Let’s start with the classic “ I am Canadian”
Well my name may not be Joe, but last week after living here in Kelowna for 21 years I took the Canadian Citizenship oath with 47 other New Canadians from over 24 different Countries. You can say that this truly was a real international social event.
A couple of the highlights of the event was to have Local dignitaries there for Federal, Provincial and Local representation. On behalf of Mayor Sharon Shepherd was Kelowna Social Media superstar @Kevin_Craig, who got up and talked about his own tale of coming from Ireland and what it meant to him to become a Canadian and what Canada has as to offer as a country. I think he also played up on his Irish accent, but I have to admit he spoke eloquently and with a great message for any Canadian New or born here.
Furthermore what was also a real treat was to fire up my Twitter account and to find an overwhelming amount of congratulations from people all over the world that I have met via Social Media circles over the last year.
It is this connection via Twitter or myspace or Linkedin or re-connections via Facebook of friends and new friends that have driven Social Media to the incredible mass it has become today
So in Canadian spirit I wanted to take the time today to list Ten Canadian people/icons/organizations that are using Social media for good or interesting things.
Canadians rocking Social
1. Justin Bieber – Hometown Stratford, Ontario
http://www.JUSTINBIEBERMUSIC.com
http://www.BIEBERFEVER.com
http://www.twitter.com/justinbieber 2,822,877 people following
http://www.youtube.com/justinbieber
http://www.youtube.com/kidrauhl
http://www.facebook.com/justinbieber 4,545,873 people following
http://www.myspace.com/justinbieber
http://ilike.com/artist/Justin+Bieber
I know the kid is not everyone’s favorite, and yes he has a massive team behind him. But he does do most of his own updates to his Social Media Streams (unlike say Britney Spears). He has become a Global Canadian Icon, and not just through his music but for his personality that comes across. And as you mentioned last week you can remove him entirely from your online experience with the Firefox Shaved Bieber application J
2. Stephen Harper
Yes folks your friendly Canadian Prime Minister is on Twitter, with a healthy following and does his own tweets, not many of them 249 at this time. But definitely demonstrates he gets the social part.
My favorite : US Ambassador Jacobson delivered 2 cases of beer to 24 Sussex today to settle the Olympic hockey bet. http://twitpic.com/19jcpr
Also using Youtube to fullest when he invited people to submit questions that he would answer live via a streaming feed. With an impressive 240,000 views
http://twitter.com/pmharper
http://www.youtube.com/talkcanada
Canadian Organizations
3. The Canadian Diabetes Association.
It was pointed out to all of the New 47 Canadians that a group of Canadians Banting, Best, Collip and Macloed from Toronto University in 1921 are responsible for saving countless numbers of lives through the discovery of Insulin.
The Canadian Diabetes Association continues the great work today and is using social Media platforms to their best to increase awareness and also fundraise.
http://twitter.com/DiabetesAssoc
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.youtube.comhttp://www.flickr.com
Please go check out their Flicker account to see photo’s that have been uploaded by people at events. You get a great feeling of Canadian patriotism and community caring.
4. David Suzuki (foundation)
As the host of CBC’s The Nature of Things and the author of more than 30 books, David Suzuki a Vancouverite mixing education with entertainment. The passionate Suzuki has earned a well-deserved reputation as an environmental guru for two generations of Canadians. Although the foundation runs much of his Social Media, his Facebook Page is a fairly personal page and worth supporting
http://twitter.com/DavidSuzukiFDN
http://www.facebook.com/DavidSuzuki (awesome profile picture of David)
5. CBC news
Well we talked about this last week that content is key to Social Media, And that perhaps the Main stream Media still has more to say than we think. And what better than Canadian News Anchor the CBC. Over the last year they have worked hard in keeping up. I think big Kudos and shout out to this incredible team for their coverage of the Olympics earlier this year. Streaming coverage of events was awesome, and they continue to do so with more and more shows.
http://twitter.com/cbcnews
http://www.facebook.com/thecbc
http://www.youtube.com/user/CBCtv
Canadian businesses
Which companies across Canada are using twitter
6. Plentyoffish.com
Yes a weird one you may say to this list, but Markus Frind, CEO and Founder of PlentyofFish Media Inc., graduated in 1999 from British Columbia Institute of Technology with a diploma in Computer Systems Technology. PlentyofFish is a free online dating site, popular primarily in Canada, the UK, Australia and the United States. With 17,000,000 registered users. With over 9,000 people claiming they met and later got married off of Plentyoffish. Last Year 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year claim they met via social media
7. Club Penguine.com
Founded by Canadians Lance Priebe and Lane Merrifield in 2005, Club Penguin is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) aimed at kids aged 6 to 14 that uses avatars, chat and minigames. The site grew very rapidly gaining 1.4 million users in the first 5 months and had reached 12 million users by 2007 when is was bought by Disney for $700 million. Club Penguin is intended to provide kids with a safe, fun Social Media alternative to other sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The site has been very well received and heralded for it’s child safety features.
8. lululemon athletica
Founded in Vancouver BC in 1998, the first lululemon shared its retail space with a yoga studio. They have been growing ever since their technical yoga clothes and apparel is now at over 100 stores across Canada, the U.S., Australia and Hong Kong.
http://twitter.com/lululemon
http://www.facebook.com/lululemon
Social Media Canadians
9. Sharon Hayes
http://www.twitter.com/SharonHayes listed now as no 305 on Twitter is the Top Canadian Female, one of the first people to get out there and discover the power of Social Media for Businesses. Sharon runs an incredibly successful b2b marketing services. She understands the concept that social media shouldn’t be taken in isolation. That it is about strategy and implementation of marketing objectives through social media, community development, e-mail marketing and domain names. If you are not following her, which is fairly unlikely I suggest you do.
10. Mitch Joel
http://www.twitter.com/mitchjoel Marketing Magazine dubbed him the “Rock Star of Digital Marketing” and called him, “one of North America’s leading digital visionaries.” In 2008, Mitch was named Canada’s Most Influential Male in Social Media, one of the top 100 online marketers in the world, and was awarded the highly-prestigious Canada’s Top 40 Under 40
Again if you are using Social Media as a way to promote your business and are not following him, I suggest you do.
http://www.twistimage.com/about-mitch/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchjoel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Joel