In today’s competitive high tech market, it is not an easy task to predict the winners. As the New Year rolls around, before making New Year’s resolutions, one must reflect on the past year and learn from others successes and failures. Looking back at 2009, the loudest headliners in the technology sector were in the social media scene.

Twitter

With the mainstream embrace of social media sites such as Twitter, third party applications assisting individuals and businesses reach and interact with their target audience, were among the most talked about in the technology scene here in Vancouver.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite, developed by Invoke, a local Interactive Agency, was among the newsmakers in 2009. Their PC and iPhone clients allow the user to manage multiple accounts, schedule tweets and updates, and to more efficiently utilize the power of social media and networking sites, such as Twitter and LinkedIn.  Among their accomplishments were winning Canadian New Media Awards and being selected as the official Twitter client by the White House.

Four Square

Foursquare, a location-based mobile game, was launched by 6S Marketing in early September and became an overnight success among the online community in Vancouver. 

Although the application is not developed locally and was launched without seeded content, local businesses were quick to add their locations and set-up special promotions to attract and reward Foursquare users.

Vancouverites are quite active on social media sites and were quick to start taking advantage of this location-based application, to explore different venues in the city, and share that information with friends and colleagues.

Lessons that can be learned from success

Hootsuite and Foursquare during the last year are numerous, but innovation, focus, and timing are the most important ones.

As cliché as `thinking outside the box` may sound, both of these headliners used that mentality to their advantage.

In today’s crowded high-tech market, focus and timing are essential keys to success of any product. Had it not been for the mainstream embrace of social media sites such as Twitter, third party applications wouldn’t have made as loud of a noise as they did in 2009!

Sanaz Jahanbakhsh

With a degree in Electronics Engineering from SFU, Sanaz Jahanbakhsh is passionate about the local high technology scene in Vancouver. To satisfy her creative side, she is freelancing as a technical writer and enjoys writing on a variety of topics from fashion to travel. Among her other passions are encouraging young women to explore careers in the technology sector.

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