Web 2.0 – Trivera Interactive

Posts Tagged ‘Web 2.0’

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
Posted in Blog | Comments Off

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
Posted in Blog | Comments Off

Trivera Moving Back to the Falls

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

After 5 years in the Fountain Square Business Center in Germantown, Trivera Interactive is moving to Menomonee Falls. The 13 year old Wisconsin Web site development, Email marketing and Social Media consulting firm is moving from their current office space to the top floor of a 119 year old historic landmark. Effective January 1, 2010, Trivera’s new home will be the Schlafer and Huebner Mill Building, erected in 1891 on the bank of the Menomonee River in downtown Menomonee Falls.

Trivera founder Tom Snyder says “Having been raised in the Falls, I’ve always had a love for that building. And when space became available with our current lease ending, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to move our business there.”

Said Snyder, “These old buildings have such character they just radiate creative energy. Milwaukee’s Third Ward is replete with firms in our space that occupy similar buildings. We love the concept, but didn’t want the daily downtown commute.”

The new office is actually two floors tall with a high ceiling, rustic wooden beams and a loft that overlooks the conference room, reception area, production and sales areas. Snyder’s office will occupy the loft. Large windows provide lots of natural light as well as views of Menomonee Falls’ signature waterfall in the heart of the village and Lime Kiln park.

Although Trivera has spent the last 5 years in Germantown, they are no strangers to Menomonee Falls. After a few years in a basement in Butler, they moved to the Falls Business Park on Hampton and Lilly Rd in 1998. Further growth spurred by the dot com boom, and acquisition by a West Coast firm required a move to larger office in the same park. After 6 years there, and the unwinding of the acquisition to return the company to Snyder’s ownership, Trivera moved to their current location on Rivercrest Drive, just North of the Germantown and Menomonee Falls border.

Snyder recounts: “It’s sad to leave the space we’ve been in. With thousands of cars driving by the freeway right outside our front door, we’ve had tons of visibility. Everyone knows the blue fountain next to my office. The building owners, JBJ Properties, did an awesome job creating a productive workspace for us. And we’ll miss our patio out back. Some lucky business will grab that space quickly.”

But Snyder only looks back briefly. “As one of the region’s oldest and most respected Web firms, our vision has always been forward looking, so we’re excited about the change and a new 5 year commitment to our future, the relationships we have with dozens of existing clients and the new ones we are about to build.”

A photo gallery of the new space as construction continues can be seen at http://www.trivera.com/newspace

The new address as of January 1, will be N88 W16447 Main St Suite 400, Menomonee Falls, WI 53051-2891. The phone number, 262-250-9400, will remain the same.

——————————————–

Trivera Interactive is an online brand management firm that uses Web and Interactive technologies to help their clients reinforce their brand with their customers, communities and media. For more information, contact, Tom Snyder at 262-250-9400.

Tags: Milwaukee, Social Media, Trivera, Web 2.0, Web design, web development, Web site design, Web site development
Posted in Infocenter | Comments Off

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
Posted in Blog | Comments Off

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
Posted in Blog | Comments Off

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
Posted in Blog | 2 Comments »

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
Posted in Blog | Comments Off