It’s all just crazy. People are twittering about where they’re going to dinner. Or arguing about politics on Facebook. Blogging about their hobbies. Exchanging resumes on Linkedin. Some are even tweeting about the blog they posted on their Facebook profile about a YouTube video someone told them about on LinkedIn!

Social media is taking over the landscape. And as detractors and cynics are quick to point out, much of it is mindless chatter. It seems like it’s all just fun and games. And that’s what it is until someone finds a way to use it to help their business or improve their brand.

But that’s exactly what’s happening. Real companies are uncovering and leveraging real business opportunities using social media. Matter of fact it’s happening so fast and growing so quickly that every day you allow skepticism, caution or fear to keep you from exploring and taking advantage of it, you are hurting your company.

But while it’s important to start using Social Media, it’s even more important to use the RIGHT Social Media, and use it correctly and appropriately for your business. That takes developing a strategy, determining the proper tactics, and then using the proper tools.

And so that’s why Trivera Interactive is producing a full day hands-on learning event to help you do just that! It’s called Social Media University – Milwaukee, and it’s happening on July 29th at the Italian Conference Center. The event includes seminars, breakout sessions and a panel discussion to explore every element of social media. Strategy, tactics, tools will all be covered from wide range of speakers…educators, consultants and real business people, both local and national.

Trivera Founder and CEO Tom Snyder will begin the day with an overview on Social Media, how it began, how it works, and how it will change how you do business. The session will touch enough on the various aspects of it all to help you determine which of the breakout sessions will be of greatest value to you and the other members of your staff you’ll be bringing along with you.

We’ll wrap up with Jay Steinfeld, CEO of Blinds.com who will tell the story of how he has used Web 1.0 and Social Media to turn a small window treatment business into a $50 million dollar a year business. In between, Augie Ray, Katie Felten, Sara Meaney, Blake Samic and a half dozen others will educate, inform and entertain as they show you how turn Web2.0 into a powerful business platform.

We’ll provide wi-fi so you can bring your laptop for the hands-on sessions, and even participate in several social media activities that will be going on during the event, including using Twitter to find out who will have the best specials for you during the lunch break.

Following the event, our friends at Corporate Identity Solutions will be throwing a Tweetup (in the old days they were called post event networking get togethers), where you’ll be able to make connections, and share your new found knowledge and hob nob with the speakers.

What you’ll discover is that Social Media can be BOTH fun and games, as well as a powerful business tool. And you’ll end the day armed with enough information to start putting it to work for you. Seating is limited and we expect the event to sell out, so register today, before you have to Tweet that you missed the most important business event this year.

Milwaukee BizTimes (Formerly the Small Business Times) is Southeastern Wisconsin’s source for news and information for the business community. So Trivera was honored when they chose to profile founder, president and CEO Tom Snyder as the featured local executive in their Coffee Break column.

You can view the entire article here

In addition to lots of great insight into what makes Trivera tick, there’s also an unanswered question: What’s the funniest thing that ever happened in your career?

A lot of people tweeted me to ask about my answer. I tried really hard to put this 140 characters… no luck.

Yes. I was fired over a Barry Manilow song.

I was actually a very successful DJ (used the name Tom McCarthy on the air) and music director at WLTQ and Star 95 back in the late 80′s.  As Program director at EZ-Listening WEZW, we had a General Manager that just didn’t get a “love-songs” format. Despite huge ratings, he was constantly questioning what we were playing. He would even call the request line from his car with “traffic reports” when I was on the air, but then would also ask me why we were playing the song that was on that moment.

One day he came into my office and demanded that I justify the fact that we were playing a particular Barry Manilow song.

I must have been having bad day, because I brought up the song on our music scheduling system, and gave him a single keystroke that would eliminate that song on his station forever.  It probably wasn’t so much a Barry Manilow song that cost me my job, as much as it was telling my boss to “just come over here, delete the  %#$*& Barry Manilow song, and get out of my office.”  He hit the delete button, then went straight to his office and called corporate to give him permission to delete me too.

The episode got me out of radio, into the broadcast software business, and eventually, into Web. While I loved that business, in retrospect it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I’m much happier doing what I’m doing now, and just listening to the radio while I work.

Back in 1996 (and ever since), Trivera was on the cutting edge of brand re-enforcing Web technologies.  As one of Milwaukee’s first Web development firms, we helped businesses take advantage of a new medium that, at the time, many were saying was just a fad, and would never be commercially viable.

So it’s no surprise that we’re feeling a case of Deja Vu. More than a decade later, Social Media is taking over the Web and marketing landscapes. Everyone is blogging. Facebook is evolving from a hangout for school kids to a Baby Boomer magnet with huge brand benefits. Twitter is a powerful new vehicle for businesses, and Trivera is right there in the thick of it, helping them capitalize on it.

At a recent Social Networking event, or “Tweet Up,” TMJ4 cameras caught Trivera’s Tom Snyder who was tapped to train business owners how to use Twitter as a business information, reputation management and marketing tool.

At that same event Fox6′s Ted Perry caught up with Trivera’s Marjie Snyder to find out what the buzz was all about. She’s included in this May ratings sweep feature from their 9 O’Clock news.

It’s no exaggeration to say that everyone is asking what it’s all about. Most businesses are asking how they can use it to make money. You’re fortunate. You have someone you can ask. Someone who has done it before. And most importantly someone you can trust.

Trivera is including Social Media strategic and tactical consulting, staff training and standards development, campaign guidance and execution and application creation in our proposals for all clients. We’d be happy to help you determine which of these powerful tools are right for you…and how to use them to fuel success for your business.

Don’t let this wave pass you by. Call, email or Twitter us today! We’re here to help…again!

An amazing concept: an economically viable mainstream home that produces more energy than it consumes. It took a visionary company like the Neumann Companies to conceive and build it, and it took  a visionary company like Trivera to create the Web site for the project.

Through the combination of several readily available technologies, which include a solar photovoltaic system (PV), geothermal heating and cooling system and solar domestic hot water, the EP Home has the ability to produce 100 percent of the energy needed to heat and cool the home, run all the appliances and power the occupant’s electric vehicle to and from work. The home promotes an energy independent lifestyle by consuming no fossil fuels, which allows for a dramatic reduction in greenhouse emissions and dependency on foreign oil.

The home is located in the Autumn Ridge Development three miles west of Oconomowoc. Building began in early February of 2009 and will be completed by August, in time to be showcased in the Milwaukee Area Metropolitan Builders Association’s 2009 Affordably Green Built Parade of Homes.

All the info about the home can be found at http://www.energyproducinghome.com, a site built, hosted and maintained by Trivera Interactive.