Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category

A Few Thoughts on the JSOnline Article

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

It’s always a mixed blessing to be quoted in a published news article. The attention is great, but quotes that may be misunderstood by the author, editor or audience are an unintended, but predictable consequence. Over the past 30 years, I’ve been covered, quoted, and mis-quoted by the media dozens of times, and in the past I wasn’t able to respond with clarification.

Thank goodness for Social Media and my blog!

I was contacted by Duane Dudek of JSOnline.com (@thedudekabides) for my opinions on how the local TV stations are using Social Media. The article and a blog sidebar were published on April 21, 2010

Duane did an excellent job of capturing the essence of our discussion. Perhaps it was because of our mutual previous lives as Milwaukee radio guys. There were a few errors. One was my own typo, and the other was just a word I don’t remember using, but it didn’t change the meaning of what I said.

However, my quote about WISN12′s Morning Show “not doing squat,” raised a few eyebrows. While perhaps a bit overstated, here’s my rationale:

True Confession: I’m up every morning at 5:30 and I watch WISN’s morning show for at least a half hour before moving on to cable news. While I watch, I’m already active on Twitter, and watching the fun little Twitter-party that’s going on every day between TMJ4′s morning show and their fans. Every member of their team is busy doing all the things we hope our clients will do when we recommend Twitter as a tool that’s part of an overall Social Media strategy.

Susan Kim ( @SusanKim4 ), Vince Vitrano ( @vincevitrano ), Craig Koplien (@CraigKoplien ), and Caitlin Morrall ( @CaitlinMorrall ) – and Lisa Manna before her ( @LisaManna ) – along with several reporters keep up a lively round of Twitter chatter, both publicly, as well as via private DM’s.

WISN’s Morning Show folks remain noticeably detached in comparison. Portia Young’s Twitter Account has never tweeted to her 12 followers. Patrick Paolantonio is MIA. The WISN12 News twitter account (@WISN12news) just posts news blurbs, but doesn’t engage anyone. Reporter Kyler Burgi (@WISN_KylerBurgi) maintains a Twitter presence, and while he’s fairly active, and seems the most approachable, he seldom publicly engages with followers. And when Matt Salemme returned to the morning show, he announced that he could be Tweeted at “twitter.com/@wisn12news.” Reporter/Weekend anchor Jason Newton(@jnnewt) is just starting to get going.

A new WISN12 TV ad is filled with Web and Social Media Icons, but a commercial does not a well executed Social Media Strategy make. You have to search for the WISN folks, while the TMJ4 folks are showing up regularly in the fabric of Milwaukee’s Social Media conversations and are hard to miss. WISN’s Web site doesn’t even have those icons on its home page, and the only mention of Social Media is a text link in a sitemap that you find only after considerable scrolling.

A little while back, the WISN morning show did a feature on Foursquare, and it was obvious that all they knew about it was what they were reading from copy.

In their defense, 12 does an OK job on Facebook. And maybe their strategy is to focus more on that than Twitter. Portia is active on Facebook. And while their news presence there posts a lot of headlines, and people write comments on the wall, whoever it is who’s posting (unlike Fox6 and TMJ4 where I know the people who are behind their posts) it’s hard to find them ever engaging back. Their Weather presence on Facebook is the one area where they do seem to be doing a lot correctly. Their 6,400 fans (now likes) is a decent number (about the same number of followers as I and my dogs have together on Twitter), although fans and followers are the equivalent of “hits” on Web site – a great bragging rights number, but one that is less important than the five or six more valuable success metrics that many don’t even measure.

But here’s the biggest difference… and an example of the power of Social Media. Several times I’ve been close enough to Patrick and Portia in public to say hello, but didn’t feel comfortable enough to do so, knowing that to them I’d just be another viewer. I’ve met Susan and Vince at Tweetups, and they knew who I was. I…and more so my business partner/wife…have gotten to know Ted Perry (@TheTeditorial). My wife (@triveragirl) was his first follow. And at a Tweetup last summer, Vince Condella (@fox6weather ) sought me out to congratulate me on the recent birth of my granddaughter… which he learned about on Twitter.

