For years, clients have been asking me if they needed to get on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Google Plus. Now everyone’s asking about Pinterest. My answer has never changed: “Don’t even think about any of them until you define your strategy.”

In his timeless book “The Art of War,” Sun Tzu wrote: “Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”  Those ancient words perfectly describe the all-too-common sound we’re hearing these days: the din of multitudes of marketers’ failed Social Media efforts.

It’s the sound of businesses getting on Twitter not knowing what they’re supposed to be doing there. Market awareness, brand reinforcement, lead generation, public relations, media outreach, reputation management, customer service, coupon code distribution and consumer research are all possible tactical uses for Twitter. But until a strategy has been created to determine the right tactics, those tweets are just the noise before defeat.

It’s the sound of businesses creating Facebook fan pages, not knowing if their brand supporters are even there, investing huge amounts of time and effort to try to create results they have not defined, and buying display ads that nobody sees or promoted posts that people hate. Just more noise before the inevitable defeat.

It’s the sound of websites dropping off page one of Google searches because of blogs being written solely as a “Social Media” tactic or Google Plus being ignored as just “that Social Media tool no one uses.”  And it’s the sound of huge Pay-per-click expenditures because they don’t know how Social Media contributes to their organic SEO.

It’s the sound of missed opportunities as many consumers opt for YouTube and Pinterest over Google as their preferred search engines, and businesses with no clear strategy have no clue what to do with either of them.

As the lines continue to blur between all media: traditional, digital and social, a disjointed tactical approach to any of them is just the noise before defeat. The sweet sound of success will only be found in all of them as tactical elements of a larger integrated marketing strategy.

(this article also appeared in the April 1, 2013 edition of the BizTimes)

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As we look back on 2012 we are thankful for all our clients, partners, staff and friends, making it one of the best of our nearly 17 years in business. You’ve helped keep us busy with so much to do that we haven’t been able to blog, send email newsletters or finish our brand new responsive website.

But we did want to send a heartfelt message to thank all of you for putting your trust in Trivera!

In 2012 we’ve worked hard to develop and launch exciting digital projects. We welcomed some great new website design and development clients to the Trivera family:

• The Greater Milwaukee Foundation
• Racine Federated
• Perlick
• Bel Canto Chorus
• Dental Associates
• Evald Molding
• Johnson Creek Smoke Juice
• Amelishan Bridal
• Genius Supply
• Storage Systems Midwest
• GA Precision Manufacturing
• Husar’s House of Fine Diamonds
• M&M Office Interiors
• Core Creative (Poblocki Sign CMS)

They all discovered for the first time the joy of working with Trivera’s team of talented professionals with new website projects.

We also renewed our commitment to our long-standing client partners with new initiatives for:

• Potawatomi Bingo Casino (SEO)
• Mitchell International Airport (CMS)
• Timmerman Airport (new website)
• Strattec Security Corporation (Component Solutions website)
• Usingers (Magento e-commerce upgrade)
• Rego Consulting (new websites)
• Zimmerman Investment Partners (hosting infrastructure upgrade)
• ThermaSys/API Heat Transfer (SEO, API site migration, print marketing)
• Heroic Media (new microsites)
• Adelman Travel (CMS)
• Axiom Properties (CMS and new property websites)
• Casper Creative (George Webb website)

And thanks to them…and you…2013 will be even brighter.  Watch for some exciting news from Trivera later this month as we add even more value to our clients’ digital strategies and offer a wider and deeper array of services and skills to make your 2013 successful.

Here’s to 2013 being a great New Year for us all!

The post Happy New Year! appeared first on TriveraGuy - Rescuing the World from Bad Web...One Business at a Time!.

As part of their “2012 MozCation” the SEOmoz solicited nominations for locations. Milwaukee stepped up,  nominated, tweeted, and participated in a successful effort that resulted in Milwaukee being selected as the kickoff city. The event takes place  at the Harley-Davidson Museum from 5-9pm, and will feature networking, food and drinks, followed by two hours of presentations:

Rand Fishkin, CEO of SEOmoz
Topic: The Future of SEO

Brittan Bright, Director of Client Strategy at iAcquire
Topic: From Mess to Success: A Case Study of Cross-Discipline Collaboration Done Right

Jamie Steven, Chief Marketing Officer at SEOmoz
Topic: Technical Skills for Marketers: Gaining the skills you need to be indispensable

Luke Summerfield, Internet Marketing Specialist at Savvy Panda
Topic: Mobile Search Skyrocketing? Let’s Optimize and Capture!

Victor Drover, Owner at Anything Digital
Topic: How to SEO Optimize a CMS

Tom Snyder, Owner at Trivera Interactive
Topic: How Social Media Impacts Your SEO

Chiaryn Miranda, Helpster of Awesome (aka Customer Service Expert) at SEOmoz

The event is FREE, but registration is required

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Tom will return to the show to talk about Foursquare on Friday, July 27th at 8:15.

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In the interest of total disclosure, I’ve gotten to know a few local TDS salespeople from networking events, and a few years ago, even won a Vegas vacation from them when they drew my business card in a drawing at the local BizTimes BizTech Expo.  Shortly after that, I was invited to do a Social Media presentation to their team. But quite honestly, I never REALLY knew what it was they did.  I knew it had something to do with data, communications, and businesses. I also knew they had a data center where they hosted web servers.  But beyond that, I was clueless.

The day tagged as a “blogger event” began with discussions among several of the Midwest’s respected and visionary bloggers, causing me to ask the most obvious question: “how did *I* get invited?”

