One of Twelve Horses latest launches is the newly designed and developed Reno-Tahoe, America’s Adventure Place website located at visitrenotahoe.com. The Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority (RSCVA) looked to us to effectively communicate the excitement and value of the destination, as well as give them the necessary web tools to feature and promote the region going forward. Take a gander and let us know what you think of the look and feel.

Branding & Strategy

Before even beginning to architect the site or design comps we held several branding sessions to really uncover what the America’s Adventure place brand is and what the organization wants to project. In other words, what really differentiates the Reno-Tahoe destination from another location, and why would visitors want to go there? We identified the items of most importance, and the images and structure of the site reflect this.

Stakeholders also provided valuable input and feedback, which dictated certain elements of the site such as the Play-Stay-Dining-Events box directly below the main flash promo area.

You should also notice the emphasis on action, outdoor adventure, weather, which is prominent because of the large number of beautiful sunny days, and water because, unlike Vegas, Reno has a river that runs through it and is in close proximity to mountain snow and Lake Tahoe.

In general the homepage is designed to incorporate images, videos and feeds (such as the blog) to bring dynamic content to the forefront so it is never static. What’s new, what’s happening?  - there is always something exciting going on.

Website Design & Development

Building out this site required careful consideration to the organization of content (there were 6500 pages on the old site and currently 1500 on the new). Equally important was addressing the needs of marketing, convention and tourism sales, public relations, as well as the stakeholders that have a vested interest in the organization’s ability to promote convention and tourism business for Washoe County.

If you look at many other convention and visitor bureaus (CVBs) there is often a habit of creating specific portals for web visitors to enter the site. This is the way they deal with the challenging issue of organizing large amounts of content. For example:

The problem with this is it impacts the search engine optimization of the website as it relates to the ranking of the homepage, and one also runs the risk of not exposing say, a meeting planner to the information you would qualify for visitors/guests. We really tried hard to clearly present all of the information directly from the homepage.

Speaking of SEO and usability, before we launched the website the entire old site was mapped in order to maintain rankings while the search engines indexed the new site. This way, instead of receiving a 404 each page was referred to the proper page on the new website.

Web Development on the Backend

The RSCVA makes use of our Content Management System or CMS to edit and change all aspects of the website. It includes some cool custom applications such as:

• Stakeholder Application
• Individual stakeholders such as local hotels and casinos can edit their specific pages via their own login. They can change content, upload media and photos, and manipulate RSS feeds. These feeds are then displayed on the main calendar and events pages.
• Newsletter Application
• Instead of having to login in to a separate platform to design and deliver their email marketing campaigns, they can do it all through the CMS. All actions directly integrate with MessageMaker, so they can follow up on delivery rates and other pertinent statistics.
• Press Release Application
• The press release application gives public relations has the ability to construct press releases in the WYSIWYG editor and upload them to the website. They can also set specific permissions and date of release.
• Form Generator
• The form generator gives non-technical staff or webmasters the ability to build out promotions or giveaways to collect valuable customer information. The forms integrate with MessageMaker, which allows them to export lists to CSV or segment customers based on the specific promotions or items of interest.
• Search Engine Optimization Application
• The SEO application gives the RSCVA the ability to manage redirects, add analytics code, change meta data and much more.

Also included in the CMS are other useful items such as Workflow and Permissions. This gives staff the ability to send updates for approval and share the workload in order to keep content fresh and current. This extends across the board to all departments including:

• Finance
• Convention Sales
• Public Relations
• Tourism

Data Replication Engine

Behind it all is Twelve Horses’ Data Replication Engine (DRE). The RSCVA uses the DRE to take contacts from their website and push them into MessageMaker. It keeps the database current, and automatically manages action like, before email newsletter deliveries it does a check for all unsubscribes to be sure they never send an email to someone that does not want to receive it.

There is much more to it, but hopefully this gives you a good idea of what went into the website. Certainly a great level of consideration and technology has been applied to the construction of this website.

tags: website design, web site development, search engine optimization, seo, data replication engine, content managment system, reno, tahoe, rscva, ” reno sparks convention & visitors authority”

It’s darn near impossible to build a website today without needing to integrate it with some kind of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool. From Siebel to Salesforce.com to custom in-house solutions, CRMs have migrated from enterprises down to businesses of all sizes. The website and the CRM system need to share critical pieces of data in order to allow customers to maintain their own profile, while also giving internal teams the ability to provide the best customer experience available.

Because Application Programming Interfaces (API) have become so prevalent, keeping these two parties talking is doable. An API is like providing software with a phone that can receive calls to tell software to exchange data or execute commands.

