Nordica Photography
| April 1, 2010
Twitter: @ChrisBreikss, @JohnBlown, @6S_Marketing – 12,262 combined followers
Web: 6smarketing.com
Chris and John founded 6S in 2000. Since then, the company has grown into one of the biggest social media and web marketing firms in Canada. Breikss and Blown have worked on over 500 projects and are one of the main employers in Vancouver's online marketing space. Needless to say, they are integral to the future of innovation in Vancouver social media.
A: The next online innovation is hyper-local targeted messaging and advertising for businesses to attract new customers across a multitude of platforms. Gone are the days of blanket advertising to the masses to try and reach a small percentage of the population.
B.C. is a hub for these technologies, boasting many experts in online advertising and social media, but B.C. businesses and Canadian companies as a whole need to catch up; they are not adopting new technologies at the same rate as their U.S. counterparts and are in fact 12 to 18 months behind the Americans.
Twitter: @SJagger & @ShaneGibson – 15,270 combined followers Web: stephenjagger.com & closingbigger.net
You're likely familiar with the expression: "He wrote the book on it"? Well, when it comes to Social Media, these guys actually did. Their book, Sociable, is a must-read for any person or business wanting the facts about how to build a monster with social media as your base.
Twitter: @Chuck_Mac & @PourHouse_Van – 15,310 combined followers
Web: PourHouseVancouver.com
Chuck McIntosh is an entrepreneur, restaurateur, bartender, marketing geek, adventure junkie, and beverage chap (bottleslinger.com). Chris Irving is the chef at Pourhouse. Together they are elevating Pourhouse into one of Canada's best places to eat and hammer back drinks. Social media is a key to their marketing formula, and if there is an example to be followed in the hospitality industry on how to effectively use web-marketing, Pourhouse is it.
Twitter: @GillianShaw – 3,896 Followers
Web: VancouverSun.com/DigitalLife
As the Digital Life writer for the Vancouver Sun, Gillian Shaw is, in her own words, "living the digital life." Supported by the reach of the Vancouver Sun and its digital section, Gillian's wisdom within social media and digital innovation is increasingly valued in this province.
A: British Columbia is well poised to play a pivotal role in an online world where "anywhere, anytime" computing will mean much more than simply being able to access the Internet. Mobile computing will be the norm and the barriers to services and applications that exist today will disappear. We don't have to look any further than the arrival the iPad to see that the shift in how we communicate and network, how we consume our media and how we use technology to carry out everyday tasks is accelerating. B.C. talent is at the forefront of those changes.
Twitter: @MauraR & @DannyRobinson – 2,626 Combined Followers Web: BootupLabs.com
Maura wears many hats, working with with Strutta.com, Bootup Entrepreneurial Society and Bootup Labs, to name a few. Those companies aren’t chopped liver, and she’s at the heart of them all. If innovation in social media is going to occur in Vancouver, Maura is surely poised to be a catalyst. Add to the mix her partner in crime, Danny, and you've got one formidable duo. Danny wears the hat as the Managing Director at Bootup Labs and the founder of Strutta, Peerflix, and Spinway. Quite the combo!
Twitter: @kk — 7,916 Followers Web: KrisKrug.com Where to begin with this fella? Photographer (Static Photography), educator (Vancouver Film School), board member (W2 Media Arts), entrepreneur (Bryght) and on and on and on (seriously, on and on). If it has to do with the Internet, he's got it covered. And he's a swell guy.
A: "The things we fear most in organizations – fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances – are the primary sources of creativity." – Margaret J. Wheatley
There is an emergent and thriving creative class here in Vancouver that I believe are well positioned to lead the way into the future in lots of important industries including technology, art and media.
Twitter: @miss604 & @johnbollwitt – 12,777 Total Followers Web: Miss604.com & johnbollwitt.com Google any Vancouver related topic and you’re going to find Miss604.com. Blog turned-small-Vancouver-empire, if there’s something you need / should know about Vancouver, you’ll find it on their site. The Bollwitts also run sixty4media, and have just about as much Google-juice between them as one couple could ever want.
A: It's hard to predict the "next big thing." The current trend is quick, mobile, and geo-location. However, no one could predict this. It was just a few years ago that meeting people "from the internet" was taboo and now telling strangers where you are and what you're doing all day via social networks is the norm. Some of the most-used social media tools started off as ideas that most people thought were crazy. Online innovations grow organically. The most successful didn't start out with millions of dollars (and still don't have millions) but they just had grassroots users who boosted the platforms from the ground up. Many of these concepts came from, and continue to stem from, the minds of B.C.-based innovators.
Twitter: @ColleenCoplick – 5,203 Followers Web: MissManifesto.com Think Sex and the City with an even sexier edge and you’ve got Colleen Coplick’s writing genre. With a cult-like following of (mostly) women taking in her every post, Colleen has become the ‘anit-Cosmo’ and has turned straight-forward and blunt blogging into a brilliant web-based business. When she blogs, people are reading.
A : OK! Online innovation will include location based apps, and 2010 is the year of foursquare. The battle for supremacy between 4Sq & Gowalla started at SxSWi and hasn't ended yet. Some businesses in BC will be prepared to become part of it, but so many I've spoken to - both business owners and their PR people - just don't "get" social media overall. There's so much opportunity and so little willingness to take the leap.
