.

Biz Blog: We’re all very excited about BlackBerry 10. How will this new platform enable small and medium-sized businesses and business owners?

The flow of BlackBerry 10 will enable new levels of productivity – we’ve had some sneak peeks of this at BlackBerry World™ and the recent BlackBerry® Jam Americas event in San Jose. The platform has been designed for rapid and functional interaction to help you get things done quickly and efficiently, staying on top of the many tasks and communications that you engage in on a daily basis. BlackBerry Hub, for example, lets you access all of the information that you need at a glance, and the people view in the calendar shows you who you’re meeting with and collects all the information you have about that particular person without having to jump between different applications. Integration with services that small businesses use is a major aspect, like Box being built right into the OS along with other cloud storage providers.

Ease of setup and implementation is also an important point for small businesses. ActiveSync® connectivity is available right out of the box, providing a free option for connecting the devices to your work mail server. For more robust device and application management, security, and BlackBerry Balance™, BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10 will be available at launch. We’ve even enhanced the process for getting work mail, calendar, and contacts set up from a user experience perspective, which we shared at BlackBerry Jam Americas 2012.

Biz Blog: Why are programs like the 2012 SMB Influencer initiative important?

Providing solutions for small and medium sized businesses is a good thing, but it’s also important to get out there and meet with the members of the community. It’s a real pleasure to do that and get to discuss challenges and solutions that are faced every day. We’re also here to honor the top 100 influencers; it’s fantastic to see the impact that many of these individuals and organizations have had.

Biz Blog: Any final thoughts for the SMB community?

Stay tuned for more details on BlackBerry 10; we’re very excited to share this with you and show you how it can help in your business. There will be more sneak peeks ahead of the launch in Q1 2013, so be sure to visit the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog. Lastly, a big “congratulations” to each of the top 100 SMB influencer champions!

Biz Blog: Thanks for joining us, Bryan!

Stay tuned for more coverage of the SMB Influencer Awards Gala, and more details about BlackBerry 10. How have BlackBerry solutions or products helped you grow and operate your small or medium-sized business? We love to hear your stories – share in the comments below!

As you may be aware, the 2012 SMB Influencer program is in full swing for its second year running. Similar to last year, we have the privilege of sponsoring the initiative and working with Anita Campbell and Ramon Ray to remain active in the small and medium business community. The nomination and voting period for the top 100 SMB influencers of 2012 is now over (and the winners have been announced!), but the real fun is about to begin with the awards gala being held in New York City on October 17th.

The event serves to honor the SMB champions for their contributions to the community, but also represents a fantastic networking opportunity. This year it’s being held in the Javits Center (Hall 1A) from 5:30pm to 9pm. Check out the details below and grab your ticket today:

October 17, 2012 at 5:30pm
Javits Center, Hall 1A, New York City

Our own Bryan Lee, Sr. Director in our B2B & IT channel sales group at Research In Motion® (RIM®), will be helping with the awards and discussing mobility in business at the gala. I’ll be there too to capture all of the action, so stay tuned on the Inside BlackBerry® for Business Blog to see a recap after the event!

BlackBerry Solutions for Small Businesses

The SMB community holds so much enthusiasm and energy, and we love to be involved to help mobilize workers and keep business owners completely connected wherever they may be. It can be challenging to keep track of all of the details and to manage and unify mobile devices within a small organization. We’ve got a few great tools that can help:

BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablets

When it comes to the device in your hand, it’s important that you have access to information, contacts, email, BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™), and a ton of fantastic business apps that can help keep you on top of your work and available to colleagues and customers. When your smartphone works together with your BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, BlackBerry devices become the ultimate productivity and communications tool at work and at home.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express

There comes a point in time during the growth of a business where it’s important to begin unifying and managing the mobile devices being used for work. For businesses using BlackBerry® 5, BlackBerry® 6, and BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphones, BlackBerry® Enterprise Server Express is a fantastic (and free) option for connecting devices to your mail server, utilizing security controls, remotely protecting devices, and much more.

BlackBerry Mobile Fusion

Many small businesses use a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy to help cut costs. When you have a mix of BlackBerry, iOS, and Android™ devices at work in your business, managing all of them doesn’t need to be a challenge. BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion allows you to extend to these smartphones and tablets the security and management capabilities that RIM has offered for years. Deploying BlackBerry Mobile Fusion is also a step towards the upcoming BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10, which will provide a complete and unified solution for enterprise mobility management. Find more BlackBerry solutions for SMBs here.

