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.

Attention, Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones users! Following the initial Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 beta release and the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 beta refresh released shortly after that, we’re pleased to announce the third beta release which includes some of the most requested features: Wi-Fi® support, the ability to delete comments and posts, and a new prompt that appears before you delete a Facebook message.

Let’s take a look at the new features in more detail.

Wi-Fi Support

Wi-Fi support is here! Now you can stay connected with friends and enjoy the full functionality of the Facebook app for BlackBerry smartphones while in a Wi-Fi environment.

Note: To receive push notifications while connected on Wi-Fi, a BlackBerry data plan with web browsing enabled is required.

Delete Comments and Posts

With this third Facebook beta release, you can now delete unwanted posts and comments. If you don’t like what someone has posted on your Wall, or if you want to remove a comment you’ve posted on a friend’s wall, or even get rid of a status update that you’ve published, you can simply choose to delete it.

Delete Prompt

Previously, when you deleted a Facebook message from the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app, it was also permanently deleted from your Facebook account. You can now select whether you want to delete a message from the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphone application or from your Facebook account, or both. The choice is yours!

To download the latest beta version, you need to register to become a BlackBerry® Beta Zone member. Please note that you must reside in one of the BlackBerry Beta Zone supported countries in order to participate in the latest beta release.

Note: BlackBerry Beta Zone participants will require a new keycode for downloading this latest beta version. If you experience difficulties retrieving a keycode, please visit the BlackBerry Beta Zone discussion thread for steps on how to obtain a new one. To access the thread, you must be a participant of the Facebook 2.0 beta program.

We always appreciate your feedback and strive to accommodate your requests as quickly as possible. Post a comment and let us know what you think of the latest beta version of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones. With that said, we have a few more features in store for our next release, so stay tuned!

We’ve been really pleased with your feedback on the initial beta release of the Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones v2.0 app that launched just six weeks ago. In terms of beta user satisfaction, Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 has achieved some of the highest ratings ever received on a BlackBerry smartphone beta app. We’re pleased to announce that the beta refresh of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 is available in BlackBerry® Beta Zone today, and that it includes the much-anticipated support for BlackBerry® Device Software v.5.0.

What’s New?

In addition to BlackBerry Device Software v.5.0 support, we’ve also added several new features and performance enhancements to improve the initial beta version. Let’s take a look at some of the new additions:

Facebook Chat Enhancements

While chatting with your friends, you will now know when they’re typing a message by the visual cue of “is typing a message”. As well, you can filter your Online Contacts to quickly find a specific friend and start a Chat message.

View Mutual Friends and Friends List

The ability to view Mutual Friends and Friends List is available from the Info tab on Profiles. With the new Mutual Friends feature, you can discover which friends you have in common with another user. You can also now view a user’s Friends List from their Profile if their privacy settings permit this.

Enhanced Integration with BlackBerry Native Apps

Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0 is more integrated with native BlackBerry smartphone apps than ever. You can now click on PINs, phone numbers and email addresses that are displayed on Wall posts, messages on the Info tab, and either perform the respective action (e.g. place a call) or save the information to your BlackBerry Contacts application.

Performance Enhancements

As mentioned above, we also added these performance enhancements to Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0:

• Improved Facebook Chat connection.
• Cursor no longer disappears while scrolling through the News Feed.
• Consistent Chat message delivery notifications.
• Improved Online Contacts list loading time.

To download the latest beta version of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0, you need to register to become a BlackBerry Beta Zone member. Please note that you must reside in one of the countries listed here in order to participate in the beta.

We truly appreciate the feedback and participation from our beta testers, and value their commitment to helping Research In Motion® (RIM®) deliver a high-quality app!

Today we are pleased to announce that Tungle has joined Research In Motion (RIM). We’re excited that the Tungle team is bringing their expertise in cloud-based, cross-platform, calendar management to the BlackBerry platform.

Tungle is a leading provider of cloud-based calendar and scheduling services that makes it easy for users to share their availability and schedule appointments regardless of their choice of desktop, mobile or cloud-based calendar. Tungle connects users on Google, Yahoo!, FaceBook, TripIt, Plancast, Outlook, iCal, LotusNotes, LotusLive, and WindowsLive. If you are not already familiar with them you can find out more about Tungle at http://www.tungle.me/.

BlackBerry is a fantastic solution for connecting users to the people and information that matter most throughout their day. By working with Tungle to add cloud-based, cross-platform calendar capabilities to the BlackBerry platform we can further enrich our customers’ experience with BlackBerry and continue to help them get things done.