The biggest mistake brands make with Social Media is taking the traditional media model and using it to just blast information to the masses and believe that people actually care. Well, guess what: in the Social Media arena, unless people know YOU care about them, they don’t really care about you. They might fan/follow, but those companies are probably better off just putting up a billboard. They’ll accomplish the same thing with less effort, push their message out to more eyeballs and they won’t be kidding themselves thinking that what they’re doing is participating in Social Media.

My intention in offering my opinion for the article was not necessarily to call anyone out. But my job, after all, is to evaluate and recommend improvements in Social Media and Web practices. And if I can ever help a business in that regard, I’m happy to do so. Even happier if they come to me and are willing to pay me to do it.

But my mission is to help raise the awareness and Social Media savvy of the market as a whole. And if my comments and observations help someone who needs the help, I’ve done my job. I’m hopeful that WISN will appreciate the freebie.

UPDATE: Comments posted to that article inspired Vince Vitrano to write blog in response. You can read that blog here

—-

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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How I Make You Smarter…and Your Business More Successful…One Tweet at a Time.

Monday, April 12th, 2010

People who follow me on Twitter know that a prominent component of the way I use that Social Networking tool is to post links to helpful articles. As the primary brand voice of Trivera, my goal is to help people learn both about me and FROM me. And so while just about any time of day, you’ll see me using Twitter to opine, engage, interact, and sometimes just be goofy, every weekday during business hours my Tweet-stream contains posts like: “5 reasons your Web site is losing money http://ow.ly/1wqy,” “19 Tips for Driving Traffic to Your Blog http://ow.ly/1vZCT“ and “10 signs your iPad has made you the most annoying person ever http://ow.ly/1vGUQ.”

Those articles come from blogs, email newsletters and forums and are specifically chosen to help you become better at what you do, and show up about once an hour between 9am and 5pm, Monday through Friday. Whether you’re a small business owner, Web developer, marketing professional, or just a student of the digital world, the articles I link to are specifically, and strategically selected to give you a few nuggets of helpful wisdom in a quick read (or scan).

Part of my daily regimen is an early morning check of my RSS feeds, industry newsletters and a few quirky and obscure Web sites to find informational resources for myself. Of the hundred or so articles I see, and the 20 or 30 I read, I pick the 7 or 8 that really represent the cream of the crop and share them with my Twitter followers. The common denominator is that they’re short, well written, accurate, organized, timely and helpful. I often re-write the headline if I think I can better communicate the benefit of the information and improve the likelihood that people will go read them. And I use Hootsuite to shorten the URL and schedule them to trickle out during the day rather than deluge everyone with a flood of information all at once.

Some critics have questioned why I do it, pointing out that they can get all of this in their own RSS feed. But I know from my own daily exercise that, because anyone can blog, much of what fills the blogosphere is poorly written, filled with errors, or both. I’ve earned the trust of my followers to be the filter that only allows the best of the best.

The evidence shows that I must be doing something right. In addition to shortening long URLS and allowing me to schedule my posts, Hootsuite allows me to measure metrics. Since I began doing this and keeping track a little over a year ago, over 31,000 people have clicked through to read what I’ve posted. And by even being able to see which articles are the most clicked on, it allows me to fine tune the choice of articles to make sure that I’m tweeting the types of content that people find most helpful.

The good news is that you don’t even have to be on Twitter to benefit from the articles. Bookmark this link and just my tweets with shortened links will show up in your browser. If you have an RSS reader, add this feed to it, and the articles will show up there.

Since we’ve been in business, it’s been my goal raise the level of the Web intelligence of the market. I don’t have the time to blog as often as I’d like, and even when I do, someone else has probably already blogged about my topic before. But the combination of these articles and my blogs (which also end up in these Tweets and feeds), seem to be doing a great job of educating the market. In addition to making followers smarter, it also establishes me as an authority without having to spend hours a week writing my own blogs, which is a tactic we also recommend to some of our clients.