The theme was “The Connected Workplace,” and began with a discussion about how a growing number of companies are using Facetime, Google Hangouts and Skype to facilitate face to face communications and even staff meetings. One of the first sessions even used the technology to video conference in the speaker. As the technology becomes easier and more ubiquitous, it is possible for team members miles, states and even countries apart to stay and feel connected. Telephone and data systems that run on the web offer the appearance that everyone is together, regardless of how apart they really are, make it almost ridiculous to NOT use.

The host for the day’s event,  Emmy award winning  film producer and screenwriter John Roach, offered his perspective…and investment advice…about a connected workplace:

“Short sell commercial Real Estate.”

He talked about how big offices that congest freeways, cost hours of commute time and decrease the number of productive hours are going the way of the dinosaur. The trend to replace a workplace that everyone “goes to” with digital connections that allow the workplace to be wherever you are is the situation that he admitted he’s been waiting for for 20 years. His thoughts resonated with me, as a digital experience that “comes to you with what you need when you need it” was my theme of a recent blog about mobile. It now extends to our jobs.

The concept is still a bit foreign to those of us who have a culture based on people working next to, looking at and eating lunch with each other in an open environment. But offices that are just rows and rows of beige cubicles will soon be realizing the tremendous cost savings from a workplace that minimizes expenses by maximizing a team of workers working in pajamas at a desk at home, but still connected

Early in the day, I realized that TDS Metrocom sells phone systems. The difference with their product is that instead of a bunch of hardware in a closet, the stuff that runs their phone systems is hosted at a remote…and pretty amazing…data center.  But as the day progressed, I realized that the even bigger difference is that they understand that they really are in the business of using Internet technology to connect people, build relationships and conduct business. Pretty much the same thing Trivera does. Unlike my space, where the devices have been computers and laptops, their devices have been office phones. But, in today’s rapidly converging connected world, we’re also both using mobile, online video, hosted applications and API’s. My biggest takeaway was the fact that when my first exposure to the Internet convinced me that it would change everything, I didn’t realize how big “everything” really was.

The growing challenge for companies large and small in this connected world is the total integration of all the internet has to offer into all aspects of their business: Sales, Marketing, Management, Human Resources, and Communication, and most importantly finding people with the technological expertise to perform that integration. Fortunately there are companies like TDS and Trivera who can take care of that.

====================

Photos of the TDS Blogger Event are posted on Pinterest.

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What your company is doing with the web is a lot like a hockey game. If your only focus is a web site based on an assumption that all your visitors are sitting at their desks viewing your site on a 1024 x 768 resolution desktop monitor, you’re skating to where the puck was. Even if you’ve begun to toy around with making your website more mobile friendly, you’re still skating to where the puck is.

As an early adopter of the Internet as a powerful marketing tool, and founder of one of Milwaukee’s first Web development firms, I remember the days when 87% of all businesses polled said they would never have a need for a website. My challenge for over 16 years has been to be chasing after the future and dragging clients kicking and screaming behind me, hoping they’ll keep up.

And it’s about to get even harder.

Over the past few days, I’ve been spending time with the presentation Stephanie Rieger gave to the Breaking Development conference in Orlando, Florida.  It’s an eye opening look at how the web is evolving. Where it used to be something you’d go to the computer or your mobile device to “do,” it’s rapidly becoming something that’s always on, connected to everything we use to provide us with any knowledge we need just as we need it. As Brad Frost aptly put it:, you need to get your content ready to go anywhere because it’s going to go everywhere. Skating to where the puck is going  means moving to a world where internet touch points go beyond browsers, smart phones and tablets to now include treadmills, refrigerators, cars, and a million other “smart things” that we haven’t even begun to imagine. A world where search engine queries are replaced by contextual information fed to us based on our interests, needs, and location, the keyboard having been replaced by GPS’s, our voice or even our retinas. The journey to where the web is headed has shifted into hyper drive, and in the process is shattering the paradigms.  And it’s about to leave many businesses, and even some self-professed “web development firms” in the dust.

That’s why I’m so fortunate to have the team here at Trivera. While still understanding the need to provide superior, best practice web experiences for our clients (delivered on time, scope and budget), we take regular time out of the office every Friday to talk about, and plan for, the technologies, platforms, tools, ideas and directions that will help us embrace the future web.

As a result we’ve continued to push the envelope and come up with some pretty amazing stuff:

• You have an e-commerce-enabled B2B website but still achieve your highest sales with your independent distributors? How about a fully integrated tablet-based tool for them to use in the field to coach them real-time to up-sell, cross-sell, check inventory, lead times and create and submit an order.
• Your customers are voicing a common complaint that’s not your fault, but due to their forgetfulness? How about a reminder with the appropriate information sent to their mobile device when it detects exactly when and WHERE they need it?
• You have a brand with a huge community that needs Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and Flickr functionality, but has huge archival resources you don’t want to trust to those Social Media sites? How about an online community with full desktop, mobile and tablet compatibility with check-ins, photo uploads, topic threads, member chat and any other features the members say they need?

I’ve always been totally flabbergasted by traditional ad agencies who say “Oh, yeah, we do web too.” Many are still trying… and still failing…to embrace even 10 year old best practices, and thus skating to where the puck was. A few conceptually get it but don’t have the breadth, depth and length of experience to hire, manage or direct a team with the necessary skillsets, and so also are still skating to where the puck is. In the minority are the brave, visionary few who not only are embracing concepts like responsive web, but even seeing that as an experience we’ll one day look back on with the same quaint nostalgia that we have for stuff like Cue Cat, Flash, 56k dial up and AOL.

