BlackBerry 10 is launching in less than 24 hours and we couldn’t be more excited. The official launch event will happen simultaneously in multiple cities around the world including New York City, Toronto, London, Paris, Johannesburg and Dubai. Tomorrow we will unveil the BlackBerry 10 platform as well as the first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones. To keep you connected to all of tomorrow’s action, we thought it would be helpful to provide a list of all of the BlackBerry social channels where you can get the most up to date information in real time.

How to Stay Connected to the Action

Twitter is a great first stop for real-time information and updates. @BlackBerry will be live-tweeting from the global launch event providing news and updates as they happen. @BlackBerry4Biz will be a great resource for business related announcements and updates, and @BlackBerryDev will provide up-to-date information for developers.

We will also be posting updates throughout the day on our LinkedIn Company Page, and the BlackBerry for Business LinkedIn Group will be a great forum to join in on conversation.

You can also check out our blogs regularly for more in depth updates and information about the newest BlackBerry 10 features:

• Inside BlackBerry
• Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog
• Inside BlackBerry Developer Blog

The Inside BlackBerry Help Blog will also be providing tips, how-tos and walkthroughs.

How to join the conversation

We also want to hear from you. Leave us your initial thoughts on BlackBerry 10 in the comments below. If you’re tweeting, be sure to include the #BlackBerry10 hashtag. We’ll be back tomorrow with updates. Until then, let the countdown continue!

With over 170 new blog posts over the last 12 months, needless to say it’s been an incredible year on the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog! To help kick off the New Year, here’s a listing of some of my favorite Five Tip Friday posts from 2012:

Five Tip Friday – Our Favorite BBM Tips
Five Tip Friday – BlackBerry Ty’s Favorite PlayBook Tips
Five Tip Friday – Enhancing the Phone App on a BlackBerry smartphone
Five Tip Friday – Five reasons why BlackBerry Maps is awesome!
Five Tip Friday – Five reasons you should consider using Social Feeds
Five Tip Friday – Efficient BlackBerry Smartphone Keyboard Shortcuts
Five Tip Friday – Social Networking Tips for BlackBerry smartphones
Five Tip Friday – BlackBerry smartphone Contacts Tips
Five Tip Friday – Securing personal information on a BlackBerry smartphone
Five Tip Friday – Efficient email on a BlackBerry smartphone
Five Tip Friday – BlackBerry Maps on BlackBerry 7 OS
Five Tip Friday – Using the Pictures app on a BlackBerry smartphone
Five Tip Friday – BlackBerry Brian’s Favorite Tips!

I should add that while we are going away for the holidays, our friends at @BlackBerryHelp on Twitter will be available to assist you with any BlackBerry smartphone or BlackBerry PlayBook tablet questions you might have. Also, don’t forget to stop by the BlackBerry Support Community Forums so you can join in on thousands of discussions with other BlackBerry owners.

Thanks again for a great year and we look forward to providing you lots of tips, tricks and more throughout 2013.

Happy holidays from the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog!

I love connecting with other #TeamBlackBerry folks daily on the BlackBerry® Support Community as the Community Manager. I’m very fortunate to have a position that keeps my fingers on the pulse of #TeamBlackBerry with the device that keeps us all connected to what we love: a BlackBerry® smartphone.

Last Thursday we all got together for the #My1stBlackBerry chat on Twitter® and it was awesome! It was a great opportunity to chat with all of you on a personal level and hear about the experiences we all share through our mutual love of our BlackBerry devices. If you’ve never participated in a Twitter chat before, you can learn more in our Get Ready – Upcoming #My1stBlackBerry Twitter chat post.

It was amazing to hear from long time users about their original BlackBerry® 950 devices – one of our first mobile email devices – as well as from newcomers to #TeamBlackBerry with their first BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone.You may have seen that my first smartphone was the groundbreaking BlackBerry® 7290 smartphone with a color screen that I first started using in 2006. That’s when I started connecting to everything I love.