– Tom Goguen, VP, Collaboration and Social Networking at Research In Motion (RIM)

UPDATE: In less than 24 hours, we have reached over 10,000 downloads of Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones v2.0. To make sure more of you can download the app, 10,000 more beta trials have been added to BlackBerry Beta Zone!

I’m excited to announce the beta release of the Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones app v2.0 through BlackBerry® Beta Zone starting today. The Facebook app team here at Research In Motion® (RIM®) has been working hard to incorporate the feedback we have received from our users to make v2.0 the biggest update to the Facebook application since we released v1.0 more than three years ago. This initial release of v2.0 has a redesigned user interface and also offers Facebook Chat!

Below are some of the new features of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0:

Facebook Chat

You can now check to see which of your Facebook friends are online and start a Chat conversation from within the Facebook application or within the unified mailbox on your BlackBerry smartphone.

On Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones, as long as your status is set to online, you still receive notifications even if you are not using the Facebook app.

Improved News Feed

Improved News Feed interactions enable you to scroll through your News Feed without accidentally clicking ‘Like’; you can simply click the ‘More’ button (+) to interact with your friends’ posts. Enhanced publisher functionality allows you post photos to your Wall, add an update, or check in to a Facebook Place from the News Feed.

New Navigation Control

By introducing a whole new way to navigate the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones application, we’ve moved from a static navigation bar to a drop-down navigation control that is scalable to support new features in the future.

Notifications Bar

Borrowing from the BlackBerry® 6 OS’ “Today View”, the notifications bar offers an easy way to access your Facebook Notifications, Messages, Friend Requests and Chats from anywhere in the Facebook application.

External Notifications

You don’t have to leave the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app to see what’s new on your device. The BlackBerry smartphone external notifications header lets you see when you’ve received a new email message or BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) message without having to leave the Facebook application.

New Profile UI and Profile Information Viewing

The New Profile UI now provides Wall, Info, and Photo tabs for an even better browsing experience. New to v2.0 is the ability to view key information on Profiles and Pages, such as contact info, basic info like birthdays, hometown and relationship status, and likes and interests.

Head over to BlackBerry Beta Zone today to be one of the first users to join the beta for Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v2.0! As this is an early preview, we have a limited number of beta spots open. Also, please note the initial beta release will be available for BlackBerry 6 users only, but support for BlackBerry® Device Software 4.6 and higher will be added in subsequent beta releases and will be available in the official version.

Try it out and let us know what you think!

If you’re following @BlackBerry on Twitter®, you may have noticed the initials “^MS” after our tweets recently. The Inside BlackBerry team is very excited to have Mitchell S. join the team and help keep the conversations going on @BlackBerry, our Facebook page, myBlackBerry and the countless other social media places where BlackBerry has a presence. Who knows – in time you might also see him author a blog post or two!

Since you’ll be seeing his shining face a lot more often, we thought we should give him a proper introduction – video style:

Just in case you didn’t catch the places to find Mitchell, we’ve added them here:

• @BlackBerry
• @BlackBerryScene
• @BlackBerryBlog
• facebook.com/BlackBerry
• my.blackberry.com

Leave a comment and say hi to Mitchell!

Thanks for your feedback on the beta release of Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones v1.9! Your input is valuable in shaping our app, and we strive to incorporate your requested features and improvements in future versions. With that being said, I’m pleased to announce that Facebook Places is now available on BlackBerry smartphones. The final release of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v1.9 will be available for download in BlackBerry App World™ (North America only) within the next 24 hours!

What is Facebook Places?

With Facebook Places, you can use your BlackBerry smartphone to conveniently share where you are, what you’re doing, and who you’re with. While you are checking in, you can tag a friend and include a comment to let your friends know what you’re up to. You can also see where your friends are and what they’re doing.

Facebook Places uses cell tower triangulation and the GPS technology on your BlackBerry smartphone to find places of interest close to your location. You can view the location of a Facebook Place on a map to see exactly where it is and check out the surrounding area. You can also get directions to and from a Facebook Place simply by clicking on the map image, which will seamlessly launch the BlackBerry® Maps application.

To start using Places, click on the Places icon on the nav bar. You can check in to Facebook Places within a 2-kilometer radius of your location and see where your friends are checking in around you.

Checking in is a cinch – you can either select a nearby place or add a new place if your location isn’t listed. Keep in mind that any place you create is public, so other people can view your created place.

You can add comments and tag friends when checking in, or view who is currently at your location.