See you in New York!

Check out the wrap up of last year’s event to learn more. Register at www.smbinfluencer.com for this year’s event, and we’ll see you on the 17th.

Does your BlackBerry smartphone or BlackBerry PlayBook tablet help you in your small business? Share in the comments below.

Hi, I’m Dan Sloshberg, Regional Manager for Small Medium Business Marketing in Europe, Middle East and Africa. I work on helping to promote our BlackBerry® solutions for those who are looking to start or grow their business.

Following on from our last post on mobile social networking for SMBs, we’ve put together this great new video, showcasing some examples of how smart small business can use mobile social networking to connect and engage with their customers and find and attract new customers.

Starting or growing a business can be tough and a lot of hard work. Engaging on social networks from your smartphone or tablet is a powerful and efficient form of communicating and connecting with customers and prospects. If done right, not only can it be highly effective but is also a very low cost marketing strategy. See how you can use some simple social tactics to attract and keep more customers wherever your day takes you – and all from your BlackBerry smartphone.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Does your business use social networking to engage with customers? Share your tips and advice for using social networking on a smartphone or tablet in the comments below.

Sunday July 15th is the last day to submit nominations for the 2012 SMB Influencer Awards, so make sure you head over to www.smbinfluencer.com to get recognized! You can nominate yourself or your business, as well as any other business, app, solution, or individual that has positively influenced the North American SMB community. All you need to do is fill out a brief form, upload a photo or logo, and submit for review.

What are the Small Business Influencer Awards?

The SMB Influencer Awards seek to recognize top influencers in the small business market through a period of nominations, a panel of judges, and community input. The program is on its second year after a fantastic and successful debut in 2011.

Did you attend the #BBSMBchat Twitter chat?

On Monday, July 9th we held our second annual #BBSMBchat on Twitter® with hundreds of dedicated and enthusiastic small business owners and experts. The chat had record participation, coming close to 1,000 tweets published within the one-hour event. Our very own @BlackBerry4Biz played host, welcoming special guests Anita Campbell and Ramon Ray, co-founders of the SMB Influencer Awards.

Anita Campbell is the CEO of Small Business Trends, a news, tips, and advice site reaching over 4 million small business owners. Ramon Ray is an Editor and Technology Evangelist, as the founder of Small Biz Technology. We’re very excited to be working with both Anita and Ramon, and to seeing them this fall at the awards gala in New York City.

Learn More

For more information, head over to www.smbinfluencer.com, and keep an eye on the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog as important dates approach and the program unfolds.

Are you a small business owner? We’d love to hear about how BlackBerry® solutions have helped you start and grow your business – share your story in the comments below!

This year, our chat focused on how running a small business has changed in the past decade. The questions highlighted past challenges and successes that small business owners have faced over the years and focused on current obstacles and achievements involved in running a small business today. The chat had over 100 participants who tweeted more than 700 tweets with the #BBSMBchat hashtag during the chat and over 900 tweets throughout the entire day! What really made me happy to see is that over HALF of the participants were tweeting from BlackBerry® devices! It’s great to know that some of you didn’t have to be sitting behind a desk or at a computer, and that your BlackBerry device enabled you to participate from wherever was most convenient for you.

I want to share some of my favorite answers to a few of the questions, but I urge each of you to search the hashtag and check out the entire chat again. With so many tweets, the chat was hard to keep up with and I know that I saw a lot of new tweets that I had missed when I went back to reread the conversation. Again, thank you to everyone who participated. The small business community has such a strong presence on Twitter®, and your peers really are your best resource.

How are the challenges of starting a new business now different than they were ten years ago?

A1: It's about leadership. Not sitting back. Being assertive. Customer service. Treating employees well. Prospecting + selling. #BBSMBchat—
Howard Lewinter (@HowardLewinter) July 09, 2012

Who are some of the people/orgs who you follow on Twitter that provide good advice to help your #smallbiz?

A2 I'd say all the #SMBInfluencers are worth following for sure. ow.ly/c7Lqj #bbsmbchat—
SMB Influencer (@SMBInfluencer) July 09, 2012

What influences #SMBs the most today? Was it the same ten years ago?

