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12 Interactive Marketing Resolutions for the New Year

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

by Chris Remington

Here are 12 things to think about as you take your interactive marketing to the next level in 2010:

Have a plan – Yes, there are many tentacles to the interactive marketing beast, but with a well-crafted strategic plan it can be tamed. Start small if you must, but the important thing is to have a plan, execute it, and refine it over time.

Analytics are your friend – WebTrends, Omniture or Google Analytics; no matter which one you use (you do have analytics on your site, don’t you?!) take time to mine for the nuggets of information they offer about your site, your customers and how they consume your interactive content. Use this to power your plan (see H above).

Pretend you are your customer – You are too close to your product(s) and your industry. Think like your customer would think. Knowing what they would call your product(s), how they would search for it on a search engine, and where they gather online to converse about it, will help you massage and finesse your web content so it speaks to them in their language.

Performance indicators are key – What are the top two or three goals of your website and interactive marketing strategy? Customer engagement? Brand awareness? eCommerce transactions? Lead generation? Pick your goals, ensure you can monitor and track them, tailor content to achieve them, and track the effectiveness of your actions.

You can do it – While others would argue the fact, interactive marketing is not rocket science. It is still about the 4 P’s from Marketing 101 – product, place, price and promotion. Smart online marketing is no different than smart offline marketing. Research, plan, execute, monitor, refine. Repeat. Know the limitations and aspirations of your internal team as they relate to your interactive marketing efforts. Empower them. Empower yourself. You and your team know your strategy best. Go for it. Hire outside help when (if) needed.

Not doing anything still has a cost – Yes, the website you built and paid for in 2003 still functions, but does it still work? A website with old or static content and a tired look sends a message that you are complacent, not innovative, and don’t care to engage your customers. Can you really afford to NOT spend money on your interactive strategy?

Embrace change – See N above. Research to see if your customers (and your internal team) have an appetite for consuming your web content in video form, on mobile devices or via Social Media. Don’t change for change sake, but if your customers and industry are ‘going there’ you should too. With a plan, of course (see H above).

Web-enable content – See E above. Your website can likely streamline workflows and improve customer service with only minor enhancements. Would product installation videos on your site reduce customer service calls? Would a password protected media room enable your customers, dealers or distributors to download their own sell sheets, logos or ad templates? If so, web-enable this content and free up your marketing support team to pursue more important projects.

YouTube? Twitter? Facebook? – Social Media is all the rage. Make sure you are ready to embrace it. If a goal of your Social Media presence is to drive traffic to your website, ensure the site is rock-solid first. If the answers are yes when you ask yourself if your website content is compelling, if it is up-to-date, if it is user-friendly, and if there is no doubt about the site’s call(s) to action, they you are ready to develop a Social Media strategy. Think of your website as the bull’s-eye of a target – only when the bull’s-eye is rock-solid should you venture to the next ring of Social Media.

Engage your audience – Your customers are talking about you online. How good of a job does your site do to encourage and facilitate that conversation? Do you know where else these conversations are occurring online? If not, learn. If so, what value are you bringing? Recognize and thank those who talk positively about you. Reach out to the naysayers and turn their lemons into lemonade. You will be viewed as someone who cares and ‘gets’ the new transparent world where your customers, not you, are in control of your brand.

Authority, Relevance, Popularity – These are three things that search engines consider when ranking your site. Look at your website content and interactive strategy through these lenses and if what you are doing shows search engines (and the consumers who use them) that you are an authority, your content is on the mark and others find it useful, you are on your way to better rankings and more traffic. If your interactive marketing efforts aren’t enhancing your authority, relevant, or positioning you as a popular player in your space, don’t do them.

ROI – The great thing about interactive marketing is it is quantifiable and measureable. Return on investment is easy to analyze. Assign action items to your interactive marketing strategy like obtaining more leads, increasing eCommerce transactions or reducing customer service calls. Measure, adjust and measure again. Repeat. The important thing is to have a plan, make the investment (see N above) and monitor the effectiveness.

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Chris Remington is an account executive for Trivera Interactive. Trivera specializes on Online Brand Management for companies and organization that understand and appreciate the power of the Internet and Social Media to re-inforce their brand. In addition to helping Trivera clients, Chris also speaks at local business events, and teaches at the University of Phoenix.