Thanks to everyone who jumped in to share their experiences and help others make the best of their BlackBerry devices! I have been working the @BlackBerryHelp team back when there were less than 10,000 followers and what a fantastic ride it has been. You can read a bit more about the team in this interview with Michele and Brian from the @BlackBerryHelp Team.

There were some great comments and fun chat had by everyone! Here are just a few:

@BlackBerryHelp I keep #My1stBlackBerry in a blackberry basket. It's a piece of art! http://t.co/uI5VJSvG—
Heather Hickey (@kickyhick) November 01, 2012

@BlackBerryHelp #My1stBlackBerry A4: I give every application it's own ringtone. So I can tell if it's fb or twitter or BBM just by the tone—
Emmanuel (@Ece_BluR) November 01, 2012

@jameystarett @BlackBerryHelp closing non-essential apps is key to long battery life, & dimming screen works too #My1stBlackBerry—
Shawn Robert Harvey (@TwistMyMind) November 01, 2012

Add my family+friend's bbPIN "@BlackBerryHelp: Q1: What's the first thing you did when you got your first #BlackBerry? #My1stBlackBerry ^BR"—
Michael Ovan59 | 林道范 (@mich_ofan) November 01, 2012

@BlackBerryHelp #My1stBlackBerry was BB 950 in 2002. Ran off single AA battery. Probably had on average 2 new diff BB's / year since then—
Trevor Swenson  (@quid_nunc) November 01, 2012

Didn’t get to share your #My1stBlackBerry story with us? Leave it for us in the comments!

Just over a year ago, @BlackBerryHelp reached the 500,000 follower mark, and on October 30th, 2012, they surpassed one million followers!

For those who are unfamiliar with @BlackBerryHelp, this Twitter® account is managed by a group of dedicated BlackBerry® Support staff who engage with BlackBerry customers around the world to help support BlackBerry products and services. (For our international readers, we offer Spanish support via @AyudaBlackBerry as well Indonesian support from @BlackBerryBantu!)

Recently I was able to sit down with Michele and Brian from @BlackBerryHelp to talk about their team.

HELP BLOG: Thanks for taking the time to meet with me, Michele & Brian. My first question to kick things off here is pretty simple: Can you tell me about the team as well as a little bit about yourself and how you got involved with social support?

Michele: Counting myself, the @BlackBerryHelp team consists of 12 individuals based out of Halifax, Canada, working around the clock to help #TeamBlackBerry get the most from their BlackBerry devices.

Brian: I am one of the original @BlackBerryHelp team members and have been a part of the team for over three years now. I started out with RIM working in telephone support before joining the @BlackBerryHelp team. Assisting customers over the phone helped me with my customer service and technical skills. These skills have been very valuable in providing the best support possible through @BlackBerryHelp. In three years, it’s been incredible to see us grow from a few thousand followers to over one million this week.

Michele: My primary role as a team leader of the @BlackBerryHelp team is managing and monitoring team performance and our customers’ expectations. In addition to Twitter, we’re also active on Facebook®, the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog and the BlackBerry Community Support Forums. Our customers’ expectations are changing, and as more people contact us for support on social media we want to make sure we’re able to respond quickly and effectively.

HELP BLOG: That leads me to another question that I’m sure many of your followers wonder: @BlackBerryHelp responds to hundreds of tweets per day?! What does it take to respond to all those tweets?

Michele: On a weekly basis, BlackBerry social channels receive over 16,000 inquiries from customers, so it takes a great deal of passion and BlackBerry knowledge to respond to our customers quickly so that they can get on with their day. We work together with our other social media properties to answer our customers’ questions without them having to pick up the phone.

HELP BLOG: @BlackBerryHelp added its 500,000th follower in 2011 and just hit one million followers roughly a year later. Have there been any other standout moments for your team in the past two years?

Brian: The very fact that we hit one million followers is an incredible accomplishment in itself considering when I started with the team we had only three team members and just over 3,000 followers. But one of the best moments for me was when our @BlackBerryHelp customers nominated us to win a Shorty Award in 2010 for providing Customer Service through Twitter.