A3 SMBs are influenced by global markets more today than in the past because we are more aware due to the internet #BBSMBchat—
Ileane Smith (@BasicBlogTips) July 09, 2012

How has social media evolved the small business space?

A4: Social media has made it possible for small business to compete with the "big boys" in a great way! "Conversational mkting" #BBSMBchat—
Martin Lindeskog (@Lyceum) July 09, 2012

Is it harder or easier to keep up with emerging trends in #smallbiz than it was ten years ago? Why?

A6: Easier to pick up on a trend. Harder to know if it's important to your biz. #BBSMBchat—
Robert Brady (@robert_brady) July 09, 2012

How has the internet changed the way you stay updated about #smallbiz and your industry? What sources do you get news from?

A7 I get my SMB news online (news sites, blogs, LinkedIn), various magazines, in-person meetings and right here on Twitter! #BBSMBCHAT—
Philip Nowak (@PhilipNowak) July 09, 2012

Who do you consider to be a #smallbiz legend? Alternatively, do you know of any emerging and promising fresh faces?

A8 @dmscott and @chrisbrogan: legends. @lisabarone and @CarolJSRoth: up and coming. #bbsmbchat—
Susan Payton (@eggmarketing) July 09, 2012

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who is about to start their own small business?

A9: Make it something you know AND love. That's why I live to help #smallbusiness get online #BBSMBchat—
kyle bellingar (@KyleBellingar) July 09, 2012

Show your support to members of the small business community by nominating a company, organization, app, or individual who has made a significant impact in the North American small business market for a Small Business Influencer Award. Nominations close this Sunday, July 15, 2012.

Join us and our guests of honor – small business experts Anita Campbell and Ramon Ray – tonight, Monday July 9th, from 7-8pm EST.

If you’ve never participated in a Twitter chat before, or you need a refresher, check out our blog post from last week. Below is a list of the questions we’ll ask during the chat tonight.

• How are the challenges of starting a new business now different than they were ten years ago? #BBSMBchat
• Who are some of the people/orgs who you follow on Twitter that provide good advice to help your #smallbiz? #BBSMBchat
• What influences #SMBs the most today? Was it the same ten years ago? #BBSMBchat
• How has social media evolved the #smallbiz space? #BBSMBchat
• What is one piece of advice you would give to someone who is about to start their own small business? #BBSMBchat
• Is it harder or easier to keep up with emerging trends in small business than it was ten years ago? Why? #BBSMBchat
• How has the internet changed the way that you stay up to date about #smallbiz & your industry? What sources do you get news from? #BBSMBchat
• Who do you consider to be a small business legend? Alternatively, do you know of any emerging and promising fresh faces? #BBSMBchat

If you’ve never participated in a Twitter® chat before, take a look at the “How To” guide below and a few suggestions for best practices. Also, be sure to check out some of the highlights from last year’s #BBSMBchat!

Hope to see you there!

What is a Twitter chat?

A Twitter chat is an online conversation that takes place among a group of people on Twitter about a specific topic of interest. A hashtag, created by adding the # symbol to the beginning of any word, is used to keep track of the conversation. In this case, we’ll be discussing small to medium business related topics with business owners, and the hashtag we will use to track the discussion is #BBSMBchat. You’ll need a Twitter account to participate. If you don’t have one, you can sign up at Twitter.com.

How do I participate?

We’ll be asking a list of questions from our @BlackBerry4Biz Twitter handle. Our guests of honor, judges of the 2012 Small Business Influencer Awards and small business experts Anita Campbell and Ramon Ray, will be there to answer questions and help guide the conversation – but it’s up to you, the participants, to really get the chat going. Answer any of the questions that motivate you. If you have an opinion, a story, or advice, we want to hear from you! Twitter chats can become a great source of knowledge when people like you share their experiences.

Choosing the Right Tool to Track the Chat

You may want to choose a tool to help you keep track of the chat all in one stream. We recommend using TweetChat, and have set up a page to track our dialogue:
http://tweetchat.com/room/BBSMBchat
. From this site, you will see the real time conversation of all tweets with #BBSMBchat. If you are logged in with your personal Twitter account, you will also be able to post all of your tweets directly from the site. Another way to track the chat is by searching #BBSMBchat in the search bar at the top of the Twitter homepage.

