Matrix Group International

Tag: Branding

Your Employees as Brand Ambassadors
Last week, Matrix Group launched a new staff blog – SnackOClock.net. SnackOClock came out of an internal town hall meeting I held with staff late last year about recruiting. As a company, we decided to launch a staff blog to showcase our expertise, highlight cool projects, discuss innovative techniques we’re implementing on client sites, and demonstrate thought leadership among our peers. SnackOClock launched last week and half of the company is now blogging.

The idea of a staff blog has shocked many of my CEO friends who tell me that SnackOClock will simply facilitate poaching of my stellar staff, and that I am giving my employees a platform to show off their talents and then go make more money elsewhere. Pretty serious stuff and I admit that I had to think hard about this when the idea was first discussed.

But here’s what I realized: identifying and poaching (attempted, at least) of my staff is already happening. Most of my staff are on Twitter and LinkedIn where it’s ridiculously easy to find employees at specific companies. Heck, Facebook even lets companies target employees of just certain organizations when taking out Facebook ads. Finally, Matrix Group already encourages staff to be involved in their local tech communities by participating in e-mail discussions and attending meetups.

So, after some hard thinking and weighing of the pros and cons, I decided to embrace the idea of Matrix Group staff as brand ambassadors. Whenever one of my employees posts to a list, attends an industry event, tweets or blogs, they are representing themselves and the company. This is because Matrix Group is in their e-mail signature, they hand out business cards, and they mention the company in their profile. By creating an official platform, SnackOClock, that allows staff to show off their expertise, I’m harnessing their knowledge and expertise for the good the company — on a platform owned, managed and edited by the company.

SnackOClock has only been online for just over a week (we had a soft launch last week, the official announcement to the world is this week), but here are the results so far:
- Most staff are blogging or intending to blog.
- Staff love that they can blog when they want to and get editorial and writing support, which makes it easy for new bloggers to get going.
- There’s a ton of excitement among the staff about the blog and it’s infectious.
- The entire company is sharing individual blog posts to their social networks, so we’re achieving our goal of wide distribution of posts, which can only be good for recruiting and prospecting.
- Blogging was on many staff members’ “want to do” list, so the company is facilitating their professional development through the blog.
- SnackOClock is promoting knowledge-sharing within the company.
SnackOClock has exceeded my expectations regarding the quality of the posts and the coolness of the design. I loved Liz’s post on SiteFinity 4.4, Rich’s post on Ghostery, Eric’s post on real-time Google Analytics, and on and on. Check out SnackOClock.net for yourself. I hope you’ll subscribe to the RSS feed, comment on posts and share individual posts to your social network.

How about you? Does your company see staff as brand ambassadors or gems to keep hidden away? What do YOU think of employees as brand ambassadors?
February 22, 2012
Why Your Receptionist Is Your Company’s Most Important Brand Ambassador

I was on the phone with a company receptionist the other day, trying desperately to reach someone in sales or customer service. Trouble is, the person I was speaking with could not have cared less about me or my needs. She kept repeating that she had no idea where anybody was, she could not leave her desk and all she could do was put me through to voice mail. You can imagine how that encounter made me feel about the company and their products.

In the corporate world, it’s conventional to believe that the person answering the phone is the lowest person on the totem pole. Worse yet, many companies believe we can replace receptionists with automated attendants: ring the doorbell for service or dial by extension.

Me, I’ll always have someone answer our main line because most people calling Matrix Group are customers who need help or prospects who need our services. So you better believe I want a warm, friendly, knowledgeable and committed person answering our phones! And because it’s not always clear to people who does what in a Web agency (do you talk to the programmer or a front-end developer or the PM about an error on your admin site?), a good receptionist can field and route calls efficiently.

My Creative Director Alex Pineda says that every employee is a brand ambassador for the company. So my receptionist, as the person who perhaps has the most contact with the most people, is arguably the most important brand ambassador I have. Which is why her title is First Impressions Officer. The other admins in the office, who also share customer interaction responsibilities, are equally important brand ambassadors.

Scott Spanbauer defines a brand as “more than just your company image. It also includes your customers’ experience and the expectation you set when doing business with your company. In short, it is (a) promise.”

As a CEO, I may set the tone for our corporate culture and brand, but it’s my staff who live and reinforce it with our customers. Company owners everywhere, remember that your customers’ experiences start with the person who answers the phone and greets people at the door.

November 3, 2011
How Steve Jobs and Apple Changed My Life as a Mom

I was driving home from dinner tonight when I heard on the radio that Steve Jobs had died. This blog post will be one of zillions proclaiming how Apple, under Steve Jobs’ leadership, changed lives.

My story is simple. My many Apple products made it easy to share the wonders I call my sons and made technology easy at home. I’ve been an Apple fan for a long time and have slowly accumulated a collection of Apple products.

Apple Should Have a Campaign About How Macs are for Moms

My Mac is my mommy machine. I use iPhoto to store and manage my over 30,000 photos, mostly of my sons and photos from our travels around the world. And when I want to share photos with my family, I select the photos I want and then ask iPhoto to send lower resolution versions, so I don’t clog e-mail inboxes with photos that are 4MEG each — no need to resize the images first, which means my mom gets photos nearly every week!