Simply launch BlackBerry Maps by clicking on the map image on the check-in screen. This allows you to view an enlarged map of your location and provides additional map functionality like getting directions.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on Facebook Places, so be sure to leave us a comment and tell us what you think. For those longing for Facebook Chat, we’ve definitely heard your pleas and are thrilled to know you want it so badly – expect to see it coming soon in a future release!

Changelog for Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v1.9:

Download the final release of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v1.9 from BlackBerry App World™ today!

Today, I’m excited to announce the availability of a new version of Facebook® for BlackBerry® smartphones through BlackBerry Beta Zone. (Make sure to sign up for a Beta Zone account to try out v1.9!) We continually strive to improve the ‘Facebook for BlackBerry’ experience – in v1.8 we focused on optimizing the speed and performance of the application; now in V.1.9 we are adding more Facebook features that BlackBerry smartphone fans have been asking for.

Here are a few examples of what’s new in Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v1.9:

Dedicated Inbox

You’ve been asking for the ability to view just your Facebook messages, so we’ve now added options on how and where you can view your Facebook messages to help you more easily manage your Facebook communications. We now offer two different ways to view your Facebook messages:

1. The Facebook Messages view lets you see only your Facebook messages in one inbox.
2. If you prefer to have all of your messages in one place you can set up your Facebook messages to appear within your BlackBerry Messages inbox.

Also, as part of these new views, the app pre-fetches 30 of your existing Facebook messages in order to pre-populate your inbox with your existing messages when you first log in!

With v.1.9 the Facebook Messages inbox on your BlackBerry smartphone are now also synchronized with your inbox on the web, so deleted and opened items now stay in sync. Once you’ve logged in, Facebook for BlackBerry will continue to leverage our unique BlackBerry Push service to keep messages updated. The end goal is an integrated email interface that looks as much like your everyday Facebook inbox as possible!

Facebook Search

With Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones v1.9, you can use the new Facebook Search function to search Facebook for individual people and pages. From the results that your query brings back, depending on the privacy settings, you can view mutual friends, enlarge profile photos (so you know for sure that a person really is your old high-school friend!), and send a request to add them as a friend.

If you’re searching for a Page, you can choose to “Like it” to start following when it’s updated.

Another nifty feature in v1.9 for BlackBerry® 6 users is that Facebook Search is tied into the system’s integrated Universal Search, so if you search your BlackBerry smartphone for a query, Universal Search will also pull in results from Facebook!

Friends List, Page List, Updated Navigation Bar

In addition to the features listed above, we’ve also worked to make sure that the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app looks easy to use – and functions as smoothly as possible. To this end, we’ve optimized the Friends List to add profile photos of your friends and have made it possible to view pages in list form. We’ve also updated the navigation bar so you can view your profile, and add new icons for Facebook search and Message view.

Now that we’ve piqued your interest, go and sign up for the beta, but don’t wait too long as there are a limited number of spots available for the beta program. We’ll give you a bit of a teaser and confirm that the full release of Facebook for BlackBerry smartphone v1.9 will also include Facebook Places and additional UI updates. Stay tuned for more announcements!

In the meantime, what would you like to see in future versions? We know you’d like to see Facebook Chat and we are actively working toward including this in a future version – any other features or improvements you can think of? Please leave a comment and let us know!

Our sister site, the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog, was all over the place covering BlackBerry DEVCON 2010 last week (with some great follow up content this week too!). While you may have seen some of their content on Inside BlackBerry already, such as the BlackBerry PlayBook announcement and BlackBerry Tablet OS interview with Dan Dodge, we wanted to dedicate an entire post to highlighting their efforts. In addition to the BlackBerry Developer Round-Up video above, you’ll find a bunch of great videos and post links after the jump. If you’re not already a BlackBerry developer, you’ll want to be after checking out these posts!

Announcement Posts

The BBM Social Platform
Platform Services Galore!
The Open Source BlackBerry Facebook SDK

Great DEVCON 2010 Videos

Yesterday, the Inside BlackBerry blogging team was fortunate to enjoy a sunny and relaxing Canada Day. This weekend, our friends south of the border celebrate their own national holiday. After reading our Support your team in South Africa with BBM Flags post, many of you wanted to know your country’s short code even though your team wasn’t playing in South Africa. What do those three things add up to? The perfect time to publish the global BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) flag list!

To display your BBM flag of choice, simply type in the related short code below (e.g. “*two letter country short code*”) into any text field. Please note that some country flags might not be currently supported in BBM. We’re always looking to add more flags to BBM, so if you notice a flag that’s missing, post a comment below and we’ll work to get it added.