Best Practices

Before the chat:

• Make sure to follow the host, @BlackBerry4Biz, since we’ll be asking most of the questions that you don’t want to miss!
• For this chat, we have two guests of honor, Anita Campbell (@smallbiztrends) and Ramon Ray (@ramonray). You’ll want to follow them too since they’ll be sharing their expertise about small & medium business challenges.
• Feel free to join and leave the chat at any time you’d like! Don’t worry if you’ll be a little late, or need to leave early. Join at your own convenience, we’re happy just to see one tweet from you!

During the chat:

• Make sure you use the hashtag #BBSMBchat in all of your tweets. That is how others will know that you are participating in the chat, and it will also allow your tweets to be aggregated into the chat stream.
• We will be asking designated questions throughout the chat. Our questions will start with a “Q” and the question number. Question one, for example, will start with “Q1”. Our questions will also be IN ALL CAPS, so that they are easily distinguished from other tweets in your stream.
• Remember that tweets are only 140 characters. If it seems a little difficult at first, don’t worry – all participants are condensing their thoughts too.
• Be respectful of other participants and remember that all Twitter rules still apply. Differing opinions are always okay, but express your feelings in a courteous manner, please.
• Retweet great comments and engage with other participants.
• Have fun!

After the chat:

• If you still have more information to share or questions to ask, we’ll post a link to a discussion on the BlackBerry® for Business LinkedIn® group where you can continue the discussion.
• Make sure to follow people you connected with or found interesting. Remember, your peers can also be your best resources.
• Check right here at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog afterward for a recap of the chat, highlights, and a link to the transcript!
• Keep following us on Twitter and our LinkedIn Company Page for updates and information on upcoming chats.
• Stay in touch! We’re always here to help, so feel free to ask us questions or share resources.

Why is social media important for SMBs?

Having a mobile phone is no longer just for making calls. Smartphones have brought about the ability to connect to the Internet from pretty much anywhere on the planet. This improved connectivity has driven a significant increase in social media use. An InSites Consulting study revealed that 56% of connected smartphone users log on to social networks daily and that 49% of Europeans follow a brand on social media. With more people online and engaging in social networks than ever before, this provides a great opportunity for businesses. With the ‘work anywhere’, flexible nature of small and growing businesses, a smartphone gives them a perfect opportunity to tap into and contribute to the conversations taking place online – and to engage as a means of raising awareness of their brand and developing potential new business opportunities.

Mobile social networking allows for instant engagement from anywhere as Erik Vermeulen, Keynote Speaker at the BlackBerry® Innovation Forum 2011 in South Africa, stated:

“7/10 SMBs already believe that Social Media is allowing them to get closer to their customers.”

Additionally, a 2011 Loudhouse study for Research In Motion® (RIM®) on European SMBs showed that growth and expansion remain priorities even in challenging times, with 69% of those surveyed looking to win new customers and partners. Nearly half of those surveyed also believed that a mobile phone was the most important sales tool an SMB had.

So what do these survey results mean for small and growing businesses?

Simply put, for SMBs to effectively position themselves in the wider market, they need to use mobile social networking to engage with customers and potential prospects at anytime, anywhere. Rather than being tied to a PC in an office, using a device like a BlackBerry smartphone allows an employee to stay mobile but remain connected to people and opportunities.

For businesses, engagement on social media is more than posting links to your website or blog. Effective engagement is about building a conversation with others, sharing insights and knowledge, and responding to questions someone might ask. People are increasingly using social media to discuss their experiences with brands, and so you might get vital feedback on your business or useful insights on the competition by ‘listening’ to these social conversations. You might even become aware of an issue or problem with your product or service, for example, so you can then put in place measures to avoid a potential crisis.

With so many different social networks and different streams of conversations happening all the time, how can you possibly keep track? Simple – the Social Feeds app on a BlackBerry smartphone conveniently brings content across various networks such as Twitter®, Facebook®, RSS feeds, and podcasts into one place. The Social Feeds app allows you to quickly see what’s going on without having to open several different apps on your BlackBerry smartphone. You can even perform Facebook or Twitter actions directly from the app.

Engagement is a key to SMB social media success, and we will be providing information on more handy tools, hints and tips over the coming weeks as the series continues.

Does your business use social networks to engage with customers? Which ones have been the most successful for you? Share your stories in the comments below.