I guess there are parts of the marketing world where a business just needs a small desktop-sized brochure-ware website, and the agency that does their direct mail, yellow page ads, and print handouts can create a cute little site for them. And there are other parts where an agency is able to convince a business to pay megabucks for a pay-per-click-supported big honking Flash landing page.

You won’t find Trivera or our customers there. We’re all too busy skating to where the puck is going.

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No, not literally.

Social Media is serious business. It needs to be part of your integrated marketing strategy. But what if you’re a small business, too small to hire a company like Trivera to develop your marketing strategy? Or you’ve hired a typical ad agency that does great direct mail and print, and they’ve told you that you should be using Social Media,  but you’re realizing that, like many agencies, they don’t have a clue when it comes to web and Social Media… either their own or yours.

How about learning some Social Media basics for 20 bucks?

After a successful launch in Chicago, Dabble, which gives people an opportunity to attend and/or teach inexpensive classes in a wide range of topics has brought an ambitious schedule to Milwaukee.  That schedule includes two Social Media classes that I’m teaching.

The concept is brilliant. It allows people to attend hour or two-long classes covering a wide range topics, from beer brewing to bicycle repair, from swing dancing to  ceramics. But the topics also include topics of interest to small businesses, including entrepreneurship and WordPress, and my 2 classes:  Twitter for Marketers on February 28th and Foursquare for Business on March 20th.  The cost for each class is $20 per student.

People with talents and skills and an ability teach can also sign up to do a class of their own, and keep half the registration cost themselves.

Initially, the classes will be held at Spreenkler in the Grand Avenue Mall downtown, but plans are to expand into other areas as participation grows. Plans are also to expand into virtually every city in the US.

Will you learn everything in my classes that you need to execute a complete and flawless Social Media campaign? No. BUT, in this small group setting, you will learn enough to survive in a world where your customers expect you to be on Twitter and Foursquare.

And for 20 bucks, a little Dabble do ya!

UPDATED: Repeating both classes!  Twitter for Marketers April 10, 2012, and FourSquare (TBD)

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On February 2, 2012, I’ll be presenting “Managing Social Marketing” at the Metropolitan Builders Association Business Management Symposium at their headquarters in Waukesha. The event is open to members and non-members. Details and registration information can be found on the MBA Site.

UPDATE: Slides are here.

The following week, on February 9th, I will be presenting “Twitter: Fun and Games or Powerful Business Tool?” at the Sales Progress 2012 Kickoff held at the Milwaukee Athletic Club. The event also includes other seminars, followed by a large networking session, and free soda and food.  The event is free, but registration is required. Details are here.

UPDATE: Slides are here.

Later in the month, I’ll be presenting “Getting to the Top in Google – Your Blueprint for Search Engine Success” at the Wisconsin Association of Home Builders 2012 Builders’ Conference, at the Chula Vista Resort in Wisconsin Dells. The event runs February 22-24, 2012, with Tom’s presentation kicking things off first thing on the morning of the 22nd. The event is open to members and non-members. Details and registration can be found at the WHBA site.

Watch for more opportunities to hear me and other Trivera team members speak and present at events throughout the Midwest in 2012.

———————————-

UPDATE: I’ve been requested to reprise my Managing Social Marketing presentation to the Leadership Council at the Wisconsin Association of Home Builders 2012 Builders’ Conference on Friday, Februrary 24th.

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The first was from Inc. Magazine. The article praised the value of  “the designer who codes” as a “new breed of tech experts.”  I had to re-read the piece several times to see if it actually said what I thought it did.  The premise is that the best user experience comes from team members that understand what it takes to create both the intuitive design and the robust back end technology to make it happen. My beef isn’t with the concept. That’s dead on. It’s the fact that somehow it’s the coolest new thing to roll down the highway, when it’s been at the core of what Trivera has been doing for 16 years.

From the very beginning everyone on our team has understood that results-producing web sites are about creating relationships that build trust and result in a transaction. A critical component is to make sure that the technology doesn’t get in the way, but rather, transparently re-enforces the brand experience between the company and the customer. That kind of interactivity requires the “smart design” and “creative technology” that have actually been our tagline all along.

The other article trumpeted a “new” idea called responsive web design, which it defined as an approach that proposes that a web site’s design should respond to a user’s environment and behavior, based on the platform, orientation and screen size.

New? Really?

For some reason, now that there are iPads and Smartphones, we suddenly must now pay unique and individual attention to what  visitors should see and experience when they come to a site. And while Web developers are playing “stupid HTML tricks” now to make sure the design looks perfect in every device possible, again, they’re missing a bigger point. Truly responsive web design is based on more than just the device being used to view the site.

Over 16 years, I’ve met with hundreds of prospects and clients to discuss what they need to do take meaningful advantage of the Web.  As I talk about our approach,  I recite the mantra that I’ve used from day 1:

Every single web-based contact point needs to be created with the following 5 considerations:

1. Who is coming?
2. How did they get there?
3. What did they expect to find?
4. What did they use to access it?
5. What does it need to do to encourage and facilitate a transaction as quickly and easily as possible?

I’ve said it a million times. Even though it’s at the heart of our unique selling proposition, it sometimes becomes just recitation. But the other day as I went through the list, a prospect stopped me. He grabbed a pen, took out a piece of paper and said: “Can you repeat those, please?”

