Gist.

We are excited to announce a new version of Gist for BlackBerry (GfBB) is available in App World! In this version we’ve added some cool new features to help you manage and grow your network even better than before.

Invite to BlackBerry Messenger
You can now invite others to connect with you on BlackBerry Messenger within GfBB. As you already know, it’s easy to “Get the Gist” of a contact from the email, calendar or contacts app on your BlackBerry device. Simply, select the “Get the Gist” option from the BlackBerry menu key in any of these apps and the Gist app opens displaying profile information, social updates and any notes you’ve added related to your contact(s). On the profile tab, you will see we’ve added a new option to “Invite to BBM” (assuming you aren’t already connected). Once selected you will be prompted to send an invitation email to the contact.

Click invite to BBM (above) to send the email displayed below.

To maintain the security and privacy of other users, we give the other user the option to connect, but assuming they do, you will be real-time messaging with them in seconds.

Export Gist contacts to BlackBerry Contacts App
Many of you have requested export capabilities from GfBB to your BlackBerry Contacts App. We are happy to let you know that this is now possible. From the contact profile tab in Gist, scroll to the bottom and select “Send to BlackBerry Contacts”.

We know many of our users have a large network and therefore many contacts in their Gist account. Our founder, for example, has over 70,000 contacts in his Gist account. We suggest using this new feature to export the people you contact or look-up on a regular basis and leave the rest in Gist. With the rich Gist search you can quickly and easily find contact information as you need it on Gist, versus exporting all of them to your device.

Add and Delete Contacts
Until now users have had to log into gist.com on the web to manually add or delete contacts in their Gist account. You can now do this from your BlackBerry device! Open the Gist contacts list view, select the BlackBerry menu key and choose either add or delete contact.

We hope you enjoy these new features. This is another step in our mission to bring the powerful features of Gist to the Blackberry audience.  To see more of our work, check out the recent work on the Playbook Contacts app and stay tuned as we bring even more power to Blackberry 10.

These days, if you want to attract top talent to your company, you’ve got to offer something that’s “above and beyond” compared to traditional office settings.  You can blame this new way of doing business on Google (who is widely recognized as being one of the first major companies to offer such perks as flexible workstations, onsite catering and other amenities), or you can get with the times and transform your own office into the cutting edge workplace your employees desire!

Here’s how to go about making the leap from traditional office to engaging, invigorating workplace:

Read More ››

While we at Gist are obviously big fans of the Playbook 2.0 native Contacts app, we do also recognize that a substantial percentage of users out there rely on Google Contacts and other Google services to power their business networking.

And although we certainly recommend installing the Gist app for Gmail in order to build the power of a social CRM system into your Google email and contact management system, there are a few other tips and tricks you’ll want to follow to make the standalone Google Contacts program work better.

Here’s what you need to know:

Read More ››

There’s a lot going around the web right now about what a failure Google+ has been since its launch almost a year ago.  Industry insiders are falling all over themselves to decry the web giant’s platform as “irrelevant” or “unwanted” – even Google employees aren’t sold on the concept, as demonstrated by one engineer’s mistakenly-released statement that read, “The Google+ platform is a pathetic afterthought.”

Read More ››

This isn’t 1995 – keeping your valuable business contact information stuck inside single a Rolodex or Excel spreadsheet (or even within the confines of your desktop email management program) simply won’t cut it anymore!

As modern business practices change, so must the ways we manage information.  And when it comes to quickly and efficiently capturing business contact information, this new workstyle requires multiple solutions that allow you to reference client and prospect data using a wide variety of tools in a wide variety of situations.

Read More ››

As far as technological advancements go, it’s pretty hard to beat the internet and the myriad forms of digital communication it’s enabled.  What once would have taken days spent passing information via phone and physical mail can now be accomplished in minutes, allowing businesses to grow more quickly and leverage more assets from a wider variety of sources.

Unfortunately, while there’s no doubt that email can be powerful, it can also get out of hand.  The ease with which email messages can be sent often results in more messages – not necessarily more effective communication.

Read More ››

In an ideal world, we’d all have access to unlimited capital, along with a team of mentors that recognized our true genius and supported our every decision.

But let’s face it – we’re startup entrepreneurs!  Getting things done on a budget isn’t just smart financial planning; it’s the only way to operate in an environment that forces you to be a lean, mean, business-doing machine.

Really, investing wisely in your business can make the difference between a company that survives its early growth periods and one that burns itself out before reaching its true potential.  So read on for more tips on how to make the smart financial decisions needed to lead your business to success:

Read More ››

Google’s Chrome browser isn’t just the fastest web browsing option on the market today – with a few tweaks and add-ons, you can easily turn this program into a productivity machine!

Here’s how to customize this popular web browser to help you to complete business tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible…

Read More ››

For busy professionals, the idea of hiring a virtual assistant (VA) can seem like a godsend.  Not only can you use this creative type of hiring to eliminate busy work from your day, the global nature of today’s virtual workforce means that you could hire a VA who’s able to work on your projects while you sleep – and for significantly less money than what you’d pay a local employee!

Read More ››

Ever wonder what happens to a startup after it’s acquired? Will the team continue to build and support the product, or will it be shut down? Will it be successfully integrated into another product the acquiring company built? Will the employees and founders stay on board?

Last year, 37signals wrote a blog post about Yahoo acquisitions. The post talked about how companies “get bogged down trying to overcome integration obstacles, endless meetings, and stifling bureaucracy. The products slow down or stop moving forward entirely.”

Read More ››