Tags: Brand Re-enforcement, Chris Remington, Milwaukee, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Web design, web development, Web site design, Web site development
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Out with Old, In with the New

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

It’s been said “Don’t look back, unless that’s where you’re headed.” But I hope you’ll accept my apology as we take a look at the adventure that was 2009 one last time before we launch into an exciting new year.

One year ago, my wife/business partner predicted that something big was going to happen this year. We had no idea at the time, but she was definitely right.

A big story of the year was the economy. As budgets were cut and some companies even went out of business, Trivera committed to keeping our staff intact, a move that enabled us to superserve existing clients, but also helped us gain the confidence of a large list of new ones. New to our staff this year was a great addition: account manager Chris Remington, who has also added “Trivera blogger” to his duties with a great end of year contribution.

Major new Web projects for existing clients Mitchell Airport, Usinger’s, Halquist Stone, Zach Builders and Nuemann Development worked their way through our pipeline this year. We also worked with long time partner ClearVerve Marketing to implement a re-design of their site. Frank Mayer and Associates, Mustela USA and ATL continued aggressive Search Engine Optimization programs with us.

But new clients represented the lion’s share of our traditional Web business in 2009. Among the clients who were able to experience the joy of working with Trivera for the first time: Frabill Manufacturing, Strattec Security, Sellars, Vaportek, US Peacekeeper Products, Renewable Energy Solutions, Chemrite Copac, Breckenridge Landscape, SoHoBizTube, Amici’s Restaurant, JailHouse Restaurant, Deductive Energy, Studio 5-D, Western Racket and Fitness, Fresh Coast Partners, and South Shore Dentists.

We also began a great partnership with Chicago agency TargetCom, which resulted in projects for US Cellular and Kellogg School of Management.

But the huge story of the year was the emergence of Social Media as a powerful tool in brand strategies. Our Social Media University – Milwaukee event in July drew nearly 400 people to the Italian Community Center for a day of hands-on learning. As a result of that event, Trivera has helped dozens of businesses create their Social Media program, and several of them have contracted us for more significant ongoing SM implementation. Those include Mitchell Airport and two major political campaigns. The event, our ongoing work and a dozen speaking engagements by Trivera staffers has launched Trivera into the media spotlight as an authority on Web 2.0. And the power of Social Media manifested itself in a big way by creating dozens of new collaborative partnerships with other businesses in our space.

As you can see, 2009 has been a year worth looking back at. But as we wrap up a solid year, we look forward in anticipation to an even better 2010. Our move back to a historic building in Menomonee Falls will give us an infusion of great creative energy. A large project with a national brand through our partnership with TargetCom is slated to begin in first quarter. Several other big projects with companies whose names you’ll recognize should fall in line in January. And we we begin our first major collaborative relationship with Hartman Design, a neighbor in our new space, in serving new client Regalware.

And we’re planning on an even bigger and better sequel to Social Media University – Milwaukee in March.

So with seatbelts and tray tables in their upright and locked positions, we’re ready for takeoff. We hope you’ll grab a seat with us as we wish both you and ourselves a shamelessly successful New year!

Tags: @triveraguy, Brand Re-enforcement, Chris Remington, Milwaukee, Search Engine Management, Search Engine Optimization, strategy, Trivera, Web 2.0, Web design, web development, Web site design, Web site development
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Trivera Changes the Game for Social Media

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Posted by Tom Snyder

We’re pumped!

All Summer, our efforts have been focused on producing Social Media University – Milwaukee at the Italian Conference Center tomorrow. When we told you about it in our last newsletter, we had no idea what it was going to become. It was when we ran into one of our speakers at an event the other night and she said: “You guys need to know how much THIS event has raised the bar,” that we realized we’re about to put on an event that will change the face of business in Milwaukee.

Our goal was simply to educate the market on Social Media. What we’ve ended up with is arguably the largest, most powerful collaborative Web and business effort in recent memory. We’ve brought together all of Milwaukee’s most talented and knowledgeable Web and Marketing professionals to help us present Social Media knowledge to an audience of over 350 of Wisconsin’s most influential business decision makers – From Fortune 500’s to small businesses. Manufacturers, Retailers, Health Care organizations, Non-profits. You’d be amazed at the names. I know we are.

Everyone is clamoring to be a part of it. Sponsors include SouthWest Airlines, Best Buy, Time Warner Cable, C2 Graphics Productivity Solutions and a half dozen others.