It’s not rocket science, so why does it seem so revolutionary? Because so much of the web over the past 16 years has been “about the art.’  Pretty pictures. Built in Flash. Incompatible with many browsers and devices. Limited in functionality due to lack of technical expertise. It’s been created by agencies who view index.html as a new canvas that can’t wait to be the vehicle for their next wonderfully creative expression. Who needs concepts like usability, intuitive navigation, conversion funnels when it’s really all about the art?

I’m not diminishing the power of great graphical presentation, but a tepid economy is forcing businesses to demand measurable results for their marketing. For too many years businesses have laughed at the axiom: “Half my marketing money is well spent, the other half is totally wasted, but I just can’t figure which is which,” and then went on to pay marketing firms and advertising agencies huge sums of money for campaigns that favored creativity over measurability, and art over ROI.

The fact that everything that happens on the web is measurable is causing marketing gurus finally to see the light. But those of us who have been shining that light for over a decade and a half are saying it’s about time.  Since that January day in 1996 when we opened our doors as one of Milwaukee’s very first web development companies and introduced “web sites with vision,” we have focused on delivering demonstrable, measurable, and improvable value for our clients. It  is…and always has been…about knowing exactly what the client’s goals and visitor expectations are, and making sure that the design and technology work together intelligently to meet them both.

From our first e-commerce-enabled web site in 1997 and our first mobile website in 1999, “responsive web” has been at the core of what we do. What’s now being called responsive design isn’t just the next shiny object. It’s “Smart Design and Creative Technology” that has differentiated us from our competition these past sixteen years, and is what will keep us leading the pack for the next sixteen.

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My contribution to the book is “5 Procedures to Resuscitate your Website.”  Other sections of the book deal with topics from marketing to management.

I was honored to be considered one of the smart Milwaukee business people chosen to contribute to the project.  Trivera has always been a fan and partner of Clear Verve founder and president Christina Steder. To be a part of this project with her and so many other local business heroes was a no brainer.

The e-book is full of ideas for businesses to implement over the coming year, and the site where the e-book can be downloaded also provides readers with the opportunity to receive monthly emails with tips to help maintain their momentum.

The e-book is available for download for free at www.100Ways2012.com. Sign up for the email tips is also available by clicking on the Continued Success tab.

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After 2 years of frequent and extended down times, poor support and clients calling us to solve problems we couldn’t fix, we decided to set up our own hosting operation. We’ve been hosting our client sites ever since.

Occasionally, we have a new client who wants to host with a large, cheap, national commodity hosting company. We explain to them why it’s unwise to put their website somewhere with slow load times, poor (or non-existent) support, chronic downtime and/or a value proposition of being the hosting provider whose commercials tease you with a chance to see Danica Patrick and Jillian Michaels naked. They usually see the light and let us host it.

But, lately, we’ve been seeing another growing trend. Clients who proudly tell us they’re going to host the site themselves. The effort is always driven by an internal IT person with one of several predictable motives, none of which include an objective decision to put the site on the best hosting service possible.

If you’re thinking about hosting your own corporate web presence, and have your IT guys insisting  that you can, or even should, host it internally, you’ll want to ask them these 8 questions to determine whether that’s the direction to go:

1.) Does your internal hosting solution include guaranteed power backup capabilities?

We’re not talking about a little consumer level APC battery backup, but a system that automatically flips to batteries and/or generators with private fuel contracts that assure your site will remain up without any interruption, even in the event of a power failure that lasts for days. Or weeks.

2.) Are they willing, able and available to provide the service and support a website requires?

That doesn’t mean just 8am-5pm on weekdays. Real website support means someone who is available 24/7/365 to immediately respond to phone calls or emailed issues related to outages and other server problem. It means having those phone numbers and email addresses on every page of your website. It also means a commitment not to let those problems wait till it’s convenient to fix them, but a proficiency, willingness and dedication to restore a crashed server within 20 minutes, no matter when it happens.

3.) Do they understand everything necessary about making a hosting environment PCI-DSS compliant?

This means knowing when to update all the hosting infrastructure-specific packages (OS, Web server, Database, compilers and platforms, SSL handling, etc.) , and understanding what is necessary to protect credit card and other critical personal information.

4.) Are they so confident in their security expertise that they are comfortable providing a potential backdoor to your company’s entire internal network to the world? 

There are armies of hackers, crackers, pirates and other miscreants who pride themselves on being superior to your IT people when it comes to web security. They scour the web with bots and spiders to find vulnerable systems they know they can exploit, and when they find them, they tunnel in as far as they can go… not just stopping at your site, but also taking advantage of typical network infrastructure to gain access to your data. All of it. Are your guys absolutely certain that your systems would be safe?

5.) Do they know how to stop or, better yet, prevent a distributed denial of service attack (DDOS)?

The solution to having your site bombarded and overloaded with thousands or millions of hits from IP addresses all over the world is not doing an emergency Google search when it happens to figure out how to make it stop.  By the time you find your answer, your site, your server and your network may already be suffering damage from which it might not ever recover.

6.) Does your network connection provide redundancy in its connection to the web?

We’re not talking about dual T-1′s coming in through the same pipe, but rather redundant physical connections from multiple physical entry points to your building, each providing a different path to the Internet backbone to eliminate site outages to portions of the country in the event of a main trunk outage on any one of them.

7.) Does your connection provide the necessary dedicated bandwidth that websites need today?