The world of the Web is changing rapidly. Web 1.0 is giving way to Web 2.0. While many of my tips are focused on Social Media, I still link to articles on Search Engine Optimization, Email Marketing and making your site successful. But there’s no doubt where the market is headed, and by following my posts, you can be equipped with the information you need to ride the wave.

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, the most clicked through article ever is You’re doing Social Media. That’s good. But not Mobile? Uh-oh…

—-

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, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Web 2.0
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Social Media – Emerging Power or Roaring Mouse?

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

In my last blog, I talked about the impact Social Media is having in our region, where a growing number of people and companies are using Twitter, Foursquare and the other Social Media tools to build relationships and generate business. Media attention is fascinated with the phenomenon, with local coverage of the success of several Social Media-savvy businesses catapulting them to the national spotlight.

Even Trivera’s recent open house Tweetup confirmed the power of Social Media, drawing a much larger crowd than our client open house whcih took place two weeks earlier. Over the last 14 years, we have built a passionate and loyal client base, but our Tweetup had twice as many attendees even though many of them were people we didn’t even know a year ago.

However, as many of us Social Media evangelists tout its power, influence and impact, some are questioning if the wave of euphoria and urgency is deserved. A number of commenters on many blogs I follow are calling us Kool-Aid drinkers. They point out that most Social Media events seem to bring out the same group of the usual suspects. It’s the same small cadre of small business owners being profiled in the local media as examples of the successful use of Social Media. The argument is that if Social media is such a powerful tool, there should be so many businesses with demonstrable success that the media wouldn’t have to keep using the same ones over and over.

Fans tout Dell’s sales of over $9 million directly attributed to Twitter in 2009. Detractors point out that that represents a minuscule percentage of their $61 billion in total sales. Local restaurant-owner Joe Sorge attributes a significant amount of his revenue at AJ Bombers to Social Media. Skeptics say that if Social Media was the big deal we’re making it out to be, there would be dozens of other examples from among the hundreds of other Milwaukee restaurants.

For those of us who have been in the Web “industry” since the beginning, the criticism is nothing new. Pioneering new tactics and tools in the Web space have always had their skeptics. Even the Web itself was once lambasted as an unsustainable fad. It was labeled the CB Radio of the 90′s.

At the moment, at least here in Milwaukee, it has the feel of a subculture. And as someone who has been a part of several subcultures (including the CB radio subculture in the 70′s), it does feel strangely similar.

As Social Media garners the same attention, and the same criticism, the question needs to be asked: Is it just a flash in the pan fueled by the media needing to create stories where there really are none, or is it a game changer that’s still in its infancy?

What do you tell the critics? Or are you one yourself?

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The Social Media Lovefest in Milwaukee – Unique or Universal?

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

An amazing wave has swept this great city on a great lake.

Having spent all of my 56 years in Milwaukee, I’ve always been proud when I hear visitors gush about what residents know all too well: The people of Milwaukee are the nicest folks they’ve ever met. So it’s only natural that a platform that is comprised of interaction and communication would flourish in a town like ours.

Social Media…and more specifically, Twitter and now FourSquare have made significant marks on the landscape of Brew City, including:

Almost constant media coverage of Social Media as a phenomenon.

Businesses like Streetza Pizza, AJ Bombers and Blatz Liquor whose successes have been almost entirely fueled by the support of the Social Media community.

A nearly 400 seat sellout for our Social Media University – Milwaukee, fueled almost exclusively by promotion using Social Media, with virtually no promotion in traditional media.

3-4 well-attended, targeted Social Media training/networking events every week, and so many large-scale Social Media events that it’s been hard for us to schedule our next Social Media University Milwaukee without conflicting with one of them. (Note: SMUM2 is currently firming up its date and lineup ).

Great relationships built between dozens of local media celebrities and average folks (stories of which could easily be an entire blog).