We have a full day of great information from great speakers, including the CEO of Blinds.com who will tell how he turned an investment of $3000 to start a business in his garage into a $50 million a year Web powerhouse using Web and Social Media best practices. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Media, Marketing and SEO experts will be on hand to teach. A panel of local businesses who are using Social Media to fuel success in a down economy will share their tips and tricks. And the day ends with a networking event, and further opportunity to learn from the speakers.

The Social Media Train is leaving the station tomorrow and headed for success.

If you’re already registered, congratulations! We’ll see you there.

If you’re not, we have re-arranged our seating to make room for last minute registrants. Get your ticket today!

Tom Snyder is Founder, President and CEO of Trivera Interactive, a Midwest New Media firm. Tom is a Web guy, wine snob, music junkie, Ex-Milwaukee Radio Guy, HDTV expert, and political wonk.

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Invasion of the Brand Snatchers

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Posted by Tom Snyder

Don’t look now, but you’ve lost control of your brand.

Yeah, we could make all sorts of other movie title jokes about it. Like “Dude, Where’s My Message,” “Silence of the Brands” and “Raiders of the Lost Trademark.”

But it’s not a joking matter. Brand managers are scared. They should be. The simple fact is that Web2.0 takes control of your brand out of your hands and places it right in the hands of a vocal, viral and painfully honest public.

Back in the good old days of Web 1.0, companies still were able to maintain a great degree of control of their brand. The Web was just another platform that allowed them to control the message, the appearance, the terms of engagement and the public perception of their name, their message, their reputation and what they wanted the public to know or believe about their product or service. Happy customers told one person, unhappy customers told ten. Not a good ratio, but it was still manageable. And it was easy to drown out a couple thousand unhappy people with a big newspaper ad, pr campaign or TV Commercial.

Web2.0 has changed the game. A customer can still tell one or ten, but with Social Media elements like Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, online communities, sites like Epinions, YouTube, and Twitter, that customer can also tell 1,000, 10,000, 100,000… a million. And each of those can turn around and amplify that same message to hundreds of thousands of their friends, and their friends’ friends.

And you can’t stop it.

Most marketers…and hopefully you, too…know that your brand is not your logo. It’s also not your visual identity, print brochure, jingle or Web site. It’s the expectation of experience. And everything you do either re-enforces or erodes that brand. While you can control the use of officially sanctioned graphics and information in your own promotional materials, you no longer can control the expression of the opinions people have about the experience they’ve had with your company, product or service. Social Media takes the actual quality of that experience and makes it the amplified message, drowning out your mission statement, your spin, your talking points or your finely tuned ultimate selling proposition.

Web2.0 makes the masses your new ad agency and PR firm, uncontrolled and uncontrollable. And their only campaign is to take the unvarnished truth about what your company does, and how well it does it, and make that the public face of your brand.

Some believe they can choose not to participate in Web2.0. But the bad news is: you already are participating, whether you have chosen to or not. Ignoring it won’t make it go away… it actually makes it more likely that your company will be affected in a good or bad way. You may have a great-looking, perfectly search engine-optimized Web site, and think you’re safe. But, with a growing number of people preferring posted opinions, recommendations and Tweets over what they find in the search engines, your efforts could be for naught. And you won’t even know what hit you.

So what should you do?

First take a hard look at who’s in charge of your Web strategy. Know that not every Web developer understands brand. And our experience is that, at least locally, a shockingly low percentage of advertising agencies even know what constitutes best-practice Web1.0. As you’d expect, most Technology and IT firms are out of their element on either, as are a lot of internal “experts.” To do both right AND get Web2.0? It’s a tall order indeed.

Look for a firm that understands and specializes in Online Brand Management. They will first make sure that your Web1.0 program uses creativity, design and technology correctly to effectively, efficiently and transparently re-enforce your brand. Then they’ll help you understand the perils and power of Web 2.0 and leverage Social Media to your advantage. Finally, they’ll help you use the synergies that exist between Web1.0 and Web2.0 to craft the proper email and SEO strategies to execute a successful TOTAL online brand program for your company.

Web2.0 prevents you from ever having total control of your brand again. But if you understand it, embrace it and take advantage of it, you’ll at least be better equipped to compete, so your brand won’t be “Gone with the Web!”

Tom Snyder is Founder, President and CEO of Trivera Interactive, a Midwest New Media firm. Tom is a Web guy, wine snob, music junkie, Ex-Milwaukee Radio Guy, HDTV expert, and political wonk.

