6 Blackberry Apps for Marketers

Guest Post by Neil DuPaul

For awhile now RIM has been relatively quiet in the mobile application world, coming up in a distant third place behind the AA duo of Apple and Android. However with a fresh new smartphone lineup and the debut of the Playbook tablet, Blackberry seems ready to properly crash the mobile party.

Foursquare - Geo-Social Networking
Cost: Free If you’re a marketer by profession then you most likely have lots of clients locally. Foursquare is one of the hottest social networks outside of the big three (Facebook, Twitter, G+) and imperative for companies whose customers skew largely local. After all what does it tell you that Facebook recently axed it’s Foursquare competitor Places?

Having Foursquare on your Blackberry will allow you to keep tabs on client activity and see things from a regular user’s perspective, checking business information and verifying specials. You’re also probably an early adopter and it certainly doesn’t hurt to lead by example when it comes to local check-ins.

e-Mobile Planner - Calendar/Organizer
Cost: $19.95 I’d bet you’re very busy. Between your 10+ clients, meetings with clients, meetings with staff, your personal life and god knows what else you’ve got going on. It’s probably damn near impossible to keep track of everything.

Enter the e-Mobile Planner application by e-Mobile Software. With e-Mobile Planner you can plan out your schedule by day, week and month while configuring your entire agenda. The interface isn’t the simplest I’ve ever seen but let’s face it, this is an app for power users that want to get the most of their device and aren’t afraid to tackle a crowded user interface.

That’s not to say it’s hard to use because the functionality is quite streamlined and if you take the time to learn it, you’ll never miss another appointment.

XPRSS - Daily Reading and Article Management
Cost: Free We all have it, that list of 5 or so websites that we visit daily, religiously. Savoring every article as if it’ll reveal the secret of life we’ve been searching for, or at least the latest batch of Blackberry tips to show off to your friends. In any case, being on the road is no longer an excuse for not being up to date.

We all find ourselves with 5-10 minutes throughout our day which just happens to be the perfect amount of time to digest a random article.

XPRSS is one of the easiest and cleanest ways to get your new content regularly. It also lets you do some pretty slick feed organization and has built in social sharing options.

As everyday marketers we just can’t afford to fall behind much in the latest tech developments so do yourself and your clients a favor by getting your daily dose of info.

WordPress - Content Creation /Site Management Cost: Free

If you run a blog then you know there’s nothing worse than being struck with a brilliant post idea only to have no real way of recording the idea.

You’ll never have that problem again with the WordPress app (presuming you have your phone on you). As a marketer myself I’ve found that there’s always an article that needs writing on my to-do list. With WordPress in your pocket you’ll never have to worry about getting stuck away from your computer for a length of time since you can be productive from anywhere you have a signal.

UberSocial - Social Networking
Cost: Free Twitter is one of my favorite mobile apps on any device and Blackberries are no exception. Depending on your follow habits I suppose this app could either be great to have or a huge distraction.

If you’re like me, you only follow a careful selection of people that are mostly related to business. I follow the people behind my favorite websites (remember business related people) and a few more influential people that I know only share quality content worth reading.

This allows me to stay up to date with any essential reading going around, it also lets me keep a tab on clients. Of course Twitter isn’t only about consumption, it’s always worth while to throw out a tweet or two to remind people why they’re following you. Just remember friends, there’s such a thing as over doing it.

While some people will opt for the official Twitter app, UberSocial is the pick for savvy marketers that value enhanced functionality.

Black Track - Time Management and Recording
Cost: Lite - Free, Full - $14.99

Black Track isn’t cheap but if you’ve got a bunch of clients or even a handful of different projects, time management and productivity are going to be essential skills to have.

Black Track splices all your mobile phone activities and delivers up reports that provide insight into how you spend your time and on which projects, it also allows you to figure a productivity quotient and helps you make goals to improve on.

If you spend a lot of time making calls, messaging, browsing or networking using your Blackberry for clients then you’ll likely find this application hugely helpful. The good news is that there’s a Lite version of the app for you to try out and decide if you think it’s worth the premium price before shelling out any cash.

So there you have it and for those of you that are wondering, you can also tether your BlackBerry to your BlackBerry tablet PC, the Playbook, to run all of these apps as well. I’ve no doubt that there’s a ton of incredible apps that I skipped over with this list and you’d be absolutely correct in thinking I want to hear about them.

Sound off in the comments below and thanks for reading!

About the author:
Neil DuPaul is a Virtual Assistant for the Sugarrae SEO Consulting firm. You can can catch up and connect with him on Twitter.