As society and technology advance, communication becomes more and more web based and instantaneous. Take, for instance, a sale on fireplaces in Oakville. Ten years ago you might have heard about it over the radio or in the newspaper a week before it started. Five years ago you would have gotten a promotional email a few days before the sale. Today, word of the sale goes out over social media a mere day or even just a few hours before the sale. People in the twenty first century are more media savvy than ever, and nowhere is this more true than right here in Vancouver, British Columbia.

City dwellers have naturally adopted social media much more quickly than people with more rural or suburban lifestyles. This is because people are packed so tightly in cities that naturally their house plans have a bearing on everyone around them. By sharing their plans over social media, they can tell everyone in one big sweep and even get their feedback without having to lift a finger. Vancouverites may have more physical space available to them than people in other cities, like New York City or even Toronto, but they are among the most web savvy of city dwellers.

The belt of technology based businesses that has spread up the west coast of North America is largely responsible for this mentality. What started in California's Silicon Valley spread rapidly to Seattle and across the border into Canada, where technology based business owners found plenty of young, university educated, computer literate employees to help them promote Toronto MLS homes over the web. The more technology based businesses move into town, the more influence technology has over the city and the more advanced its population becomes.

The youngest people are always the ones who adopt new technology first, which is another reason web 2.0 businesses are so happy in Vancouver - it has a very young population. Therefore, most of the content you'll see in web 2.0 and social media is entertainment and retail sales related. Other fields without so much popularity among youth, such as finance or insurance or wholesaling, have significantly less web presence. You're far more likely to see ads for mobile phones and movies on Facebook than for Toronto CGA accountants or even automobile repair.

Web 2.0 is eye catching, immediate, interconnected, and brief. It takes a special talent to create social media content that will rise to the surface of the frothing sea of businesses competing for customers' attention. Having an exciting product (for instance an mp3 player instead of commodity ETFs), helps a lot. Another thing that helps a lot is knowledge. Knowledge of your audience. Knowledge of your media. Knowledge of your product. Knowledge of the tenets, tricks, and practices of the trade. That's where we at Van2 come in. We can help you find success in your web 2.0 ventures by familiarizing you with social media and how it can work for you. Use the nav bar at the top of the page to get started with your research.

Some businesses we know