Tags: Add new tag, Brand Erosion, Brand Re-enforcement, Social Media, strategy, Web 2.0, Web design
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How to Maintain Your Twitter Account…and Your Sanity

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

Since day one, our mission at Trivera has always been to help our client companies become more successful by using Internet technology to improve their brand relationships. And while Twitter is being lauded in many circles as the second coming of the Web, for us, and our clients, it’s simply another tool that will either enhance or erode our brands. The first step for most of them is to have individuals within their organizations get acquainted with Twitter itself, and we’re finding them quickly getting overwhelmed. So today, I want to begin a discussion about a couple tools that we’re using and recommending to help keep Twitter in its proper place.

Millions of conversations are happening at any moment on Twitter. The primary challenge is to figure out which of those conversations are going to be relevant and useful to you and your company. Your corporate strategy will determine who you’ll follow and why, who you’ll want to have follow you and why. It will dictate the types of conversations you’ll want to monitor. And finally, it will help you decide which conversations to simply mine data from, which ones you’ll actively participate in, and what your Twitter “personality” will be when you do (a topic for a future blog).

When you only have a few followers, Twitter itself can manage the tweets. And Twitter’s search function can allow the casual user to feed their curiosity as to what’s going on. However, you’ll soon find that your numbers of followers and relevant tweets will begin to grow. And because of the sheer immensity of data, managing the streams of tweets that result will be a task that could take over your life.

Tweetdeck has become the most important tool in my toolbox to keep that from happening. Running as a desktop application on the Adobe Air platform, Tweetdeck gives you up to ten columns to organize your tweets. So instead of having the firehose experience Twitter.com provides, you can manage tweets into drinkable streams.

Tweetdeck’s “Add to Group” function allows you to determine who goes into one of your columns. Even though you may have hundreds or thousands of followers, there are only a handful that will provide the meaningful dialogue and relationships that will be at the core of your daily routine. My Tweetdeck is set up so that column one is my “Real Follows”consisting of about 30 people that I regularly monitor and engage. Adding a follower to that group is simple. And if I want to remove someone from that group, that allows me to perform an “unfollow” that still allows someone to be a follow, without having to see every single thing they post.

I have a “Replies” and “Direct Messages” column set up so that I can easily see those conversations. And I also keep a column for all friends so that if I want to take the time to jump into the current torrent of tweets, it’s always there… but I keep it all the way over to the right so I have to scroll to get to it.

I also have two columns to subgroup other “friends.” One is a group for several industry leaders I follow. Their tweets usually contain great tips, personal insight, industry inside info, and articles. The second group is my news group, where I follow general local, regional and national news sources. I have been able to turn off all my email news alerts, so they no longer clutter my email inbox.

I also use the search feature to create columns of tweets pertinent to specific subject outside of that provided by my “friends.” These allow me to find great information about topics of interest, and, because it searches all the Tweets, it helps me find new “follows.” I have a column set up to display all the Tweets with the word Milwaukee, but you can use whatever term (or terms) you want to monitor… industry or geographically specific.

With your remaining columns, you have other options. You can display TwitScoop to show the words that are ebbing and flowing in the Twitterverse consciousness. You can display “Favorites,” where a tweet you want to view later can be stored before it drops off the bottom. And, if you’re like me, you’ll keep one column available for an on-demand search for the people, terms and concepts that will come up from time to time.

You can set the number of tweets you want to display in your columns, and filter the column to display only those in that column that meet search criteria. You can mark any tweet as read, and clear those to keep them from cluttering the column. And when a username is displayed in a tweet, clicking it displays their profile, allows you to follow or unfollow and immediately modify what group they should be in.

There are tons of other features in Tweetdeck that will help organize your Twitter experience, and help you maintain your sanity. You’ll learn them as you become more familiar with (and thankful for) the tool. One shortcoming is the memory it uses, especially when your followers number in the tens of thousands. But that’s a bridge you can cross when you come to it.

Before you jump in and actually begin to tweet yourself…especially if you’re representing your company’s brand…you’ll want to take a little time to “lurk,” and get a feel for how things work. And my next blog will talk about how important it is to define your Twitter “personality” before that first tweet. Another future blog will feature another amazing tool that will allow you be a part of the ongoing conversations all day long, even if you only have time to jump in once or twice a day.

And if you’re following me on Twitter, or are subscribed to my RSS feed, you’ll be the first to hear when those blogs are published.

