Matrix Group International

Month: May 2011

  • Thank Goodness Someone Bought Delicious or Why I’m a Prolific Social Bookmarker

    Some of you know that I’m a prolific social bookmarker. I use a social bookmarking site called Delicious to store and organize my Web bookmarks. I don’t use the bookmarking function in my Web browser because I use too many devices every day: my Sony laptop when I’m at work, my Apple laptop when I’m at home, and my iPad and Palm Pre smartphone from everywhere. By using a social bookmarking site, I have access to all of my bookmarks from anywhere.

    But what’s even cooler about social bookmarking is that my bookmarks are public (unless I mark specific links private, which I do when they’re links to sites related to my children or my friends), which means I can easily share my bookmarks with others. For example, I use the RSS feed from my Delicious account (www.delicious.com/jmpineda) to share my bookmarks on this blog (check the bottom, right column), and I encourage my staff to access my bookmarks when they’re looking for Internet statistics or case studies.

    Finally, I love that I can create a taxonomy for my bookmarks. I’ve carefully created a list of categories that I’m interested in and whenever I bookmark a link, I associate that link with one or more categories. For example, I categorized an article on optimizing your Facebook page for search engines under the tags of Facebook and SEO. I have 148 tags and I bookmark sites nearly daily.

    So I was very happy to learn that social bookmarking of choice, Delicious, which had been bought by Yahoo! several years ago and then put on the block recently, had been purchased by the founders of YouTube. You see, I started my social bookmarking life on a platform called Magnolia. I loved Magnolia and still think the user interface is better than that of Delicious, but January 2009, Magnolia suffered a huge data loss and I nearly lost all of my bookmarks. So I switched over to Delicious and I never looked back. If Delicious had gone under (which was a possibility if no buyer were found), I could have exported my bookmarks, but it’s always hard switching platforms and getting used to a new interface.

    If you haven’t yet discovered social bookmarking, I encourage you to give it a try. Not only are my bookmarks easily accessible, I have found amazing resources by checking Delicious’ top links and exploring the bookmarks of other people. It’s fascinating when thousands of other people have bookmarked your same links and equally interesting when you’re the first person to save a bookmark.

    How about you? Are you a social bookmarker? What’s your platform of choice?

  • iPad 2

    Love the slim form factor and sleek design! Also enjoying the front facing camera – be sure to try out the newest version of the Videolicious app!

  • The Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust Website Redesign

    The Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust Website Redesign

    The Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT), a labor management partnership between signatory contractors and Ironworkers, serves as a forum for both groups to address mutual concerns and encourage balanced solutions. The organization also has 11 regional advisory boards in the United States and Canada that support IMPACT’s mission and work to expand job opportunities in both countries.

    IMPACT wanted to use its website to better promote its resources, events and other services on its website, and encourage members to take advantage of these benefits. It also wanted to enhance its brand and position itself as a leading industry voice.

    Matrix Group:

    • Designed a navigation structure with a strong understanding of members’ needs. The new navigation makes it easy to access information about meetings, publications, grants, marketing and certification.
    • Developed a design that is beautiful, elegant and showcases IMPACT’s values of openness and collaboration.
    • Implemented MatrixMaxx, Matrix Group’s Association Management Software (AMS) to tie IMPACT’s public website to its member database. Now, IMPACT staff can easily manage information about their members, create and manage and meeting registrations and develop targeted mailing lists. Members can now manage their profiles, register for meetings and sign-up for mailing lists.
    • Created an online membership directory that is powered directly by the member database. Visitors can search for contractors, local unions and district councils.
    • Implemented the Expression Engine content management system to make it easy for staff to manage all aspects of the website without having any knowledge of html.

    Visit the Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust Website.

  • The Hormone Foundation Website Redesign

    The Hormone Foundation Website Redesign

    The Hormone Foundation is the public education affiliate of The Endocrine Society, and the leading educational resource for the public and health care professionals on the prevention, treatment and cure of hormone-related conditions.

    The website offers materials, programs and alerts on everything from thyroid disease to diabetes and cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. So when an opportunity arose to make information online more accessible to all audiences, The Hormone Foundation reached out to web partner, Matrix Group, to make its vision a reality.

    Matrix Group:

    • Re-organized the home page to include a branding area to educate visitors about the mission and activities of The Foundation, and a section that features the most popular resources on the website.
    • Refreshed the site’s current look and feel by softening the organization’s color palette to include warmer colors and updating the font.
    • Implemented the new design in the Foundation’s content management system (CommonSpot).

    Visit The Hormone Foundation Website.

  • The Special Interest Group of IIAS Standards Website Redesign

    The Special Interest Group of IIAS Standards Website Redesign

    The primary purpose of the Special Interest Group of IIAS Standards (SIGIS) is to develop voluntary standards to help non-healthcare retailers meet the required IIAS standards and to make it easier for customers to purchase prescriptions and other eligible over the counter products using their Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) or Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRA).

    SIGIS serves as the industry’s voice to the IRS and as a valuable resource for both members and consumers. Thus, they needed their website to showcase their overall goals and communicate the organization’s current position and address the needs of both members and consumers.