The amazing new collaborative spirit that has emerged between many of the creative, technology, and new media people and organizations who have co-existed here for years, but have just met and begun to work together in the past twelve months.

Milwaukee consistently ranks among the top US cities in the Twtvite lists of upcoming social media events.

A recent Tweetup at AJ Bombers drew so many people that attendees were awarded the first Foursquare “Swarm Badge” in the entire Midwest. An upcoming Tweetup at our own office already has enough interest that it could potentially become the first non bar/restaurant to result in a “Swarm Badge” for its attendees.

As we commemorate the first anniversary of a Tweetup that the Tweetup Girls held at the Iron Horse Hotel that seemed to be a pivotal moment, some with whom I talk are convinced that this is unique to Milwaukee. When I go to Tweetups and other Social Media focused events and feel the Twitter-love, the sentimental part of me is prone to believe it. Other less parochial folks insist that, while it’s big here, this same thing is happening in cities all over the country…and the world. And my logic has to admit that this must be the case.

Your thoughts? Is the Social Media love fest we’re enjoying here in Milwaukee real and unique to us?

—-

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: Milwaukee, Social Media
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Social Media Got Your Pants on the Ground?

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

“…pants on the ground, pants on the ground, looking like a fool with your pants on the ground…”

Last week, I went to the Social Media Breakfast expecting to be an attendee. Due to a speaker cancellation, I ended up being on the panel. The topic was “Snake Oil Salesman or Social Media Expert.” With Trivera‘s production of last summer’s Social Media University – Milwaukee putting us on the radar screen as local Social Media gurus (or Snake Oil Salesmen), I was a logical candidate.

The discussion moved to a point where the final answer was going to hinge on whether a Return on Investment could be demonstrated for a Social Media program. The issue became the difficulty of calculating an ROI down to a meaningful and accurate number.

Tallying the “R” is the easy part. Tools exist to allow you to measure hits, monitor click throughs, calculate conversions, and figure out the impact of Social Media sites on your top line revenue. Small and large companies alike are already trumpeting specific revenue success directly attributable to Social Media initiatives.

It’s calculating the “I” that’s the sticky wicket.

Social Media tools are often touted as being “free.” Creating a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook fan page or a LinkedIn profile can cost nothing. You can hire a company to create and administer a more robust Social Media presence, build a Facebook application, use tools like Radian6 or SM2 to monitor your brand buzz or create and distribute press releases using Pitchengine. While that will cost money, that outlay comes with hard numbers you can add to your equation. The part of this that drifts into the haze is the value of the time and effort that it takes to create and develop the relationships that will make Social Media campaigns successful. How do you count the cost in dollars for a company’s CEO to write blog on a Saturday, a small business owner’s dozens of Tweets during and after business hours, a salesman’s participation in a LinkedIn discussion, a marketing director’s evaluation of the growth of numbers of fans and followers, or a Customer Service Representative’s ongoing discussions in a community site engaging with fans of their brand or defending it against detractors?

Without that hard number on the investment side, accurately calculating the ROI on Social Media is nearly impossible. So does that mean there IS no ROI? My friend Augie Ray responds to that that question with this great quote (one that he isn’t even sure where it came from): “I’m not sure what the ROI is for putting on pants in the morning, but I do know I can’t conduct business without them! “

So it is with Social Media. Many, maybe even most companies, can prove no real quantifiable ROI. But they do know that they’re doing more business with it than they would without it.

Unfortunately, a successful Social Media program takes more effort than just putting on your pants. A Twitter account that consists of a tweet a week with no real engagement is like doing business in your boxers. A blog that hasn’t been updated in months is like leaving your Levi’s in the dryer. A LinkedIn profile without interaction, participation, or status updates is akin to walking out the door without your Dockers. A Facebook fan page with no entries, no promotion and a dozen fans is the equivalent of leaving with your Haggars in a heap on the floor.