With thousands of site visitors these days with broadband speeds of 20, 30 or 50 MBPS, one or even two T-1′s aren’t enough.

8.) Is it really worth it to make your company pay more for the development just so you can host it internally?

Your web developers are more efficient when they don’t have to develop your site in an unfamiliar, improperly equipped and potentially misconfigured environment, and have to deal with a server administrator that’s not familiar with their needs. Your cost to develop the site will be more if it’s hosted at your company.

So what if you ask your IT guys the above 8 questions, and they say “yes” or “yes, we can” to all of them? Ask them this one:

9.) Can you do all of this as a budget line item of less than a couple hundred bucks a month?

Even if your IT staff and internal hosting infrastructure is capable of the above, you need to ask yourself if it’s worth the expense. Add it all up. Can you really get all of this for anything close to the couple hundred dollars a month for a virtual dedicated server fully managed by your web development vendor, and even less for a site in a shared hosting environment in the same facility?

The logic is simple. Let your IT people focus on maintaining your internal network infrastructure and security and leave your website hosting to the guys who do it for a living, and have been for a long time. It’s too important to do anything less.

The post 9 Questions Your IT Guys Need to Answer Before You Host Your Own Website appeared first on TriveraGuy - Rescuing the World from Bad Web...One Business at a Time!.

Initiated as a consumer-oriented technology, social media is increasingly being leveraged as a powerful, low-cost tool for enterprises to drive business objectives such as enhanced customer interaction, greater brand recognition and more effective employee recruitment. While social media affords enterprises many potential benefits, information risk professionals are concerned about its inherent risks such as data leakage, malware propagation and privacy infringement. Enterprises seeking to integrate social media into their business strategy must adopt a cross-functional, strategic approach that addresses risks, impacts and mitigation steps, along with appropriate governance and assurance measures.

To educate professionals on the topic, I did my presentation the Risky Business of Social Media for the Kettle Moraine chapter of the The Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) on Wednesday November 16, 2011 at 2:30pm.

Event was LIVE  in BROOKFIELD, broadcast remotely to MADISON and the FOX VALLEY and available virtually to members via WEBEX.

The Powerpoint for the presentation can be found here.

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This is a big one… I usually do my Social Media Overview that has about 20 minutes on Twitter. From time to time  I do a one hour Twitter seminar, and always run out of time. This time, I get 2 full hours. Everything from tools to tactics and beyond:

•     Creating your Profile
•     Monitoring your Space
•     Building your Flock
•     Engaging your Twibe
•     Establishing your Cred
•     Marketing your Stuff

If you own or manage a small business, or are responsible for your company’s marketing, you can’t afford to miss this.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Continental Breakfast included at 7:30 a.m.
Seminar: 8:00-10:00 a.m.
Research Park/Wauwatosa Chamber
10437 Innovation Drive
Classroom 121
Wauwatosa

Chamber Member Price: $20
Community Member Price: $30

YOU MUST PRE-REGISTER

Sign up here, or call call the UWM School of Continuing Education at 414-227-3098

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See the entire article and photos here

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I say “Hogwash! “

You may think the information contained in a bad video may be helpful enough to the viewer that they’ll overlook bad production. I say this over and over: your brand is not your logo, it’s the promise of an experience. Everything you do either reinforces or erodes that brand. And simply put, bad video erodes your brand.

If you MUST create your own video, make sure that it reinforces your brand with these pointers:

1. Length. Video should be no more than 15 minutes with opening and closing credits. You’ll likely be posting your videos to YouTube as a part of both a storage/delivery solution and a component of viral distribution and 15 minutes is the maximum length YouTube will accept. If the topic cannot be completely covered in 15 minutes, create a series with 15 minute parts. Remember the Chinese proverb that says “The truth can be told in few words.”  Understand that attention spans are short and the longer the video is, the less likely that people will stay engaged all the way through.

2. Subject matter. The goal is not to cram as much information into 15 minutes as you can. Online video is more compelling if the idea is simple. People are easily distracted when watching a video, so you can’t try to put too much into one. Try to convey one or two ideas at the most. Begin by telling people what you’re going to tell them. Then tell them, ideally using 3 points. Finally, tell them what you told them. Remember, you may be the expert, but the focus of the message is not you, it’s the viewer. They have a situation, a question, a problem or a curiosity, and you have the solution. Communicate that solution to them clearly, genuinely and enthusiastically. You’ll keep their attention, earn their appreciation and potentially win their business.

3. Content. If it’s about your brand, content should always be family-friendly.  You never know when a prospective customer will have a little one on their lap or looking over their shoulder, so make sure your content and language is appropriate for viewers of any age.  Don’t disparage other products, services, people or organizations, and don’t make inappropriate comments about age, race, gender, disability, sexual orientation or ethnicity. Don’t advocate for any political organization or party or promote or recruit for any religious denomination. And don’t demean any of them either.

4. On-camera Presence. You are the authority. The way you come across needs to re-enforce that. If you’re not comfortable, it will show, and your viewers will be uncomfortable, too. You’ll undermine your own credibility. Practice to work on eliminating the “umms” and “uhhhs” so you sound confident and professional.

Then practice again, focusing on the camera. Unless you need to look at something you’re demonstrating, don’t let your eyes wander anywhere else but directly into the lens. If you’re going to be sitting in the video, sit on a chair that doesn’t swivel and practice to avoid squirming. If you’re standing,  practice to keep from rocking back and forth.