Michele: Along with our second Shorty Award win for Best Use of Social Media for Customer Service in 2011, we were also recognized by socialfresh.com for being one of the Top 10 brands on Twitter for 2011. It’s been an exciting few years for the team!

HELP BLOG: What’s in store for @BlackBerryHelp in 2013?

Brian: Bigger is better, but we also want to make sure that we are responding to the individual behind every inquiry we receive. Through Twitter, we’re able to help more of our customers than ever, but keeping that feeling of a one-to-one conversation is a big priority for me.

Michele: That’s a great question! Part of my role is to think ahead to the second million followers, and make sure that #TeamBlackBerry continues to get a world-class experience in every interaction as our social media presence grows. I’d encourage all of you to continue following us to witness the evolution of our @BlackBerryHelp account!

HELP BLOG: Thanks for your time Michele and Brian, and on behalf of #TeamBlackBerry, thank you for providing great support!

Has @BlackBerryHelp helped you? Tell us how in the comments.

I am very excited to share the news that on October 30th, 2012 around 3am EST, @BlackBerryHelp rolled over 1,000,000 followers! For those who don’t know, @BlackBerryHelp is a team of 12 BlackBerry® experts who provide around-the-clock support for BlackBerry customers on Twitter®.

To help celebrate this milestone, we are holding a Twitter® chat on November 1st at 7pm EST so we can talk 1:1 with you and the rest of #TeamBlackBerry. During this chat we’d love to hear your thoughts on how we’re doing, and more importantly, how can we better assist you in the future! For information about this Twitter chat and how you can participate, make sure you check out our blog post Get Ready – Upcoming #My1stBlackBerry Twitter Chat.

On behalf of the Inside BlackBerry Help Blog team, congratulations again @BlackBerryHelp on reaching one million followers, and we look forward to celebrating the next milestone!

If you’re on Twitter, head over to http://twitter.com/BlackBerryHelp to leave the team a congratulatory message or post a comment below.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

In a short amount of time, the team behind our @BlackBerryHelp Twitter® account will be celebrating a huge new milestone: breaking the one million follower mark!

To celebrate this milestone, we want to talk 1:1 with #TeamBlackBerry and learn more about your personal histories, such as your first BlackBerry® smartphone or a unique experience you may have had with #TeamBlackBerry. So whether you are just getting started with a BlackBerry device or a long-time veteran, we’d love to hear your thoughts on how we’re doing and how we can better assist you in the future!

To take part in this Twitter chat, all you need to do is follow the @BlackBerryHelp Twitter account, and on November 1st at 7pm EST, search for the hashtag #My1stBlackBerry.

To help you get the most out of this Twitter Chat, here are a few tips:

• Introduce yourself when you join
• Be polite and friendly towards other participants
• Use the hashtag #My1stBlackBerry for all tweets during the chat
• When questions are asked using the format of Q1/Q2/Q3, indicate which question you are responding to by using the same format to respond; i.e. A1/A2/A3
• Share tweets with your followers using the retweet option
• If you are using the Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones app to follow along, consider using the Saved Search option to follow the chat

We look forward to chatting with you soon!

If you have a BlackBerry® smartphone and a Facebook® page, chances are you also use the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app. (It even got an awesome new upgrade yesterday!) After talking with my friends, most of them tell me it’s the most frequently-used app on their device and the primary way they access Facebook. Today I’ve put together some of my favorite tips that I share with friends when I’m asked about the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app.

Before we begin, if you don’t have Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones installed currently, open the BlackBerry App World™ storefront on your device, press the Menu key, select “Scan a Barcode” and scan this code to get it installed:

1. Receive Notifications in the Messages App

Let’s get things started with my favorite tip: integrating your Facebook notifications with the Message app on your BlackBerry smartphone. Having my Facebook notifications appear in the messages app allows me to check them, send them via email, share them using BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) and more all in one place. If I have a Facebook notification I want to read, I can simply select it and Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones opens to display the content.

Here’s how to receive notifications in the Messages app:

1. Open Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones
2. Press the Menu key and select “Options”
3. Check the box next to “BlackBerry Messages application”
4. Press the Menu key and select “Save”.

