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!

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

Guest post today from Dan – Ed.

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.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of heading down to New York City to attend the 2011 Small Business Influencer awards event run by Anita Campbell and Ramon Ray, along with dozens of SMBs and SMB influencers from all types of industries who were in attendance. It was truly inspiring to be in the midst of so much energy and enthusiasm for small business! We were pleased to sponsor the event and honored to have Alan Panezic, VP of Enterprise Product Management & Marketing for Research In Motion® (RIM®), be invited to speak and hand out the awards to all of the 100 SMB influencer champions. Check out the video above to see Ramon Ray, one of the event organizers, interview Alan on stage to discuss how mobility impacts the work of SMB’s.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

So far I’ve covered setting up my mobile office and how I use the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet for presentations, but another powerful use case of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet is to support collaboration.

The first in my arsenal of collaboration tools is Adobe® Connect. Simply attending a hosted Adobe Connect meeting isn’t the only thing you can do; it also allows for a variety of other features. If allowed by the host, you can turn on video and audio and utilize the camera to attend the meeting via video and audio. I’m also able to chat with anyone that is in attendance. You can send a message to the host, presenters or attendees, and if you touch and hold on an attendee’s name, you can start a private chat.

Wait, did the host just ask a polling question? No problem – the polling feature works from your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and even displays the results. I’m also able to utilize pinch to zoom on the slides if I want to focus in on some text or a picture. As you can see above, it is nicely set up into quadrants with the ability to bring each function to the full screen.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

If you’ve never participated in a Twitter chat, don’t fear! We’ve put together a “How To” guide and a few suggestions for best practices:

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.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

(YouTube link for mobile viewing)

Since the beginning of this year, we’ve been working with The 99 Percent – a group of very dedicated New Yorkers who are passionate about helping creative workers execute better. At the helm is Scott Belsky, author of “Making Ideas Happen” – a great read for ANYONE with ideas!

Recently, The 99 Percent’s Jocelyn Glei wrote On Keeping it Simple – explaining three different practices that can help simplify everyday tasks, distractions and as Jocelyn writes “brain clutter”.

With all the brain clutter around mobile solutions, we thought we’d simplify things a little bit by creating two new videos explaining how the BlackBerry® solution can help you and your business communicate better. “Start Your Business” and “Grow Your Business” are each tailored to talk you through the different mobile tools that can help you get more done, and simplify your communications.

(YouTube link for mobile viewing)

Hope you’ll check them out and let us know what you think!

Anita Campbell, Founder, CEO and Editor in Chief of Small Business Trends

Since I’ve been at Research In Motion® (RIM®), I’ve been very lucky to be able to work directly with quite a few small business owners and small-medium business (SMB) experts. At the moment, RIM is the premiere sponsor of the Top 100 SMB Influencers Contest, being conducted by Small Business Trends and SmallBizTechnology.com. Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends and Ramon Ray of SmallBizTechnology.com have been writing articles, creating tools and speaking at events for years, with a mission to make it easier than ever for small businesses to thrive in today’s economy. I’ve watched their work from afar for quite some time, so I’m thrilled to interview Anita about the SMB Influencer contest.

Anita, can you give our readers an overview of what the Top 100 SMB Influencers contest is all about?

The Top 100 Small Business Influencers contest recognizes the companies, people and organizations that support the small business community in the United States and Canada. The requirements to be nominated are that the person, company or organization must have accomplished or produced something that positively impacts a group of small businesses. I am thrilled with the response — so far there have been nearly 400 nominations.

After nominations close, there will be a voting period to choose the Top 100 Small Business Influencers.

How do you think it benefits the small business community to have these SMB Influencers?

A lot is said about small businesses being the lifeblood of the economy and unsung heroes – and that’s true. But the entities and people who make it their missions to serve small businesses sometimes get even less recognition. My partner in this initiative, Ramon Ray of SmallBizTechnology.com, and I thought we should do something about that.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

We are all very busy here preparing for the BlackBerry World™ 2011 conference, coming up soon on May 3-5! Small and Medium-sized Business mobility is always a popular topic of discussion at the conference, and this year we have added more SMB sessions, tracks and content than ever before. There are multiple sessions being held for our Global Retail Channel partners and our IT Value Added Resellers, as well as for the Small & Medium-sized business owners and IT decision makers who will be with us in Orlando.

If you’re an IT decision maker within a small business attending BlackBerry World, I’d like to point you to this session in particular: BlackBerry Solutions for Your Business (WA28) – taking place Wednesday May 4 at 11:15 a.m.

Read more at the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog »

We’re entering the final stretch of our North American SmartBuilder Tour for small businesses and entrepreneurs. You can join us for a morning of interactive presentations, discussions and networking. Also, you’ll be able to enjoy a complimentary breakfast and listen to guest speakers share insights on BlackBerry® mobile solutions that will help make your business more efficient, responsive and productive.

Did we mention that registration is FREE? There will also be giveaways and attendees at each event can enter for a chance to win a new BlackBerry smartphone.* We’re excited to be bringing these three inspiring speakers to you: Ramon Ray, Brent Leary, and Patrick Schwerdtfeger.

Check out the Start and Grow your Business with the BlackBerry Seminar Series website and register your spot at the following cities:

Miami – April 5, 2011
Los Angeles – April 5, 2011
Atlanta – April 7, 2011
Washington – April 8, 2011
Orlando – April 12, 2011
Boston – April 13, 2011
Chicago – April 14, 2011
Denver – April 14, 2011
Houston – April 14, 2011
Las Vegas – April 15, 2011
Cincinnati – April 20, 2011

Hope to see you there!

*No purchase necessary to enter or win. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entrants at each event. Contest sponsored by Research In Motion Corporation. See Official Rules available at each event for complete contest details and restrictions.

One of our passions here at Research In Motion® (RIM®) is helping small and medium-sized businesses start and grow everyday – and we’re serious about it!

One of the tools we’re really excited about is SmartBuilder for BlackBerry®. SmartBuilder will ask you 8 questions about your business and your goals, and will provide you with a recommendation on a possible mobile solution, including devices, accessories and apps! Let us know if you’d like us to connect with you for more details, or follow up with your usual wireless provider. SmartBuilder for BlackBerry helps reduce the research cycles around mobility, so you can focus on doing business. We’re also out looking for your feedback on the BlackBerry platform and hearing about your business – and how mobility is working for you. Let us know in the comments below.

Also, in order to provide additional help to those in the business sector, we’re out on a ten-week “SmartBuilder” tour across the US, talking to entrepreneurs, business owners and their teams about the BlackBerry solution and the tools that are available to them. We might be in your city soon, so check out our SmartBuilder tour dates and come see our awesome tour vehicle!

Hopefully, we’ll see you at an event soon! You can follow along on Twitter® at @BlackBerry4Biz to get updates on the tour.