Practice enough times so that you’re not just reading copy, but actually communicating the information in a personal and conversational manner.

Practice, practice, practice.

5. Audio. Nothing screams “unprofessional” like a cheap microphone feet away from the speaker. Invest in a good clip-on microphone. Try to eliminate any distracting ambient room noise. If you’re shooting outside, make sure your microphone has a windscreen. If you’ll have more than one person speaking, try to provide a microphone for each individual, and ensure that everyone’s audio level is equal.

Your message is important. Do all you can to make it easy to hear so it can be understood.

6. Lighting. Lighting is critical. Digital video can’t have enough light. But if you’re shooting outside, try to do it on a slightly overcast day. Bright sunlight causes shadows and makes you squint.  Some cloudiness eliminates both.

If you’re shooting indoors, several lights aimed at the walls and ceiling will light you without blinding you, casting harsh shadows or reflecting off your face. Construction site lights actually work well if you’re on a budget.

7. Camera. Create your video in High Definition (720p or 1080i, ideally recorded at 29.97 or 24 frames per second). Even cheap video cameras (and even many still cameras) these days are capable of shooting video with that resolution. Don’t get cute with someone shooting while constantly moving around you, zooming in and out or circling you. This isn’t MTV. Use a tripod, and put the camera close enough so you are the predominant image.

8. Stills slides and Edits. While not necessary, still pictures or slides with information  can be added. They are a good way to set a scene or help with transitions. But beware of video editing programs. If you don’t already know how to use them correctly, they can be a huge time suck. Keep your edits simple. Use edits primarily to remove extraneous and unnecessary footage, not to add wild transitions or effects. Less is more.

9. Music. Use background music only for scenes where you’ll be demonstrating something without narration or commentary. A music bed under the entire video will likely detract from your message and make it seem more like a commercial. You must have the author’s and composer’s permission to use any copy written music in your video. Don’t think that using your favorite smooth jazz instrumental won’t get you in trouble. Within minutes of your upload to YouTube, you’ll be getting a warning from them about copyright violation. Yeah, they find out almost immediately.

A big list, I know. But if your ultimate goal for creating a video is to position your brand as one based on quality and commitment to excellence, sweating the details on the production will be critical.  If the above list is overwhelming and intimidating, your limited time will be better spent maintaining your focus on your product or service and leaving the video to the pros.  But if you think you have an aptitude in this area, and are willing to heed the advice you may still be able to produce brand re-enforcing media yourself. While production values won’t rival those you see on TV it may still be good enough.  If you’re OK with your brand being represented by a happy medium, it doesn’t take expensive equipment, just a little attention to detail. At least it won’t be an embarrassment.

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If you’re a business owner or decision maker in the Milwaukee Area, join me for this event:

The leading Social Media firm in Southeastern Wisconsin is teaming up with the newest hotel in Menomonee Falls to help local businesses take advantage of the Social Media phenomenon. Trivera Interactive presents “Jumpstarting Your Business with Social Media”, Thursday, July 14th from 4 to 6pm at the new Radissson Hotel, Main Street and Hwy 45, in Menomonee Falls.

The two hour event, begins in the Radisson Ballroom with Trivera President and author Tom Snyder presenting: “Social Media – Fun and Games or Powerful Business Tool.” Snyder is a regular speaker on the topic of Social Media and Web marketing at events like the Biz Times Biz Tech Expo, Metropolitan Builders Association, Social Media Breakfast, the Nonbox Winter Marketing Summit, and many other trade group and association events. The presentation will cover how to develop your strategy to determine which Social Media tools present the greatest chance for success, and then giving a brief overview of the most common uses of Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, YouTube and more.

Following the presentation, Snyder and other local experts will be on hand in the RBG Bar and Grill Restaurant, also at the New Radisson, for an hour to provide hands-on training and one on one Q&A.

Since 1996, Trivera Interactive has been helping businesses leverage the power of Web and Social Media. Clients include Mitchell International Airport, Usinger’s, Potawatomi Bingo Casino, Regal Ware, Frabill, the Metropolitan Builders Association, ZBB Energy and dozens of others. In 2009 Trivera’s Social media University, Milwaukee’s first large Social Media Training event drew 400 attendees. Trivera President is also the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to real-Time Marketing using Foursqaure, published by Penguin Books and available at Amazon.com

The brand-new Radisson Hotel Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin is proud to offer beautiful, urban-design accommodations near Milwaukee. Fully committed to guest satisfaction, the hotel features an array of outstanding amenities and services including complimentary Wi-Fi access, a Business Center, an on-site Fitness Center, a heated indoor pool and whirlpool, meeting facilities, and on-site dining and room service. The Radisson is just minutes from downtown Menomonee Falls and only 14 miles from Milwaukee’s city center.

The event is free and open to all local businesses. Cash bar, appetizers and food will be available for purchase. For more information go to http://www.trivera.com/jumpstart

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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 2 years ago, over 81,000 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.

The post How I Make You Smarter…and Your Business More Successful…One Tweet at a Time. appeared first on TriveraGuy - Rescuing the World from Bad Web...One Business at a Time!.

Details are here

Updated:

PowerPoint Presentation is here!

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First it’s a tactic, not a strategy…which I say not to be smart alec, but rather to impress the need to know your overall marketing strategy first, and then choose your tactics. Once you know your goals, objectives and target audience, then you can choose a tactic that will help you achieve those goals and objectives.

If you’ve just started your Twitter profile and have no followers, before you ask the question “who?” first ask “what?”