The problems with APIs is they usually just sit there waiting for someone to call. Just because two separate programs have phones doesn’t mean they can call each other. One program has to learn - or be programmed - to dial the other. It also needs to know what data and commands to send over the line in order to receive back the proper response. It’s one of natures most fundamental processes.

What this means to the business is you are going to be changing code on either a sophisticated web application, or on an even more complex CRM system. In turn, this means developer costs, quality control testing and potential bugs can be introduced into one or more of these systems. Think of it as, Websites are from Mars and CRM systems are from Venus.

Enter data replication. Think of data replication as software’s match making friend. Data replication has a little black book of phone numbers and the notes on how to speak the other’s language. However, in this relationship, data replication doesn’t just setup the call and walk away. No, he sticks around logging the results, interpreting the responses and making sure no fights break out over who said what or who’s not being attentive to the other’s needs.

Sure, now every time the two pieces of software need to get together, data replication has to be there…in the middle…on a schedule. Awkward. But neither party is trying to be changed. Neither has to bend to the will of the other. No compromises. And if anything does go wrong, everyone can look at data replication to see how, when and where.

Now for the cheesy classified ad for data replication services, “Sound like a relationship you looking to create? Visit our Data Replication Engine page to learn how data replication can get your software together.”

A few weeks back (Video, Video, Video) we spoke about the growing importance of video content on the web. One of the downsides of video though has been the time lock it puts on us. Sometimes it is far easier to read that four minutes of text and follow the pertinent links provided than it is to watch a video and then go and search for more information on topics brought up in the video.

Fear not! For finally, after over a decade of failed attempts, the hyperlinking technology we now take for granted in text is taking off as well in video. Think of a video for a Convention and Visitor Authority with pop-up links at key points which can send the viewer directly to a website to purchase tickets, view schedules or find more info about a particular attraction. Perhaps one for a ski resort with links to other videos about the ski patrol, or to a trail map, Flickr photoset, ticketing info, the food menus, pro shops and any other important or even just interesting bit of information.

Websites like Asterpix, Overlay.tv, QGIA and VideoCLix.tv are providing, or beginning to provide, simple web based services where you can upload footage or link to existing footage online and then create the the hyperlinks to other websites, enter details about items found in the video or any number of options, depending on the site’s formatting.

Similar results can be created with a custom look using Adobe Flash (though it is not the most efficient option for the job) or Riva Producer and other products are in development or even redevelopment in the case of software which was abandoned before the broadband and YouTube explosions.

There is a bit of a downside as the currently favored online video distribution sites (YouTube, Yahoo Video, MySpace…) can not handle hypervideo. The files therefore must be hosted through other means which does make it harder to get the content visible outside of the website it is hosted on. Possibilities could lie in distributing just the basic video in the attempt to garner interest in the actual hyperlinked video on the original site. Regardless of the difficulties, this is currently in it’s infancy and has the potential to change the way we browse and shop the web.

Twelve Horses plans to be on the forefront of this burgeoning technology. Added to our expanding video content creation abilities to write, produce, shoot, edit and distribute video content we are perfectly placed to take advantage of hypervideo and other techniques. Give us a call, and we can help you with your video needs.

-Earl

Like it or hate it, Web 2.0 is a term that is widely used. Marketers and industry folks use it all the time to describe web-based communities and social networks. And if Facebook’s recent valuation is any indication, things appear to be going quite well for this type of web development. Something more exciting than that, however, is Google’s recent announcement of OpenSocial. I’m sure someone out there is just barely containing themselves from labeling this recent development as the coming of Web 3.0. Regardless, it does have some pretty profound implications for businesses of all types.

What is OpenSocial?

According to Google, “OpenSocial provides a common set of APIs for social applications across multiple websites. With standard JavaScript and HTML, developers can create apps that access a social network’s friends and update feeds.”

What does this mean to you?

When you develop a web application you will have the opportunity to get much more out of your investment. You will be able to place this application on multiple sites to reach many more customers.

As an example, think of a resort destination that provides users with an application that allows them to rate their favorite places, share pictures and video, and even meet up. OpenSocial would allow this application to be used across multiple social networks like MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn, as well as other communities and even blogs.

I can already sense that some marketers out there are getting concerned about their web analytics. My advice - don’t worry about it. You will introduce your brand to more people than ever before. In fact, you’d probably see your web traffic go up. Go to where the audience is, don’t wait for them to come to you.

Of course, it is still early in the game for OpenSocial, and it depends on if everyone decides to play nicely together in the sandbox. Either way, it is something we will be watching and you should start thinking about when it comes to your online marketing strategy.

Google has certainly been thinking about it for a while.

This morning I ventured out to the Arizona Technology Council’s CIO forum. Anna Frazzetto, vice president of Technology Solutions for Harvey Nash USA presented their findings from the IT Leadership 2006/2007 CIO Survey followed by a round table discussion by 5 business people in various CIO related roles from local Phoenix businesses.