If you are enabling this feature for the first time, something you might want to check is whether or not you are receiving Facebook notifications using an email address that is integrated with your BlackBerry smartphone. If you are, then each notification will be displayed in the Messages app twice — once as a result of the email notification and a second notification from the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app.
To prevent this double-notification from occurring, complete the following steps to turn off Facebook email notifications so you only receive notifications from the Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones app going forward:

1. Open Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones
2. Press the Menu key and select “Options”
3. Select “Turn off Email Notifications”
4. Press the Menu key and select “Save”.

2. Keyboard Shortcuts

If you have a BlackBerry smartphone with a physical QWERTY keyboard, use these shortcuts to help you take action. If you aren’t sure what type of keyboard your BlackBerry smartphone has, check out the blog post How to use shortcuts from the BlackBerry Home screen to learn more.

• Press S – View the latest status updates
• Press F – Displays your friend list
• Press W – View your Wall
• Press M – View Messages
• Press P – Open Check in
• Press U – Upload a picture (my most used shortcut by far)

There are also two shortcuts you can use while in a notification: press N to view the next notification and press P to view the previous notification.

3. Sharing your Photos

There is no arguing that we all like to share photos on our Facebook pages, and doing this on the go with your BlackBerry smartphone couldn’t be easier. To upload a picture to your Facebook page, simply take a picture or select an existing one on your BlackBerry smartphone and do the following:

1. While viewing the photo using the Pictures app or previewing a photo you just took using the Camera, press the Menu Key and select “Send” followed by “Facebook”
2. Add a caption and choose an Album
3. Optionally add any Tags and if you did then select “Done”
4. Select “Upload”.

4. Have event invitations appear in your BlackBerry Calendar

Configuring Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones to add event invitations to your BlackBerry calendar is a great way to ensure that you don’t have a conflict between your Facebook and personal calendars, since any events you respond “Yes” or “Maybe” to will appear in your BlackBerry smartphone calendar.

1. Open Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones
2. Press the Menu key and select “Options”
3. Check the box next to “BlackBerry Calendar application”
4. Press the Menu key and select “Save”

5. Have your Friends personal information appear in the BlackBerry contacts app

When you launch Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones for the first time, you will be asked if you would like your BlackBerry contacts and the app to be connected. This connection means that all your Facebook friends’ contact information will be available in your BlackBerry contacts; their birthdays will also be displayed in the BlackBerry smartphone’s calendar.

My favorite feature of this connection capability is that your friends’ Facebook profile pictures are added to their contact cards in your BlackBerry smartphone’s contacts. If you didn’t make this connection initially and would like to use this feature now, complete the following steps:

1. Open Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones
2. Press the Menu key and select “Options”
3. Check the box next to “BlackBerry Contacts application”
4. Press the Menu key and select “Save”.

Something to take note of is the full description of how this feature works right below the setting. You can also select the question mark located to the right of the setting for even more information.

Bonus: Manually connect Facebook Friends with the BlackBerry Contacts app

Don’t want to add all your Facebook friends to your BlackBerry contacts? You don’t have to! Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones has the ability to manually add a contact. You can even match it to an existing BlackBerry contacts so you won’t duplicate that person in your device’s contact list.

1. Open Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones
2. Press the Menu key and Select “Open Navigation Grid”
3. Highlight a friend
4. Press the Menu key and select “Connect to BlackBerry contact
5. Choose one of the following options:

• Select Contact – Chose an existing contact from your BlackBerry contacts
• New Contact – The Friend will be added to your BlackBerry contacts as a new entry

If you have a tip about Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones, make sure you leave a comment below and let us know!

Before we begin, if you haven’t already installed the app on your BlackBerry smartphone, simply open the BlackBerry App World™ storefront, press the Menu key, and use the “Scan A Barcode” feature to scan the following barcode:

1. Shortcuts, Shortcuts, Shortcuts!

Depending on which type of BlackBerry smartphone you are using, Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones offers several useful shortcuts. Listed below are five shortcuts that I use the most, but to view them all make sure you check out the Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones User Guide – Shortcuts section.