Ask yourself what you need to Tweet about that will make your target audience WANT to follow you. Get busy…even if you have no followers, yet…and start posting those tweets. When you follow someone and they wonder who you are, they’ll check out your profile. You’ll only have one chance to make a good first impression. So make sure that your profile is visually designed to communicate your brand identity, and filled out with a bio that describes your value proposition, and links to your site (or a page in your site that would be a compelling landing page for people coming from Twitter). But even more important, you want them to see a list of your recent Tweets. If there are a bunch and they’re authentic, transparent, interesting, compelling and of value, they’re more likely to follow you back.

So how do you choose who to follow hoping they’ll follow you back?

I always have my clients start first with the media echo chamber. Traditional media hasn’t died yet, and still has influence. Getting a local media outlet to follow you increases your chance of getting press coverage. I created a list of local media on Twitter for my clients in Milwaukee, and we look through the list and have them follow those outlets that give them the greatest chance of interest. To find a media list, simply do a search for media outlet you know by name in your community on twitter, and look for the “listed” link on their profile. You’ll find a bunch of lists with other media outlets. Pick and choose strategically to follow the ones consistent with your brand and your target demographics.

Next find local influencers. For instance, if you’re a Wine Shop, identify and follow the people who tweet about wine and wine tasting events. Don’t just follow, REALLY follow. See what they’re tweeting about, and who they’re engaging in conversations with. Follow those people too. Is there a wine tasting or food event? See who’s talking it up in advance. Follow them. The day of the event, if there’s a hashtag, see who’s tweeting the hashtag. Follow them.

But that still isn’t enough to assure that you’ll get follow backs. Begin to engage them. You’re the expert, right? Ask them their opinions. Share information with them. Make recommendations. The relationship that develops will create its own network. Continue to extend that network by watching the followers of those in that network. Follow them. Engage. Expand. Repeat.

If you think all you need to do is start a Twitter profile, and follow millions of people hoping for follow backs, you’ll not only fail to get meaningful results, but you’re missing the point of Twitter entirely.

Social Media is about relationships. And that takes more effort than just a click of a “follow” button.

The post Twitter Followers for Your Business: From Zero to Hero appeared first on TriveraGuy - Rescuing the World from Bad Web...One Business at a Time!.

Details are here

Update: My Powerpoint presentation is available here.

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1. The 9 WORST Ways to Use Facebook for Business
2. Why the CEO doesn’t care about your Twitter follower count
3. 10 Reasons You’re Not Getting Followers on Twitter
4. Great infographics: How to lose friends and alienate followers
5. Facebook Page Redesign: All You Need to Know
6. The 7 stages of a social media blunder
7. 10 reasons NOT to be on Twitter.
8. 5 Things You Should Never Say While Negotiating
9. Social Media – The entrepreneur’s new biggest pain point..
10. 7 grammatical errors you can sometimes ignore (and I do regularly)

Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to this RSS feed to get 5-10 great tips a day to help your business compete in the digital world.

The post Top 10 Info-Tweets for February, 2011 appeared first on TriveraGuy - Rescuing the World from Bad Web...One Business at a Time!.

1. The 9 WORST Ways to Use Facebook for Business
2. 10 cool social networking features that you may not know
3. 10 reasons you need to wake up earlier (Bonus: 6 tips for actually doing it)
4. 10 buzzwords SM consultants need to stop using right now!
5. 5 key tips for a successful Social Media Content Strategy
6. 11 certainties about your brand’s reputation
7. 9 easy steps to add Twitter to your PR mix
8. 6 reasons why you’re not getting more followers on Twitter
9. 7 Reasons Why Your Posts Aren’t Getting Retweeted
10. Facebook Marketing: 10 Tips on Better Fan Pages

Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to this RSS feed to get 5-10 great tips a day to help your business compete in the digital world.

The post Top 10 Info-Tweets for January, 2011 appeared first on TriveraGuy - Rescuing the World from Bad Web...One Business at a Time!.

1. The 9 WORST Ways to Use Facebook for Business
2. How Twitter Can Improve Your SEO
3. My book? On Amazon.com?!? Sweet! The Complete Idiot’s Mini Guide to Real-time Marketing with Foursquare.
4. Top 10 communication tips of 2010
5. 10 Cool social networking features that you may not know
6. The Secret Weapon for Social Media Success – My article in this week’s BizTimes
7. 10 things to toss before the end of 2010
8. 10 SEO Tactics every Facebook page owner should know
9. People always ask me who nails it with Social Media. Answer has always been Dell. This shows why.
10. 6 things new PR pros need to know

Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to this RSS feed to get 5-10 great tips a day to help your business compete in the digital world.

The post Top 10 Info-Tweets for December, 2010 appeared first on TriveraGuy - Rescuing the World from Bad Web...One Business at a Time!.

Foursquare is a website that allows members to use their mobile devices and smart phones to “check in” wherever they go, and if they wish, Tweet about it or post it to their Facebook page. While originally a way for people to hook up with their friends, Foursquare’s point system and badge awards turned it into a game. It wasn’t long before businesses started to figure out how to use it to drive traffic to their locations by offering special prices and other promotions to people who checked in at their locations.

