Social Media Panel: Discussing the federal election 140 characters at a time

In the first federal election to see extensive use of social media by candidates and political parties, The Vancouver Sun‘s Social Media Panel will examine the campaign trail through a digital lens: examining each party’s use of social networks, YouTube and websites, to determine how their messages are disseminated, and received, online. Every few days, our hand-picked panel of some of Vancouver’s brightest social media enthusiasts will meet up to discuss the chatter emerging from each campaign, and we hope our readers will also contribute to the discussion, using the hashtag #VanSunElxn.

I’m Brad Frenette, Vancouver Sun’s Social Media and Community Newsroom Digital Editor, and I’ll be moderating the discussion here.

Our panel includes:

Alexandra Samuel – Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University, Director of the Social + Interactive Media Centre at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, the co-founder of Social Signal, blogger for Oprah.com and the Harvard Business Review. (www.alexandrasamuel.com) @awsamuel

April Smith – co-founder AHA Media, a downtown eastside advocate, citizen journalist, speaker on social issues and featured in Glowing Hearts, a documentary about social media creating social change. (www.ahamedia.ca) @aprilfilms

Cathy Browne – social media/communications and public relations specialist, legally blind and outspoken advocate on disability issues. (www.cathybrowne.com)@cathybrowne

Darren Barefoot: marketer, writer and technologist, co-founder of Capulet Communications and co-author of Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook. (www.darrenbarefoot.com) @dbarefoot

Evan Leeson – owner of Catalyst Internet, a new media technology company, creator of the Vote for Environment campaign during the 2008 federal election. (http://www.catalystinternet.ca) @ecstaticist

Kemp Edmonds – Coordinator, Hootsuite University, instructor at BC Institute of Technology, vice-president Social Media Club Vancouver (www.kempedmonds.com)@kempedmonds

Gillian Shaw – Vancouver Sun’s Digital Life writer. You can find her on Twitter @gillianshaw.

Pete Quily – Adult ADD coach, longtime political watcher and author of an analysis on the Obama/McCain social media campaigns (www.addcoach4u.com) @petequily

Raul Pacheco-Vega – PhD. In resource management and environmental studies, teaches at the University of BC’s department of political science, researcher and consultant in environmental politics and policy, Vancouver lifestyle blogger. (http://www.raulpacheco.org) @raulpacheco

Shane Gibson – social media and sales performance speaker, who has written or co-authored several books including Sociable! How Social Media is Turning Sales and Marketing Upside Down; Closing Bigger the Field Guide to Closing Bigger Deals and Guerrilla Social Media Marketing. (www.closingbigger.net) @shanegibson

Sophia Cheng - Communications and PR Professional. Freelance publicist at Sophia Cheng PR, Communications Officer at Langara College and Consultant at Blank Communications.  @chengsophia