• To compose a tweet, press C.
• To refresh your tweet timeline, press D.
• To go to the Search screen, press the ALT key and 5.
• To reply to a direct message or tweet, highlight the direct message or tweet. Press R.
• To reply to all of the people that are mentioned in a tweet, highlight the tweet. Press L.

2. Notification of Replies and Mentions

After logging into Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones, you will be notified whenever someone who follows you mentions you or replies to a tweet that you’ve sent. You can optionally change this so you get notified whenever someone replies to you or mentions you in a tweet, regardless of whether or not they follow you. To review your notification options and customize this setting – in addition to several useful notification/refresh settings – complete the steps below:

1. Open Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones
2. Press the Menu key and select “Options”
3. To get notified of replies and mentions, check the ‘Notify on replies and mentions’ box
4. Set your desired ‘When posted by’ setting to either ‘Following’ or ‘All Users’

3. Undo a Retweet

As of Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v3.1, you now have the ability to undo a retweet. I have a bad habit of retweeting when I should have used the “quote tweet” option, so needless to say, I love this new feature!

All you need to do is highlight your retweet, press the menu key and select “Undo Retweet” as per the following screenshot.

4. Search Nearby Tweets

The next time you are at a concert, sporting event, or just visiting a new place, consider using the Search Nearby feature to stay on top of what’s going on around you. This is a great way to interact with new people and find activities. For example, just the other week I was able to discover an amazing Twitter account that provided me with lots of news on local events, traffic and more while I was at the family cottage.

To run a search for tweets that are nearby as well as other possible search options, complete the following steps:

1. Open Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones
2. Select or tap on the Search icon that appears along the top
3. Type your search criteria and select one of the following options:

• ‘Search Term’ – A search will be performed.
• ‘Search Term’ nearby – Only Tweets from nearby geographic locations will be shown.
• ‘Search Term’ in people – Perform a search for other Twitter users using the search term.
• ‘Goto @Search Term’ – View a specific Twitter account based on the Search Term that was used.

5. Tweeting on behalf of a business or brand? Use Spell Check!

Looking for an easy way to avoid an embarrassing situation? Consider enabling the Spell Check feature so any Tweets you plan on posting (especially if you are posting on behalf of a business or a brand) do not contain spelling mistakes.

To enable Spell Check in Tweets or Direct Messages, complete the following steps.

1. Open Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones
2. Press the Menu key and select “Options”
3. Select the “Spell Check Before Sending” check box.

Got a tip you want to share? Leave a comment and let us know!

If you aren’t already following @BlackBerryHelp and you want to receive lots of tips and tricks, start following today using Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones and keep an eye out for the #BBTips hashtag.

With that being said, here are the five popular tips that we’ve shared with our fantastic followers:

1. Video Camera Flashlight

Try the following steps to quickly turn a physical keyboard-equipped BlackBerry smartphone into a flashlight so you can find your way!

1. Open the Video Camera app
2. Press the space key to turn on or turn off the flashlight.

Note: Using a smartphone with a virtual keyboard only, such as the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 smartphone? If so, you can also make it a flashlight by opening the Video Camera App and pressing the Menu key, then selecting Options followed by checking the box for Video Light.

2. Copy contacts from a SIM Card

Did you recently upgrade to a new BlackBerry smartphone or are switching a different model? If so, complete the following steps to copy your contacts stored on your SIM card to your new smartphone.

Add one contact from a SIM card to a BlackBerry smartphone

1. On the BlackBerry smartphone, open Contacts
2. Display the menu and select SIM Phone Book. The SIM phone book will be loaded
3. Select the contact you want to import, and then select Add to Contacts
4. That contact will be then added to your BlackBerry smartphone Contacts list.

Add all contacts from a SIM card to a BlackBerry smartphone

1. On the BlackBerry smartphone, open Contacts
2. Display the menu and select SIM Phone Book. The SIM phone book will be loaded
3. Display the menu and select Copy All To Contacts
4. This will add all contacts to your BlackBerry smartphone Contacts list
5. Check your Contacts on the device to ensure that they transferred properly.