Having an Internet bent on everything I do, I was curious to hear how CIO’s for companies view the Internet. Do they see it as a marketing/sales project? Is it the responsibility of IT? What challenges do CIOs face when dealing with online CRM systems like Salesforce.com or by making company data available via externally accessible intranets?

Instead, the only question posed to the round table that was not related to off shoring was in regards to virtualization. I was in awe that there wasn’t ethical questions about off shoring, instead it was more a conversation as to what to off shore and how to manage it. Places like India, China, Vietnam, and even Mexico are fully capable and are in fact doing off shore projects for very large US companies. This seems to be a given in the CIO world.
The reason seems to stem from available resources. US colleges are graduating less than 10% of their students in computer and IT related fields. Less available bodies means greater costs to recruit and hire these students. Places like India can have as high as 85% of their graduating students in IT related fields. And here, inexpensive labor does not mean cheap work. It’s purely supply and demand.

When deciding what type of activities to off shore, panelist Fred Mapp, President of Quality Service Solutions, put it best, “You need to know what are your company’s core competencies.”

Obviously, you don’t want to off shore or outsource what makes you unique. Instead, you want to off shore those activities that aren’t productive for your company to be part of.

And don’t fall for the 80 - 90% cost savings hype that is often bantered about. Instead, you may expect to save about 40 - 50% after factoring time to manage and deal with the project.

I don’t want to get into any ethical conversation on this topic. If you feel strongly one way or another, I recommend discussing the issues with the Computer Science department at your local university. Also, kids learn what they want to be when they grow up at a young age. When was the last time you told your kids, “Computer Science could be fun.  That’s a profession I would look into.”

If you are not using Google Alerts to monitor what is being said about you and your company online, I would highly recommend that you start. Depending on your preference, you will receive an email from Google once a day, as-it-happens, or once a week listing any content that includes the terms you’ve set. Here’s a sample of an email I received today of how it looks. As you can see, Google bolded the term I inputted.

Tumblr Inspired Quick Post Wordpress Plugin
By Josh Kenzer
I pleased to announce the release of my first Wordpress plugin, Quick Post. Inspired by the tumblr.com bookmarklet that allows quick and easy posting, I have created a similar plugin that will allow you to quickly post text, images, …
Horse Power - Twelve Horses’ Blog - http://blog.twelvehorses.com

NCET introduces Wi-Fi Wednesdays
By Dave Archer
Wi-Fi Wednesdays is the brainchild of NCET marketing manager Emily Lowe and Robert Payne and Josh Kenzer of Twelve Horses. The trio was looking for a way to expand their professional networks and was weary of the same tired old venues. …
Nevada’s Center for Entrepreneurship… - http://www.ncet.org

Blogging for Business, Fun…or the A-list
By nevadagirl
There is a post on Twelve Horses Blog, “Whats all the Blog About.” Relieved to find out blogging is considered A-list…..wait was there a just kidding after that? I’ll pretend they’re kidding, they are kidding and say yes, it’s A-list. …
Nevada Girl’s World - http://redheads.wordpress.com

tags: Google, Alerts, Twelve Horses, Blog

I received an email today from the Google Analytics team alerting me to their new user interface. I immediately went to the Twelve Horses account to login. Upon login, I was offered a tour of the new features, but was disappointed to see I didn’t have access to the new UI. Apparently they are rolling it out over the next few weeks. After watching the tour, I am salivating over the new features and ease of use.

If you use Google Analytics, look forward to the new UI.

We recently launched a new website on behalf of Nevada Humanities, which has been created to serve as a repository for everything that is uniquely Nevada. You can access the site at http://onlinenevada.org/

Nevada Magazine just published an article on the subject:

Beyond Reading
Interactive Web site tells Nevada’s stories
through its articles, images, and sounds.

Now, thanks to the Online Nevada Encyclopedia (ONE), Internet users can observe the Strip’s 50-year transformation behind the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign in a matter of seconds, spend a day with a fourth-generation ranching family in Gardnerville, and order a drink at the Old Washoe Club in Virginia City. OK, the Web site’s not interactive to that degree, but the Media Gallery allows you to get so up close and personal with the inside of the historic bar that you can view the detail in the pictures on the wall.

The virtual Web site, which incorporates the latest technology in its articles, images, and audio to tell Nevada’s story, officially launched in April. “We wanted an experience that goes beyond reading,” says graphics editor Howard Golbaum, a professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism at University of Nevada, Reno. “It’s the next best thing to being there.”