    Matrix Group:

    • Created a warm, friendly site design that communicates SIGIS’s position as an organization that makes it easier for consumers to use their FSA and HSA cards at local pharmacies, supermarkets and other locations.
    •  Implemented the Sitefinity content management system to allow staff to update the website without the knowledge of HTML, keeping the site’s information fresh and up to date.
    • Created a user-friendly navigation based on the motivations, behaviors and needs of SIGIS’s target audiences.

    Visit the SIGIS Website.

  • The Conquer Cancer Foundation Website Redesign

    The Conquer Cancer Foundation Website Redesign

    The Conquer Cancer Foundation (CCF) of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a world free from the fear of cancer by funding breakthrough research, sharing knowledge with physicians and patients worldwide, and supporting initiatives to ensure that all people have access to high-quality cancer care.

    Matrix Group included:

    • Warm colors and images geared toward the public and that demonstrate empowerment. Less text and increased imagery were used to communicate the Foundation’s core messages.
    • A user-friendly navigation that is simple, straightforward and based on the site’s three main areas: who the organization is; what they do; and how to get involved.
    • Brand consistency between the Foundation’s website and its affiliate organization, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO.org).

    Visit the Conquer Cancer Foundation Website.

  • What’s the Difference Between Top News and Most Recent on Facebook? And Why Should Marketers Care?

    What’s the Difference Between Top News and Most Recent on Facebook? And Why Should Marketers Care?

    It’s been forever since Facebook changed it stream to be divided between Top New and Most Recent and many folks are still scratching their heads wondering what’s what. Here’s why you want your updates to be in your friends’ and followers’ Top News streams.

    According to Facebook, “Top News shows popular stories from your favorite friends and Pages, many of which have gained lots of attention since the last time you checked.” What this really means is that Top News shows the posts from the people and company page that you interact with the most. For example, I tend to “like” and comment on the updates from my friend Eileen, the photos from my brother Alex and articles from PBS. Since I interact with these Facebook account regularly, their posts are pretty much guaranteed to be in my Top News stream, which, by the way, is the default view.

    Top News also displays updates by relevance, based on an algorithm. If a post is getting a lot of comments, it will probably show up at the top of your stream, even if the original post is not the most recent in your stream.

    Most Recent “shows updates from as many as 250 friends and Facebook Pages.” This is a more traditional stream because it shows all posts, in chronological order, unless you’ve hidden posts from a specific person or company. If you haven’t checked out Most Recent recently, click on it now and you’ll see posts from a bunch of people and companies you thought weren’t posting. If you start interacting with some of these accounts more, you’ll start to see them in your Top News stream.

    What does this mean for marketers?

    It means that it’s absolutely not enough to have fans or followers. Your company’s Facebook page can have a million followers but unless they’re liking and commenting, your posts won’t show up in their Top News, which means they’re likely not getting much attention. On the flip side, once you get followers to interact with you more regularly, your posts will show up in Top News, which will further encourage them to like and comment.

    Remember, the key to Facebook success is to get your followers to interact with you regularly. I’ll blog in the future about ways to encourage interactions. And oh yeah, I’m doing a webinar next Wednesday, May 18, 11am Eastern on Social Media Marketing and Customer Engagement. Hope you can join me.

    BTW, you can edit your stream options by clicking on Edit Options at the bottom of your News streams.

    What do you think of Top News vs. Most Recent? Which stream do you prefer?

  • JP Rule #1: Do or do not. There is no try.

    JP Rule #1: Do or do not. There is no try.

    © 2007 USPS. All Rights Reserved.

    In honor of May 4, a sacred day among Star Wars fans (because George Lucas released all of the Star War movies on May 4th), I’m blogging about my Rule #1: Do or do not. There is no try.

    Clearly, I did not make up this rule. It’s Yoda’s rule. But it’s a damn good rule, especially in business.

    Here’s what I know: Clients don’t come to us so we can TRY to develop the complicated web application they need. They need us to do it. And they need to know that we will be successful and the end result will be close to what they envisioned.

    I learned a long time ago that when assigning tasks that must get done, I don’t ask staff if they can do it. I provide background, then ask what they need to get the project done, what obstacles are in their way, and how I can support them. And when I get, “I’ll try,” I remind them that “I’ll try” is not a commitment and it’s not a promise, it’s a half-hearted “maybe” or a definite “no.”

    Now, if we’re brainstorming, assessing options or exploring whether or not we can accomplish something, then I ask if we (Matrix Group) can do it. And it’s perfectly legit to say, “I’ll try.”

    So what happens if someone (me included) doesn’t know exactly how to get the required task accomplished and can’t quite commit to it just yet? In that case, I ask people to give me a plan that details what they are going to do so they will know and can commit to a timeline and budget.

    In Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda lifts Luke’s starfighter from the swamp. An incredulous Luke says, “I don’t believe it.” To which Yoda retorts, “that is why you fail.” Like Yoda, my best developers, front-end developers, designers, admins, project managers (yada, yada) believe they can accomplish ridiculously hard tasks under ridiculous deadlines. That is why they succeed.