Twitter: @dbarefoot – 3,657 Followers Web: darrenbarefoot.com
Write a few books, found a few businesses, become the go-to person for anything web-related, become a marketing executive for a multi-million dollar company and create a bunch of profitable websites - and then you can call yourself Darren Barefoot. Simply put, Barefoot is one of the most innovative thinkers in Vancouver’s web community and whatever will happen next in the province, it’s a safe bet he’ll be involved.
A: Personalization will become increasingly important in the next few years online. Now that we've got all this data and these connections online, how do we manage it? How do we discover the information that's important to us – whether it's about a company's finances or a friend's new baby? We need new tools, and new filters on existing channels, to reap the benefits of all our data "in the cloud." Given B.C.'s recent history of producing important, influential web-based companies, I think the province is well-positioned to respond to this emerging need.
Twitter: @hummingbird604 – 4,236 Followers Web: HummingBird604.com
Raul Pacheco is an educator, researcher and consultant on water governance, environmental policy and sustainability at the University of British Columbia. If there’s a social media event happening, you're likely to see him there, and most of the time as the organizer. Pacheco is at the heart of Vancouver’s social media scene and combines an incredible academic background with a passion for humanitarian work and the environment. And oh yeah: he was also a professional model back in the day!
A: My answer has to come from a place where I combine my two passions: social media and public policy/environmental policy. I think B.C. is incredibly well-positioned to be an experiment and success in social media applications for sustainability and for public service delivery. You have the case now of TransLink officials that are tweeting, and beyond that, the B.C. Government is asking for public input through a blog. I think we now see lots of public policy and environmental policy applications, and they'll have to become part of our day-to-day lives.
Twitter: @GranvilleMag – 5,592 Followers Web: GranvilleOnline.ca
Granville magazine does many amazing things, including promoting sustainability and banging out some awesome Tweets. Not many magazines have had such a success in using social media to move their message, but Granville is taking it to the next level and is unquestionably a local leader. At the heart of if all is Hilary Henegar, who is the cog in Granville’s wheel.
A : What I see happening is a greater interest to use social media as a force of good and as a means for building one's community. With proven events such as Twestival, where donations are raised for important causes through ticket sales to offline parties, Twitter and Facebook have shown that tremendous momentum can be created for a single cause – and without a lot of overhead costs. B.C. is certainly well positioned to lead the world in such efforts, with a battery of vigorous social media practitioners and app developers who also happen to be using these tools already for spreading awareness about issues such as climate change, social justice, affordable housing, arts funding, clean water and animal welfare. It's cool to see how these innovators are empowering business to support causes near and dear to customers' hearts through outreach campaigns and partnerships.
Twitter: @AlexLeeBehan, @JordanBehan – 3,882 Total Followers Web: AlexLeePR.com, JordanBehan.com
The Behans are unofficially the official family of the Internet in Vancouver. Wherever you go in the Social Media Sphere, one of the Behans are likely to be there. They’re all wickedly clever, they all use the internet like fiends, and – this is what tops it off – they’re all pretty darn good looking. Jordan is the Godfather of Strutta in Gastown and, amongst his many media ventures, is behind the very popular Couch Beers series. Alex, his wife, is a PR guru in Vancouver representing an impressive list of clients. And the tie that binds? Incredible social media usage.
A: Jordan – I am lucky that I get to spend every day at the centre of online innovation, among the companies that are helping establish Vancouver as a renowned hub of tech activity. Both locally and abroad, we're seeing a rise in popularity of "location aware" technologies and games. As early adopters of new technology, our family is always excited to try fun and useful new ways of staying connected online, especially when those tools are created right here in our city.
Twitter: @MonicaHamburg – 2,831 Followers Web: YourDoseOfLunacy.com
Let’s say something you may not know about this ferociously intelligent ball of smarts: she has an incredible reach into Vancouver’s online community and is certainly in the mix when it comes to the future of Social Media innovation in the city. She’s a speaker, a writer, and has earned her title of Social Media Evangelist.
A: I'm hoping for something that will seamlessly (keyword: seamlessly) aggregate everything we are doing on social sites, and in a visually appealing way. Will it be developed in B.C.? Hopefully! Our tech scene is hopping and we have some brilliant minds here.
Twitter: @AmuseConsulting – 1,992 Followers Web: AmuseConsulting.ca
Marc Smith runs Amuse Consulting, an event planning company. While event planning may not be trendsetting in itself, Amuse's use of social media certainly is. Armed with a keen awareness of the power of Twitter, Amuse has built a unique business strategy within its industry, and executes it while promoting excellent causes along the way: Amuse, to cite just one example, is one of the planners behind the mega-fundraiser know as Twestival.
A: I think it has already started, with ".tel" as your one stop place for your contact info, social networking links, website, blogs, favs, geotracking games etc. B.C. is already leading the field with the accomplishments of companies like Quick Mobile, Webnames, and 6S Marketing.
Nordica are Vancouver wedding photographers, social media photographers and Vancouver headshot photographers who, although based in Vancouver, take projects worldwide.
Nordica (E-mail) Cole (E-mail | Blog), Jakob (E-mail | Blog)