About the new e-book, Penguin says: Social media marketing is here in force and is the wave of the future. Using it wisely can mean big profits — with little expense. But marketing in real-time on Foursquare.com is unlike other social media, and can be both confusing and daunting. Fear no more! The Complete Idiot’s Mini Guide to Real-time Marketing with Foursquare gives you everything you need to know to make marketing on this website popular and profitable. In this invaluable guide, you’ll learn about creating and managing your venue, superusers, badges, creating specials, and finding customers — all the basics for a great Foursquare marketing campaign and so much more!

The Complete Idiot’s Mini Guide to Real-Time Marketing takes you through the steps to get you familiar with the site, make sure your location is “check-in”-ready, helps you create specials, measure and improve upon your success, and even offers a few case studies of several successful businesses who have used Foursquare to make their cash registers ring.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Real-Time Marketing is only $1.99 and is available for the Kindle at Amazon.com or for the Nook at BarnesandNoble.com

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1. Want an idea of how far the web has come? Best Buy’s original web site in 1996

2. The 9 WORST Ways to Use Facebook for Business

3. 50 office-speak phrases that have GOT to go

4. 12 types of social media experts

5. 10 secrets of how the Facebook news feed works

6. Five Ways Businesses Ruin Twitter for the Rest of Us

7. 6 tips for using hashtags for events

8. Five Ways Twitter Can Help You Conquer Distraction

9. 7 things to do when the media get it wrong

10. People have been asking, today I tell you: Why I’ve Dumped Tweetdeck for Mixero

Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to this RSS feed to get 5-10 great tips a day to help your business compete in the digital world.

The post Top 10 Info-Tweets for November, 2010 appeared first on TriveraGuy - Rescuing the World from Bad Web...One Business at a Time!.

1. The 9 WORST Ways to Use Facebook for Business

2. 8 Ways to Not Get ReTweeted

3. 8 social media trends to watch in 2011

4. Absolutely everything you need to know to win usability arguments

5. 7 Image Search Tools That Will Change Your Life

6. People have been asking, today I tell you: Why I’ve Dumped Tweetdeck for Mixero

7. 10 Sure-Fire Ways To Alienate Your Brand Evangelists

8. 7 Places to Find Free, Legal Images for the Web

9. 10 secrets of how the Facebook news feed works

10. 3 Problems that Make Me Leave Your Blog in 3 Seconds

Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to this RSS feed to get 5-10 great tips a day to help your business compete in the digital world.

The post Top 10 Info-Tweets for October, 2010 appeared first on TriveraGuy - Rescuing the World from Bad Web...One Business at a Time!.

The power of Social Media comes from the personal brand that is being built by an author, and the benefit a corporate brand derives by having that person engage an audience in the Social Media community.

But what if the real voice and face of your brand is just too busy to participate?

My company has been the online services partner for one of our area’s most visible brands for nearly a decade and a half. While they know their brand better than anyone else, we know their brand in the online space as well as, if not better than they do. If they could afford to pay me enough to leave the company I own and be on their payroll, I’m probably the most qualified person to BE them in the Social Media sphere.  But they can’t, and so we work with them as a vendor.

For blogging, we  told them that unless it was actually the corporate face of the brand who’s doing the blogging, they really shouldn’t do it. A ghost-written blog is not a blog… it’s really PR and needs to be renamed as such and moved to the appropriate area of the site. And so we used an integrated installation of WordPress on their site to post their press releases, giving them the RSS benefits of a blog, but clearly labeling it as “The News” and not a blog.

However, as an already popular location on Foursquare, not being on Twitter or Facebook wasn’t an option for them. That put me in a weird position. Having developed their Social Media strategy, voice, rules and roles, and needing to accommodate their lack of time and internal resources, we decided to make Twitter a co-effort. Initially, I posted each Tweet, but only after their review and sign off. It was a clumsy process with some of them taking several back and forth edits prior to posting. However, that process resulted in an even better understanding for us, and an educational process for them. Eventually they realized it was just easier for them to post themselves, and a year later, we’ve gotten them to actually be doing all the Tweeting and Facebooking themselves. We still continue to monitor for brand mentions and let them know when they need to respond to something. But we showed them how to monitor, and they usually are finding things to post or Tweet about just as fast as we would have.  We still help them develop Social Media based promotions, and take care of the Web and housekeeping aspects of the strategy, but for the most part, they have become pretty much self sufficient.

It was a difficult path, because initially, it could have been regarded as a violation of the authenticity and transparency that Social Media requires. But the alternative was a brand eroding silence in the Twitter-sphere and on Facebook.

It’s a tough decision that many are faced with: outsource or not participate. But because not participating is not an option, this creative approach may be the only solution available.

The post The Dilemma of Authenticity, Transparency and Limited Resources appeared first on TriveraGuy - Rescuing the World from Bad Web...One Business at a Time!.

1. Thinking of offering a Groupon? Watch out… you could get clobbered!
2. How to Use Facebook and Twitter to Drive Traffic to Your Retail Shop
3. Still hearing the tired mantra that there is no ROI in Social Media? See my latest blog: Social Media – A Year of Impact
4. People have been asking, today I tell you: Why I’ve Dumped Tweetdeck for Mixero
5. 4 Things You Need to Know About Influence
6. 17 Essential Twitter Tips For Reaching Local Customers
7. 25 Ways to Listen to Customers on Social Media
8. 5 Ways HTML5 Is Changing Mobile Advertising
9. My latest blog at Social Media Today: Twitter Followers for Your Business: From Zero to Hero
10. Foursquare Metrics = Why check-ins do not equal foot traffic

Follow me on Twitter or subscribe to this RSS feed to get 5-10 great tips a day to help your business compete in the digital world.

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