Matrix Group International

Author: Joanna Pineda

  • Does Your CEO Need a Blog?

    Does Your CEO Need a Blog?

    Blog SignSeveral times a week, clients and colleagues ask me if they or their boss should be blogging.  My answer is usually a resounding Yes!, but I also know that a CEO blog usually involves writing on the part of the CEO and CEOs are rarely excited about adding another regular task to their already full plates.  As one client put it, “Joanna, when do you think I have time to blog?”

    Seth Godin, one of my favorite bloggers and Web marketing mavens, says CEOs can’t and shouldn’t blog because they can’t get away from the corporate speak.

    But I say that CEOs can and should blog in order to:

    • comment on what’s important in their field or industry
    • provide thought leadership for customers, staff or members
    • interact with customers, staff or members
    • provide another perspective on the organization and its activities
    • present a friendly (read not corporate speak) face to the world

    Don’t get me wrong.  I’ve had this blog for just a few months and since I write all the posts myself, I know that a blog takes work.  I have to be interesting, post about timely and important topics, and present a perspective that is candid, if not entirely unique.  (I’m not entirely sure I succeed all the time, if at all, but I try anyway.)  It’s a commitment to post twice a week; heck, I posted once while on vacation in Costa Rica last week. (more…)

  • When Google is More Than a Search Engine

    Last week, I needed to convert miles to kilometers.  A couple of weeks ago, I wanted to find a sushi restaurant in Alexandria.  In both cases, I turned to Google.

    We normally think of Google as a really terrific search engine where you type in a keyword or phrase and get results, but here are my favorite tips for getting the most out of your Google searching:

    • You can use Google as a calculator; simply enter the calculation you’d like done into the search box.  Example:  5*9+(sqrt 10)^3=
    • If you want the status of a flight, enter the airline and flight number.  Example:  American 2182
    • If your caller ID is showing an area code you don’t recognize, just type it into Google. Example:  415
    • Want to know how your favorite stock is doing?  Type the ticker into Google.  Example:  MSFT
    • Come across a word you don’t know? Type define before the word.  Example: define obsequious
    • If you’re mobile and need information, simply text message your search query to 466453 (Google on most devices)
    • Looking for a the closest Chinese restaurant, go to maps.google.com and type the address + Chinese (or pizza or Italian or hardware store).  Example: 1033 N.Fairfax Street Alexandria, VA  22314 pizza

    Finally, if you want to know what Google knows about your Web site, try these: (more…)

  • Baghdad without a Map

    Baghdad without a Map

    I love travel diaries and this one about a Jewish man’s travels through the Middle East is hilarious, insightful, poignant, amazingly well written.

  • Happy Anniversary, Matrix Group!

    Happy Anniversary, Matrix Group!

    Matrix Group LogoLots happening at Matrix Group these days.  Matrix Group celebrated nine years in business last May 1, 2008, but we didn’t get around to celebrating until a couple of weeks ago.  We also launched a redesign of our Web site last Friday.  The Web site is not quite where we want it to be yet, but check out our website if you want a sneak peak.

    Over nine years ago, around May 1, 1999, I started Matrix Group International, Inc.  We’ve come a long way and we have much to be thankful for — amazing staff, loyal and wonderful clients, supportive friends and partners.  The Washington Business Journal says we’re the 6th largest interactive agency in the DC area.  Some days, I feel the weight of the world on me as a small business owner.  But most days, I’m pretty darn happy to be walking off the elevator, saying good morning to as many peopl as I can, and throwing myself into another busy day. 

    To celebrate our anniversary, we held a staff party at Continental Lounge in Rosslyn.  It was your typical office party in some ways – open bar and good food – but not in others – the Continental has a purple room, a pool table and a Wii.  We also held a pool tournament.  How very Matrix Group.  James and Patricia won the pool tournament, each winning a purple iPod shuffle.  Check out our Flickr feed for photos from the party.  And stay tuned for a Save the Date announcement for next year’s 10-year anniversary party, which is sure to be a big bash.

    Matrix Homepage

    We also launched a new Web site last week.  The new site features:

    • a completely new navigation system.
    • a completely new look and feel, including an updated logo, modified color palette and new branding mini-movies.
    • a portfolio section that shows off samples of our work using an interactive interface; if you check out just one section of the new site, check out our portfolio
    • all new content.
    • related content cross-linked from nearly every page, since every piece of content is categorized.

    We have a lot of tweaks and even some content to finish up, but we found ourselves in the situation that many of our clients find themselves in:  the site was almost ready, we had event coming up (in our case, a job fair/open house), but the site was not perfect.  Do we launch or do we wait until everything is perfect?  In our case, we felt the new site was worlds better than the old site, and we didn’t have glaring errors, so we decided to launch.  We didn’t want to miss the opportunity to show off the new site to candidates and the new site is better for SEO (search engine optimization).  We will tweak over the new couple of weeks, then market the heck out of the new site.  It was terrific for the team to have the new site up and just plain exciting for the entire company.

    This redesign was a fun and illuminating experience for me because I got to play the role of client in every way.  I changed my mind a lot, I was late on content, and I made the designers change the font size at the last minute.  I’m going to do a seminar on the Matrix Group redesign this Fall, so stay tuned for an announcement.

    Last thing: I’m in Costa Rica this week.  I am in an Internet cafe in Guanacaste, on a sloooowwww line.  If you want to follow along in the adventures, you can visit my personal blog at http://jpmkadventures.blogspot.com.  Have a terrific week!

  • Video on Demand from Apple and Sony Not Quite There Yet

    Over the past couple of weeks, my family and I had the opportunity to check out the video on demand services from Apple and Sony. We found the services to be easy to use and competitively priced, but there are still a few kinks to work out in the business models.