Tom Snyder is Founder, President and CEO of Trivera Interactive, a Midwest New Media firm. Tom is a Web guy, wine snob, music junkie, Ex-Milwaukee Radio Guy, HDTV expert, and political wonk.

Tags: @triveraguy, Brand Erosion, Brand Re-enforcement, Milwaukee, Social Media, Social Networking, Trivera, Twitter, Web 2.0
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Search Engine Optimization Unmasked – Pt 2

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

It’s Saturday. Fox Business Network. The show is called The Fox Docs. Biz Whiz Dr. Dani Babb is talking to a caller who’s not getting the results from his Web site that he should. She tells him to optimize his site to come up in the search engines. Suddenly, as the theme music comes up to go into a hard commercial break, the host asks “so how do you do that?” With six seconds to explain, she said what most people who know a little bit about SEO believe: “Meta data!” Make sure your Meta data is correct.” Cut to commercial.

Knowing there was so much more to SEO, I used Twitter to get in touch with Dr. Babb and offer her some of what we’ve learned (and continue to learn) over our years. After several subsequent emails this week, she was armed with lots of new-found knowledge. So on this week’s show, the very first caller was rewarded as she used my bullet points (and credited Trivera) to explain how to get his site to come to the top, avoid the expense of a Paid Placement option for his keywords and just augment organic placement with Pay Per Click. And the host responded, “Brilliant!” (see video below)

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

But as I watched, it became obvious that SEO is one of those “rocket science” things that will make most peoples’ eyes start to glaze over. As much as you wish getting a site to come up Page 1, Position 1 in the search engines was as simple as watching a business show and getting tidbits of information, it’s unrealistic, unlikely and probably impossible.

The Internet, and the billions and billions of pages on the Web continue to grow by the second. And the search engines need to get better and better at determining which of those pages deserves to come up at the top of searches. So they constantly spider and index every site, every page and every link, compare each to all the other information they gather about every other site on the Web and use complex algorithms to determine how high or even if a site should come up for keyword searches.

Unfortunately, those algorithms are kept more secret than the recipe for KFC. That means that even *I* can’t give you a definitive answer… nobody can. Especially not in 6 or 60 seconds on a business show. But those of us who have been doing this for a awhile take the broad guidelines that Google and the others do give us, combine that with a lot of detective work, much trial and error and networking with others in our field and use it all to come up with strategies and tactics that work..realizing also that what works today may not when Google changes their algorithms.. which they do all the time.

But here are the general tips I gave Dani:

There are some that claim that Google doesn’t even index Meta Data at all for their search results. I was trying to figure out why a particular site was beating one of our clients in ranking at Google, and checked out their “Keyword” Meta Data. The ONLY thing in it was: “Keyword Meta tags are totally useless.” I don’t completely buy that, but rather I’m convinced that Google checks the meta data on a page, and then compares it to the visible text on the page. If they jibe, the site moves up for the words and phrases that, together, describe what that page is about.

But there are a lot of other factors, way too numerous to mention. Here are just a few:

Page titles (what shows up a the top of your browser when you’re viewing a page)
Actual file name of the page (what shows up in your URL bar),
File names of embedded images (and the alt tags for those images),
Text links to other pages within the site (and whether the words that are clickable actually send you to page that are about that specific text – Google is smart enough to figure that out),
How many outside sites link to yours,
How long your domain name has been registered, and how many years in the future it is currently registered for,
How frequently the content of the site is updated
Whether or not your webmaster appears to be trying to jack the system to get the site to show up higher than it should.

That last one is critically important, because while all the other ones help you move up, that last one can force you down, or even get a site de-listed altogether.

Bottom line is that it’s not easy…virtually impossible to do yourself. It’s also not an event… it’s an ongoing strategic process. And most entrepreneurs are too busy running the other aspects of their business to spend the necessary time to learn this and do it right. If showing up in the engines is critical to people finding you, the only silver bullet is finding someone really good to do it for you. It’s like a good accountant, a good banker or a good lawyer… your SEO person is worth their weight in gold.

(By the way, if you are a business owner, and haven’t caught the The Fox Docs show yet, you need to. Dani Babb and John Rutledge are amazing, and you’ll find yourself waiting for every episode for the great information you’ll learn).

