This week a colleague passed along this beautiful video of Vancouver, developed in partnership with the Vancouver Film School. The goal of this campaign is to highlight how the city has been the hub for many technological advances, start-ups, and innovative entrepreneurs over the years.

“The goal is to put our city on the map as the technology hub that we actually have been for quite some time, by drawing together stories of products and technologies people know about and that have daily impact in a visually compelling way,” said Ian Bell of AppSocial.

Some social media companies featured in the video include Flickr and the HootSuite Twitter client.

If not for the welcoming and nurturing local tech community in which we immersed ourselves back in 2006, we would have not been able to grow our business the way we have. The success stories in this video are inspirational and a great reminder that business in Vancouver is looking toward the future, while building upon the past.

Expanding on my Twitter for Business post from last fall, I was giving the opportunity to speak for the IABC’s local chapter this afternoon. It was great to meet so many professionals who have their company’s best-interest in mind, including many who are on Twitter but are still unsure who to use it. My talk was a general overview of this tool and how you can get your company started — using Twitter for communications, networking, customer service, and even support.

There’s much more to be said but I feel this is a good starting point for a business – find the tools, create a complete profile, update, engage, take conversions offline, and be part of the discussion about your company or product that is more than likely already taking place online.

There were many questions at today’s talk and should you have any regarding this online version, please feel free to leave a comment.

Continuing in their series of explaining all things new media and Web 2.0, the great folks at CommonCraft have released “Social Media in Plain English“. You can view the video below and help yourself understand what social media is all about. Better yet, use this to help yourself explain what social media is to those who might not be in tune with what social media means.

If you would like to see some of the other creations from CommonCraft, please visit their website.