    Apple TV vs. Sony PS3

    Let’s start with the Apple service.  We have an Apple TV (we bought ours for $199), which is a device that hooks up to your TV and connects via wireless to your Macintosh computer.  Using the Apple TV, we can stream photos, music and podcasts to our big screen TV.  Perhaps most fun of all, Apple TV has a custom interface for surfing YouTube!  Surfing YouTube as a family, on the big screen, from the comfort of my couch, is wonderful.  And now, we can rent or purchase movies from Apple.

    The Sony service is available on the PS3.  I love our PS3 because I absolutely love Blu-ray.  The Sony service has a good selection of movies, although you’d think that a company like Sony would have a much bigger selection than Apple because it is in the entertainment business, but what do I know about these things.

    (more…)

  • Google Searches Amazon Better Than Amazon

    Google Searches Amazon Better Than Amazon

    Amazon.com is really lucky that Google.com indexes its content and then adds the fabulous Google search algorithms to searches.  In order to find something on Amazon.com, I had to find it on Google.com.

    My son begged me to purchase software based on the Dr. Seuss ABC Book. We had previously seen the program at the Apple Store.  Even though I have a Mac at home, CJ’s computer is a PC and I wanted the PC version for him.

    • So I went to Amazon.com and typed “dr. Seuss alphabet software.”  I got nothing. I tried “dr. seuss alphabet” and didn’t get any software.
    • I should have typed “dr. seuss ABC software” but somehow, I had alphabet on the brain.  It was late and my normally decent searching skills were not kicking in.
    • So I went to Google.com and typed “dr. Seuss alphabet software” and yes, you guessed it, Google found the product I wanted on Amazon.com; it was the second link.
    • Google’s legendary search algorithms did it again.  Alphabet got equated to ABC and I got what I needed.  I bet I’m not the only person who has gone to Google.com to find the content on another site.  If I wanted to, I could have asked Google to search for “dr. Seuss alphabet software” on the Amazon.com site by typing “dr. Seuss alphabet software site:amazon.com.”

    Lesson for all of us who build Web sites: make sure your site is visible to Google and other Internet search engines (more on that topic in another post).

  • I Registered for This Fact Sheet? Why I’m Mad At WebTrends

    While preparing for a Matrix Group seminar on usage reports, I decided to get the latest news about Google Analytics and WebTrends on Demand.  I found all the information about Google Analytics on the Google site with no problems.  The WebTrends site advertised a Fact Sheet that promised more technical details about features and implementation, but I had to register.

    Okay, I figure, I’m already a customer of the server software, why not register to get the Fact Sheet?  The registration process was two screens, then I was directed to the PDF of the Fact Sheet.  Guess what?  The fact sheet was nothing but a page and half of marketing fluff that was absolutely NOT worth me registering for it.  The Fact Sheet had no technical specs, no descriptions of the reports, and no pricing information.  It was totally useless.

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  • Who Needs a Clipping Service When There’s Google Alerts?

    Who Needs a Clipping Service When There’s Google Alerts?

    Google AlertsA while back, I signed up for several Google Alerts. Google Alerts is a free service that alerts you when your choice of keywords or phrases shows up on news pages, the Web, blogs, videos, and Google group searches.

    Google recommends setting up Google Alerts to:

    • monitor a developing news story
    • keep current on a competitor or industry
    • track medical advances
    • get the latest on a celebrity or sports team (yeah, we all need more news about Britney)
    • watch for new videos that match a specific topic

    Me, I set up Google Alerts for my name (Joanna Pineda) and my company name (Matrix Group International, Inc.). I had to experiment with using ” ” to get the right alerts; otherwise, I was getting a lot of false alerts on news items with the word matrix.

    (more…)

  • I Love Firefox 3!

    I Love Firefox 3!

    Firefox 3 launched June 18 and over 8 million people downloaded the new version. As of July 2, there were 28,340,281 total downloads!

    I procrastinated at first but after a few weeks, I finally clicked on the download link. And boy, am I glad I did! Let me tell you why:

    • Firefox 2.0.0.16 was bogging down my entire laptop (which had 4MB of RAM) when I had 20+ tabs open. 20 tabs?  Some of you may think I deserved a slow browser for having that many tabs open. But I always have my address book, calendar, intranet, to do list, NY Times, Twitter, Facebook, Matrix Group Web site and Google analytics open, so 20 is nothing by the time 10:00am rolls around.
    • I love, love, love how I can simply type a word or two of a site into the URL bar and Firefox presents a list of possible options, including the title and URL.
    • The back button is big and prominent, even bigger than the forward button.
    • If I close a tab by mistake, I can find the site quickly by going to History to Show All History or Recently Closed Tabs.
    • The Password Manager is more graceful, showing up in a bar above the page, allowing me to remember, not now or never on this site.
    • I’m told that Firefox is more secure than ever, protecting me from phishing sites and evil scripts on Web sites.

    (more…)

  • National Association of Area Agencies on Aging

    National Association of Area Agencies on Aging

    The National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (n4a)’s primary mission is to build the capacity of its members to help older persons and persons with disabilities live with dignity.

    N4a asked Matrix Group to turn its Web site into the premier destination for issues and resources on aging.  Matrix Group worked closely with n4a to showcase its many broad-reaching programs, clearly outline member benefits, and call on members to participate in research, workshops, training, and ongoing collaboration.   Our solutions included targeted user surveys, intuitive site navigation, a design to enhance their brand, a customized Content Management System (CMS) to make it easy for staff to keep content fresh, and integration with legacy applications.