Check out Eric’s post on how to transfer contacts from your SIM card to learn more. You can also look up the user guide for your BlackBerry smartphone.

3. Autotext/Word Substitution

One of my favorite tips to share with other BlackBerry smartphone owners is the ability to use Autotext/Word Substitution to quickly enter information you commonly enter, such as your PIN number, the current date or the expansion of an abbreviated term.

For example, if you type something that can be replaced with an Autotext entry, the text changes after you press the Space key (BRB will change to Be Right Back if you’ve added it to your Autotext database).

Here a few must-know Autotext/Word Substitution entries:

1. mypin – Your BlackBerry smartphone PIN, i.e. “pin:XXXXXXX”
2. mynumber – Your BlackBerry smartphone phone number, i.e.” XXXXXXXXXX”
3. ld – The long date, i.e. “Thu, May 10, 2012”
4. lt – Long time, i.e. “10:24:10 AM”

In addition to the entries above, your BlackBerry smartphone includes dozens more! To view them as well create some of your own, check out the user guide for your BlackBerry smartphone.

4. How to perform a soft reset

A soft reset is a three-key combination that resets the BlackBerry smartphone without removing the battery. This method of resetting a smartphone is only available on BlackBerry smartphone models with a QWERTY keyboard, such as the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone or BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810 smartphone.

To perform a soft reset, complete the following steps.

1. Press and hold the Alt key (1)
2. While holding down the Alt key, press and hold the Right Shift key (2)
3. With both of those buttons still pressed, press the Backspace/Delete key (3)
4. When the screen turns off to indicate that the BlackBerry smartphone is restarting, you can then release the keys you have been holding.

To learn more, read our blog post on how to reset a BlackBerry smartphone.

5. Message shortcuts

For those using a BlackBerry smartphone that has a physical keyboard (such as the BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone or the BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone), try the following shortcuts while using the Messages app to fly around your inbox and manage messages quickly!

While viewing a message:

• R – Reply to a message
• L – Reply to all in a email or PIN message
• F – Forward a message
• I – File a email message
• N – Move to the next message
• P – Move to the previous message

While viewing your messages inbox:

• C – Compose a message from a message inbox
• Alt + U – Mark a message as read or unread
• W – Add a flag to the message
• ALT + F – View all flagged messages
• ALT + I – View received messages and received call logs
• ALT + O – View draft and sent messages
• ALT + V – View voice mail messages
• ALT + S – View text messages
• ALT + P – View call logs

Moving around your messages inbox:

• Shift + Space – Move up a screen
• Space – Move down a screen
• T – Move to the top of the inbox
• B – Move to the bottom of the inbox
• U – Move to the next unread item
• J – Move to the next related message
• K – Move to the previous related message

To learn about other useful shortcuts, including shortcuts for those using touch screen-only devices such as the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9860 or BlackBerry® Curve™ 9380 smartphone, make sure you check out the user guide for your BlackBerry smartphone.

Got a question? Leave a comment and let me know!

I’m pleased to report that on Monday, March 26th, 2012, Research In Motion® (RIM®) won the 2012 Shorty Industry Award for Best Use of Social Media for Customer Service!

This is the second year in a row that RIM has won a Shorty Award for Customer Service, but what makes this year so special is that they expanded the Shorty Awards to honor all of the best short-form content published across social media, beyond just what we publish on Twitter®. In addition, they included the Customer Service category in the Shorty Industry Awards which, unlike the general interest Shorty Awards, are exclusive to the professional industry community. While the general Shorty Awards are subject to public voting, the Shorty Industry Awards are reviewed by a prestigious panel of expert and celebrity judges.

Our winning entry highlights the global expansion of the social support programs at RIM, and specifically calls attention to the successes of @BlackBerryHelp, @AyudaBlackBerry, @BlackBerryBantu and the global BlackBerry Support Community.

I want to congratulate everyone on the Social Support team for their continuous hard work, without which we wouldn’t have the honor of calling ourselves winners two years in a row! Hats off to #TeamBlackBerry!