At the end of each year, I made video slideshows of my children’s activities using iDVD. The themes make it easy to put together a great looking DVD and I get a terrific keepsake from the year.

My older son learned how to use a computer on our Mac (the baby isn’t old enough but he’s definitely interested). He immediately understood the intuitive user interface and can play games, watch videos and surf the web.

iChat and now FaceTime make it easy to stay in touch with Grandma, who lives in California. She loves that she can see the boys, although she often frets about how she looks (as if the boys care, they love her!).

Apple Devices Make Home Networking Easy(ier)

I joke with my techie husband that setting up a home wireless network is not for mere mortals, although I have to admit that Apple has made it easy. We have Airport base stations around the house to ensure that have a good wi-fi signal thoughout our 4-story townhome.

We’ve set up speakers in the different parts of the house and downloaded an app that lets me control the Mac and send music or radio programs to different parts of the house.

We’ve owned an Apple TV for many years. We use it to watch movies, watch YouTube videos on the big screen, and enjoy our photos. We were worried that Apple would discontinue the Apple TV for lack of sales but it looks like this device will be around for a while. Thank goodness!

I don’t think I could live without my iPad at this point. My husband, older son and I were vying for iPad time so much time that we now have 2 of these tablets at home. I use my iPad to check my schedule, check weather, check e-mail, surf the web, find recipes, play games, manage my user manuals, listen to music, watch movies on Netflix, and so on and so forth.

Finally, I love how all my Apple purchases (music, apps, games, movies and shows) are done through my one iTunes account. And I absolutely adore how synching my devices regularly means I can enjoy these purchases on all (or most) of our devices — PC, iPad, iPod Touch and Apple TV.

Thank you, Steve Jobs. Thank you, Apple

If you haven’t already noticed, I’m a huge Apple fan and a big consumer of Apple products. I’m passionate about Apple products because the products clearly were developed with end users like me in mind. I love the form factor of the devices, I love the easy user interface, I love the diversity of the apps and functions, and I love how all the products work together.

Thank you, Steve Jobs for making my life as a mom better.

October 6, 2011
Does Your Website Need an Attitude?

Matrix Group recently had the pleasure of helping the Outdoor Foundation launch a new website for one of its initiatives — Outdoor Nation (ON). Outdoor Nation believes the world would be a better place if we all spent more time outdoors. Outdoor Nation hosts regional summits, connects outdoor enthusiasts through its social network on Ning (the website is on Ning), supports local outdoor clubs, and advocates for local and national outdoor policies.

Here’s what I absolutely love about the ON website: it’s got a ton of attitude.

The design of the site is bold, almost brash. But the attitude really shines through in the copy. The about page starts off with:

Before the recent youth-led revolutions that are now happening around the world—there was Outdoor Nation. Okay, we probably didn’t influence those uprisings but we do share a belief in the power and passion of young people and our ability to start a revolution.

ON says they “host awesome summits” and “when the ancient Greeks invented social networking, this is what they had in mind!”

In the branding area on the home page, there’s a big pitch to GTFO (get the f*** outside) because “there’s no excuse not to get the fun outside.”

How fun to see a website just brimming with enthusiasm and passion! It’s obvious that ON is targeting a specific demographic and not every organization can get away with this type of attitude and language. But I bet more of us could and should inject our marketing campaigns with fresh design and copy that signals a certain lifestyle and brand.

How about you? What attitude does your website project? Can you name other websites that have a lot of attitude?

April 13, 2011
Give Me a Reason To Give or Join
My husband and I attended my son’s Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet earlier this week. At the end of the banquet, a representative from the National Capital Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America made a pitch for supporting the Boy Scouts with a financial gift. She did a nice job but what really convinced me was the brochure she handed out, which said:
For every 100 youth who join scouting
- 1 will use his Scouting skills to save a life
- 1 will use his Scouting skills to save his own life
- 18 will develop hobbies that will last throughout their adult life
- and on and on
Who are Boy Scouts?
- 72% of Rhodes Scholars
- 65% of the US Congress
- 65% of male college graduates
- 26 of the first 29 astronauts were Boy Scouts
- and on and on
Wow. With statistics like that, I’m keeping my son in Boy Scouts forever and I’m giving them money every year!

Here’s another compelling statistic I heard recently. I’m a member of Vistage, which is a membership organization for CEOs. Vistage says that their member companies consistently outperform non-member companies. Based on the coaching and resources I get from Vistage, I believe it. Vistage is a big commitment of time and money, but totally worth it.

How about you? What compelling statistics or facts can you share with your prospects to make them join your organization, become a customer or donate money?
- If you’re an accrediting body, can you point to the top organizations that are accredited and how accredited companies have better safety/graduation/success rates?
- If you’re a trade association, can you point to the top companies in the field that are members, your legislative record, and the success rate of your companies?
- If you’re a professional society, can you point to the job rate and salary levels of your members, your contributions to the profession, and your profession’s rank as a top career?
- If you’re a charity, can you point to your success in changing systemic problems?
In thinking again about the Boy Scouts, what was effective about the pitch was this: I wasn’t being sold on the activities of the Boy Scouts, I was being sold on the outcome. The message was clear: Enroll your son in Boy Scouts and this is what he can become. I’m sold.
March 2, 2011