Tags: Milwaukee, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO
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Search Engine Optimization Unmasked – Pt 1

Monday, February 23rd, 2009

A week doesn’t go by without someone asking us “How do I get my site to the top of the search engines?” The answer is a simple one:

1.) You and your site first need to DESERVE to be at the top
2.) Then you need every single element in your site that the search engine spiders use to determine that you deserve to be at the top absolutely correct.

That, of course is in a perfect world. But we all know that the world of search engine placement is far from perfect. But that basic premise can help your site place well in that imperfect world of Search Engines.

The primary goal of a search engine’s organic listings is to produce the best possible results to a visitor search. That means when someone searches for a company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin that sells sausage, the very first position on page 1 of Google should be occupied by a company located in the city of Milwaukee that actually sells sausage. And if there are several, the one that the most likely to sell the best sausage in Milwaukee would come up first. Using common sense, one could assume that would mean the company that has been in business the longest, has had a Web site for the longest period of time, has a great reputation and so has lots of other Websites linking to it.

So it’s no surprise that a Google search for “sausage milwaukee” has Trivera client Usinger’s as the #1 result. Not only that, but the actual shopping cart where you can purchase Usinger’s bulk sausage products also comes up in on the first page as a separate entry, and little further down, Usinger’s Gift Boxes come up as well. When Google lists local businesses on a map, Usinger’s comes up in first place there as well. Additionally, and probably contributing to Usinger’s success, is the fact there are also a bunch of other sites in the first few pages that refer to Usinger’s. Klement’s, another Milwaukee sausage company that hasn’t been in business as long as Usinger’s comes up #2. A few other local sausage companies also show up further down the list, and as you get deeper into the 435,000 results for that search, they get less relevant and less helpful to actually helping one find a Milwaukee sausage company.

And that is an example of exactly how every search should be. Unfortunately, the vast majority of searches produce results that are just the opposite. Incorrect, frustrating, useless and in some cases dishonest results often make searching an exercise in futility. And while that’s bad for searchers, it’s good news for Web site owners.

Going back to my original hypothesis, oftentimes, the sites that deserve to be on the top aren’t built in a way for the search engines to determine that they should be at the top. But SOMEONE needs to be #1. So the resulting vacuum fills the first page with junk… that is until someone whose rightful position may be on the second or third pages of results finds an SEO specialist that help them move up and become the leader by default.

A prime example is the Varicose Vein Treatment market here in Milwaukee. 2 years ago, a search for that produced a list of directories, non-targeted medical information sites, and news links. What wasn’t there were listings for any of the vein clinics in the Milwaukee area, even though there were over a dozen. All of them had Web sites, but there wasn’t a single one that was built in a way that the Search Engines felt they should occupy the top spot. Great Lakes Radiologists was one of them.

In an effort to get serious about capturing a larger market share they contacted Trivera. Re-branding and repositioning themselves as the Women’s Vein Clinics of Greater Milwaukee, gave us the opportunity to register a domain name with “vein” and “clinic” right in it. Even though they didn’t have any actual clinics in the city of Milwaukee, “Greater Milwaukee” in their name gave us that legitimate entre into the search engines. The site was optimized using all the techniques and tools that Trivera has mastered throughout a history of SEO services that began before Google even existed.

The site immediately began to get traction in Yahoo, MSN and AOL. Because the domain name was brand new, Google kept the site in its “sand box” for a few months. But after that short period of typical probationary exile, the site skyrocketed to page 1 positions in every one of the 23 keyword phrases we optimized it for. Within 6 months there wasn’t single targeted keyword phrase that didn’t have them come up in position 1,2 or 3. Traffic to their site continued to increase, and two years later, the site still owns top organic positions. A plethora of Paid Placement ads now peppers the first page to try to undermine that succcess. But when you take the fact that people are 3 times more likely to click on the top organic result than any of the paid listings and combine that with the cost for those paid ads, our client has come out the obvious victor.

Two different cases, but a common moral. Whether you deserve to be #1 or not, you have little chance of getting there unless your site has been properly optimized. When the Search Engines determine who wins and who loses, you need to have your site built to let them know you belong at the top.

Some Advice on Social Networking… from Sun Tzu

Friday, February 13th, 2009

There is a debate going on today in my circle of friends at Facebook about how professional it is for a business (or a business owner) to have a Facebook page. It’s a great question…and it’s just one of the many questions businesses are asking about social networking.

