Nov 0816
Earlier this week, Anne Holland, founder of MarketingSherpa.com posted her last blog entry on the Sherpablog. November 10 was her last day as a formal company employee and she used the occasion to recount how MarketingSherpa began.
If you don’t know MarketingSherpa, you should. MarketingSherpa is my favorite source for news, information, case studies, how-to guides — everything about online marketing. MarketingSherpa e-mails are the few e-newsletters that I read in their entirety. I pass the articles along to my staff and clients. The knowledge in MarketingSherpa case studies is amazing, the writing is terrific, and the know-how is real.
I remember meeting Anne at an iBreakfast, a pitchfest hosted by Alan Brody back in 1999. Anne had an idea to pitch, a marketing plan, no money, but a lot of passion and knowledge about online marketing and research. MarketingSherpa became one of Matrix Group’s first dot com clients. At first, we helped her develop her technical platform and prototypes so that she could show investors more than a business plan. Read the rest of this entry
Sep 0823
By now, most of us are familiar with CAPTCHA graphics, or the graphics with squiggly text that we have to retype correctly in order to submit a form. I understand that CAPTCHA was developed to stop spam, prevent bots from hijacking forms and surveys, and prevent dictionary attacks against sites. But I’ve noticed recently that these tests are getting harder and harder, to the point where they are preventing me from submitting forms on the first, second, even third try.
CAPTCHA stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. A CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used mainly on Web pages to ensure that the response is not generated by a computer. For example, humans can read distorted text on a graphic, but computer programs (most of them at least) cannot.
Here are some examples of CAPTCHA:
- On the Matrix Group Contact Us form, you have to pass a CAPTCHA test in order to fill out the form.
- If you click on Email Us on the same form, you have to pass another CAPTCHA test to view and click on the e-mail address.
- To send a message to John Grau on his blog, you have to follow the instructions and type “transmissions” in a box.
Here’s the problem. Computer programs are getting smarter and smarter. “Spammers and malware authors are able to break Captcha process,” says Carl Leonard in an article in The Guardian. As a result, CAPTCHAS are getting harder and harder. Read the rest of this entry
Sep 0816
When my in-laws were told to evacuate their home in Houston last week, they were lucky; they managed to book a flight out to our home in VA before the two Houston airports closed down. We spent Saturday and Sunday watching the news and hoping their friends and home were safe. The most frustrating part about watching the news was the lack of local news — news about the neighborhoods, the houses, the schools, the people. Thank goodness for the citizen journalists of Houston.
While CNN, MSNBC, and all the networks showed the same footage of the Hilton’s wall falling off, and the Houston highway that was six feet under water, my in-laws wanted to know how their Clear Lake neighborhood was doing. Did everyone evacuate? Is everyone okay? Did the bayou flood? How much tree damage was there? Does the neighborhood have power?
Slowly, and then more rapidly, especially by Monday afternoon, we got lots of information from the citizen journalists of Houston.
Here is a YouTube video of a couple driving down the highway looking for their boat. This road is close to where my in-laws live. Read the rest of this entry
Aug 0821
Several 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. Read the rest of this entry
Jun 0801
Okay, we finally did it! Matrix Group launched a blog, MatriXFiles. After helping dozens of clients develop their blog strategies, I decided it was high time we had one. We established our own blog strategy and brand, created an awesome design, put together the content plan and now we’ve launched! I’d love your comments about the site.
The strategy, which includes the site title, is most critical. It sets the tone and image you want to communicate. So, the Matrix Group blog had to have a movie-themed title. You see, every person at Matrix Group is assigned to a team and every team is named after a movie. Why? We’re all superstars around here. While movie names can be lighthearted, they can also be inspirational.
Read the rest of this entry
