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A 28-year-old Langley man has been named in BC Business magazine’s 30 Under 30 award for his work building a company that started as a side project while he was a teenage lifeguard.<\/p>\n
Keenan Beavis runs Longhouse Media, a digital marketing company based in his hometown.<\/p>\n
As a child, he attended Blacklock and Murrayville Elementary, then HD Stafford and Langley Secondary. He was a lifeguard at the Al Anderson Memorial Pool when he was in college.<\/p>\n
“I’ve stayed in Langley ever since,” he said.<\/p>\n
The company goes back to its roots when I was a kid who was fascinated with YouTube.<\/p>\n
Beavis had a YouTube channel in high school, and he said many of the videos he posted were typical and somewhat embarrassing things: lip-syncing, doing parody songs, jumping on a trampoline.<\/p>\n
But Beavis researched how some YouTube videos got a lot of views, while others only got a few.<\/p>\n
“I had a lot of time on my hands, and I spent all that time figuring out YouTube’s search algorithm,” he said.<\/p>\n
He put it to work and soon his videos of acrobatics on the trampoline had more views than those of Olympic-level gymnasts.<\/p>\n
To make more money, he sold some merchandise, including t-shirts, and that led to another business: selling minimalist design t-shirts for various fandoms, including Pokemon and Game of Thrones.<\/p>\n
From selling the t-shirts, he learned more about search engine optimization (SEO), the tactics to make sure people searching for something like “Pokemon t-shirt” can find your design, not the dozens or hundreds more available online.<\/p>\n
With all that experience getting attention online, Beavis’ first campaign wasn’t someone he was looking for as a client. He was a student at a local jiu-jitsu school with a great teacher, but attendance dropped. Beavis helped the school with an online campaign and the number of students doubled.<\/p>\n
He just wanted more people to deliver, but then Beavis said he realized he could do digital marketing as a service.<\/p>\n
He founded a company, which grew to become Longhouse Media, named after his M\u00e9tis heritage. It helps businesses to increase their sales through online marketing.<\/p>\n
Based in Murrayville, Beavis said there are advantages to starting a digital media business in Langley.<\/p>\n
“It’s harder for people to live in Vancouver,” he notes, not to mention the lower cost of office space.<\/p>\n
And with customers coming from all over North America, a significant portion of their business lately is with Texas companies, no matter where a company like yours is located.<\/p>\n
“There’s really no geographic bottleneck where we can grow,” Beavis said.<\/p>\n
The company will grow slowly but steadily, Beavis said, as it is looking to make one or two more hires in the near future.<\/p>\n
That’s something being here also makes easier, with graduates from schools like UFV and Kwantlen Polytechnic nearby.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love growing up around Langley,\u201d Beavis said.<\/p>\n
READ ALSO: Langley townhouses are top building accolades<\/strong><\/p>\n READ ALSO: Langley startup finds green in eco-friendly adult diapers<\/strong><\/p>\n Got a story tip? Email: matthew.claxton@langleyadvancetimes.com like us Facebook<\/a> and follow us Twitter<\/a>. <\/strong><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBusiness Langley<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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