As the lines blur between business and personal relationships, and the availability, variety and use of Web 2.0 tools grows daily, it gets increasingly more difficult for business decision makers to know what to do. Several have come to us, telling us they’d like to start participating in social media as a business vehicle, and asking us to recommend some of the best Web 2.0 networking tools. Unfortunately, that’s the wrong question to be asking first.

In his book “The Art of War,” Sun Tzu said: ” Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

It was true then. It is true now. In this case, the tools are just the tactics. We’ve been helping businesses get the best use of Web, E-mail, and SEO tools, for 13 years. And so our job now is to do the same thing with Web 2.0. Before we recommend tactics, we need to start with the bigger question: “What is your strategy?”

A company could tell their Ad Agency that they want to start participating in traditional Media Marketing. However, without a strategy, a response of “Do some radio, some billboards, and a couple print ads” would be just noise before defeat. With a strategy, the response can intelligently target demographics, evaluate channels for a decent ROI, develop the appropriate creative, make the specific placement recommendations, execute the technical aspects to get the message to market, evaluate the results and adjust the program.

Developing a Web 2.0 strategy is similar. It’s more than just a “Do a blog, find some other blogs to participate in, make a Facebook fan page, Twitter, and keep your LinkedIn profile up to date.” There are a ton of tools available, some obvious, some not so obvious. The question is more which ones are appropriate for their business and will generate commensurate revenue.

Just like traditional media, networking (both the traditional breakfast meeting or after work meet and greets) or the new, digital networking platforms can be productive and profitable. Or they can also be just waste of time, effort and money. But to simply jump in without a strategy and start blogging or posting on Facebook is a huge mistake.

Going back to the original question of how appropriate it is for a business to have a Facebook page, the answer lies in your strategy. If you don’t have one, it will be just a guess, or fodder for discussion among others who will have an opinion, but may not have a clue.

If you do have a well-defined strategy, you already know the answer. And if your answer is “Yes,” then you need to also consider the second part of the Sun Tzu quote: Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.

You’ll need to be thinking about the nature and number of Facebook pages, as well as linking, advertising and networking strategies for those pages and possibly even considering development of a Facebook application. And after you’ve done that, do the same with all the other Web 2.0 tools now available.

Now is the time to jump into Web 2.0 and the world of social networking. But before you do, consider the wisdom of Sun Tzu, and take the time to develop your strategy and your tactics. It will be the difference between success and failure… between victory or defeat.

-Tom Snyder

Tags: Brand Re-enforcement, Social Networking, Web 2.0
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Web 2.0 and Your Business

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

We received this question in an email this morning:

Q: We recently got some inaccurate and unfair press coverage, and that coverage made it to the Web. Because of the way the Web and search engines work, when people Google our company, we come up, but the rest of the results page is full of results that contain or refer to the article..forums, blogs, even Wikipedia entries. I was at a seminar for our industry last week and one thing they mentioned is how we could use Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube to force those results to other pages than page 1. How do we do that?

A: The Web allows information about you and your company to spread like wildfire… which is great if it’s good information, but disastrous if it’s bad.

Situations like this demonstrate that conventional Search Engine Optimization is just one part of your Web strategy, because it can be instantly subverted by circumstances out of your control. These days it’s more than just a great Web site and SEO. Facebook and the others you mention are increasingly critical to a total strategy to take fullest advantage of the power of the Internet. It’s also about what is now being called Web 2.0 – all the social networking tools you mention above, as well as RSS feeds, SMS (Text messaging), and Blogs.

These all enable you to communicate, connect and interact with people by putting you and your “brand” are amongst the steady flow of ideas, thoughts and concepts that flow to them via their desktop computer, laptop, and cell phones 24/7. While the goal of all these is not primarily to get to the top of Google, using all of these helps improve your position there.

But like anything valuable, it doesn’t happen by itself. It takes a financial investment, a time commitment, and a partner with the right expertise. Huge companies (and even the Obama Administration) have full time people in a position called “Director of New Media.” Medium sized businesses hire companies like Trivera to formulate a strategy and help execute a plan. Small businesses often have good intentions to try and tackle this on their own but fail because of the discipline and commitment it requires.

Trivera uses all those tools, and has a handful of customers who are using us to help them take advantage of these tools. We’re putting these elements in all our proposals these days. If you’re willing to make a commitment, we can help you. The best way to tackle this is to determine your budget and we’ll give you a proposal with some recommendations.

-Tom Snyder

Tags: Milwaukee, Search Engine Management, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Networking, Web 2.0, web development
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