Is there ROI in Social Media? There can be. A well developed Social Media strategy with the proper tools, patience and consistency will always have a higher ROI than one without it. Can you calculate it? Not to a decimal place.

But begin a Social Media program without them, and you could find yourself looking like…

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.

Snake Oil Salesman or Social Media Expert

Tags: Augie Ray, ROI, Social Media
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Happy Birthday to… US!

Friday, January 15th, 2010

It was January 16, 1996. A huge blizzard had clobbered much of the Eastern half of the country, but somehow missed Milwaukee. It’s a good thing, because it would be hard to start a new business in a blizzard! And for the type of business it was going to be, that was going to be hard enough!

That was the day we opened the doors of Websight Solutions, the company that, fourteen years later, is now known as Trivera Interactive.

Internet? What the heck is THAT????

Back in January of 1996, the typical computer was a 133 Mhz Pentium with 1 Gigabyte of storage and 16 Mb of RAM. Java, Windows 95, and USB were all brand new technologies. Data was still being stored on floppy discs with a maximum capacity of 1.44 Mb. Hard core Computer users had been using phone lines to connect to other computers at blazing speeds of 14.4 or 28.8 kbps. For the few who were using it, online technology had consisted of online Bulletin Board systems in a text-only command line environment, but was beginning to migrate to closed systems like AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy.

But Netscape introduced a program called a Web browser and that changed everything. It provided users with a more graphical user interface to connect with computers that had been set up as “Web servers,” containing “Web sites.” Netscape pretty much had the browser market all to itself, as Microsoft didn’t even view the Internet as a viable market back then.

Few businesses did!

Amazon.com and Ebay were only a few months old. Yahoo, at 1 1/2 years of age, was one of the granddaddies of them all. Google wouldn’t exist for almost another two years. Here in Milwaukee, the Internet was pretty much only available from ExecPC, who was connecting the region to the Web via a single ethernet cable strung over a cubicle wall to a partner company called Inc.net. Backhoe accidents in Northern Illinois were known to take the entire city offline for days.

Objective observers knew this Internet “thing” was never going to work.

But there were a few visionaries who believed otherwise. I had been working for a software company when I was given the opportunity to be a salesman for one of those visionaries. Four months as an Internet “evangelist” brought me to the conclusion that the Web was going to change everything, but the only way to fully capitalize on it was going to be to start my own company. Fortunately, my employer was deciding to go in the direction of online gaming, and so she allowed me to take my business customers with me. With a client list already including Usinger’s and Mitchell Airport and a few appointments set up with companies like Frank Mayer and Associates, Websight Solutions opened for business that cold January morning.

A Fourteen Year Journey on the Information Superhighway

Fourteen years, five different office locations, hundreds of clients and thousands of projects later, Trivera Interactive has just moved to a new location in Menomonee Falls. We’ve been honored to help fuel the success of some our area’s finest businesses and most incredible employees.

Along the way, we’ve certainly had our challenges: a failed merger with a West Coast Web developer who didn’t share our values; the dot-com collapse that put so many companies who do what we do out of business; the most challenging small business conditions in decades; the problems that come with using technology in a field that is still in its infancy; Internet charlatans who prey on the unsuspecting and the uninformed; Spam.

We’ve seen dozens of companies like ours come and go. We’ve watched as advertising agencies, PR firms and technology companies with no experience or qualifications add “Web” to their list of offerings. We’ve been saddened to watch so many businesses and organizations make the wrong choice of Web and interactive technology vendors and suffer the consequences.

But through it all, we’ve held to our original pillars of value, service and integrity. Those values have permitted us to create and build priceless relationships with some of the region’s best companies and organizations.

Our space continues to present new challenges: what to do about Mobile Web; the exploding Social Media phenomenon ; new payment security rules that will put the future of many e-commerce sites in jeopardy.

But just as staying true to our vision has brought us to where we are today, we’ll face those challenges with those same pillars to guide us into our next 14 years. We’re grateful for what we’ve accomplished so far… but we’re just getting started.

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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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.

——————-

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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