ONE was featured at the recent Rural Roundup, the Nevada Commission on Tourism’s annual conference. “From a tourism standpoint, we’ve always promoted rural Nevada, but this is a way to show it,” says Edward Estipona, a board member of Nevada Humanities, a publicly funded non-profit organization that brought the project to life. “There’s a lot of great stuff in addition to Las Vegas and Reno.” The site’s purpose is to preserve the Silver State’s history and educate the general public, but Estipona sees a less tangible benefit. “We think it can help break down some of the cultural barriers that have been created in our state,” he says. “It’s always north versus south or town versus town.”

Designed by Twelve Horses, ONE differs from other information sites of its kind, such as Wikipedia, because all of the 300-plus stories are written and edited by professionals. Nevada is one of only six states to have an online encyclopedia, according to Estipona, who says about 10 new articles appear on ONE per week.

U.S. Senator John Ensign and state Senator Dina Titus were instrumental in funding the project. Ensign helped secure a $350,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and Titus worked with the State Finance Committee to match the federal contribution. Several other organizations offered financial assistance. “Budget is the only challenge we see right now,” Estipona says.

If you’re interested in contributing ideas or funds to ONE, contact Judith Winzeler, executive director of Nevada Humanities, at 775-784-6587 or winzeler@unr.nevada.edu.

The strategy was to create a searchable, indexed, and available repository for cultural and historical information pertaining to Nevada. By implementing such an online system, Nevada Humanities would demonstrate their significance as a resource to residents and visitors of Nevada, as well as assist the state in demonstrating all of the unique elements of its history and culture to the public at large.

The site takes advantage of a few key technologies:

• Custom Tag-based Content Management System
• All of the ONE’s articles are stored in a web database and accessed using a tag/keyword based system. All of the directories on the site are “virtual directories” meaning content can be stored and cross-referenced faster and more efficiently. Twelve Horses developed new technology called Mod-CMS specifically for this solution.
• Custom “Wiki” Back-End
• The ONE site administrators have full access to the content management system and can add/edit/delete/categorize all of the articles, authors, links, suggested readings and media from a fully relational web database.
• The design is based on Wikipedia, however ONE’s Editors needed a method to completely control the content and it’s availability to its readership, rather than often inaccurate visitor contributed content.
• Virtual File Directories
• Because content is only a directory away from root and the URL’s are clean, the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of this site is boosted, along with search engine ranking.
• Virtual Reality Multimedia Gallery
• A media gallery was developed to store virtual reality (VR) movies, images, and is planned to also store historic audio files. The media gallery can be accessed from any site category and also from an article page.
• Full-Screen Virtual Reality
• Technology was developed to show the VR movies in their own window and can be expanded to a full-screen view.
• Flash and User-Interface
• A Flash header was incorporated and all major categories are color-coded for enhanced usability.
• Interactive Virtual Reality
• A Special Feature section was added to the homepage to exploit more feature-rich, highly interactive virtual reality movies. These movies can be controlled in their own windows with zoom, full-screen and 360 degree pan attributes.

I had an interesting conversation with Jeff, one of our lead developers, yesterday and wanted to share some of it. Jeff approached to ask about tag based navigation as compared to traditional hierarchal navigation. There is a tremendous opportunity for website owners to implement a new style of architechure that allows them to have more freedom to create content while making it easier for users of the site to find what they are looking for.

Traditional Web 1.0 Hierarchal Based Architecture
Most sites utilize a list of links along the left side or along the top of the design. When you click into one of these content sections, you are usually presented with some new links that are sub-content sections (we call them secondary navigation). This structure can be visually represented as an organization chart:

Web 2.0 Tag Based Architecture
Tags are all the rage in the web 2.0 world. It allows editors and readers to add meaningful context to content. For example, if I see a picture of a kid skateboarding, I might tag it “skating” and “teenager”. Someone else might tag it “park”, “skate boarding”, and “wheels”. Our individual tags have meaning to us, but they could also have meanings to others. If a third user was searching for “skate boarding” or “teenager”, the photo would come up due to us tagging it.

These tags can be used to replace traditional top level navigation. If the website is full of content, trying to lead the visitor through a hierarchy, which made sense to the webmaster at the time, may not make sense to the end user. Instead, it is easier to tag all the content with relevant keywords and provide a search box. When content is returned and viewed, the tags are prominently displayed. A visitor can then click on a tag to see all content tagged with that keyword or browse a list of related keywords. This could be visually represented more as a cloud:

This architecture doesn’t make sense for all sites. But if your site has a wealth of content, this could be a very powerful way to organize it.

This video does a fantastic job showing what is so exciting and promising about the current iteration of the web. To me, what is more exciting, is that this is only the second iteration (web 2.0). I can’t wait to see - and participate in - what comes next.