5 Questions...with Dave Fleet

I first met Dave at a Third Tuesday Toronto event. His name has come up a few times of "must watch" people within the Toronto social media community. In fact, Saul Colt of Thoora.com has even called Dave's blog a must read. Dave Fleet is an account director and head of the Social Media Practice at Thornley Fallis Communications – a full-service hybrid communications consultancy with offices in Toronto and Ottawa. He also blogs on PR and social media at http://davefleet.com, and is a co-organizer of PodCamp Toronto. If you're in Toronto over the next week make sure to introduce yourself to him at the next Third Tuesday Toronto event or at PodCamp Toronto.   

What motivates you to do what you do on a daily basis?

Four things:

1. The amazing people I work with, from whom I learn a huge amount every day

2. Interesting and varied clients, and the promise that no one day will be the same as the next

3. Continuously learning, whether from colleagues, clients or external sources

4. Getting to explore and be challenged by things I find fascinating all day as part of my job

Do you have any success start-up tips for people wanting to create a name for themselves in your industry?

Get out there. Toronto has an amazing scene for people looking to get into public relations and social media. There’s an event almost every day – in fact, PodCamp Toronto is this coming weekend (Feb 20-21). Some of our industry’s thought leaders are in this area, so these events are a great place to learn and connect with others in the same field. Other cities like Vancouver, Montreal, Halifax, London and Calgary have great scenes too.

In your opinion why is Toronto a hotbed for cool tech start-ups?

I’d put it down to a matching hotbed of talent. There’s a great concentration of tech-focused people in Toronto, supported by a great scene that nurtures and supports start-ups.

What's your favourite tech toy and social media site and why?

Twitter has to be my primary social media site of choice thanks to the connections I’ve made on there. However, I’m watching the development of Foursquare with great interest. It’s in early days and it’s not there yet, but there’s a lot of potential there if Foursquare develops in the right way and sustains its growth over the next year or so.

From a Canadian perspective, I’m a big supporter of Radian6 – a social media monitoring company. They’ve maintained fast growth of both their company and their product over the last few years, and they’ve got some great stuff coming down the pipe in 2010. Not only that, but they’re very responsive to customer feedback, which makes a big difference. The folks at PostRank do a great job, too.

Who would you say is one of Toronto's social media/tech stars and why?

I’m a big fan of Danny Brown (dannybrown.me). He’s a smart thinker in PR and social media, and has done great things over the last year with his 12for12k charity fundraising project. Not only that, but he’s a nice guy to boot.