Holding Google to a Higher Standard in Search

Danny Sullivan has been the go-to guy for understanding the world of search for over 15 years. This week he published a really good story on Google Plus Your World. A group of engineers have launched a site called Focus on the User that shows exactly how the new Google service could be including other social media content listings besides only Google Plus, but is not.

Google Plus is of course Google’s entry into the social network battle, and the service recently announced over 90 million users. Just this month Google has started inserting social media content from Google Plus listings (when available) into the search engine response pages (SERPs) on Google. However, other major sources of social media content — Facebook, Twitter – are not included.

Danny does a great job of laying out why this is overly preferential, and doesn’t deliver the best search result. The engineers from Facebook, Twitter and MySpace behind  Focus on the User have developed a bookmarklet -called Don’t Be Evil, get it? – that you can add to your browser to pull more comprehensive social media listings into your personalized search results.

Danny makes a strong case this improves current search results. He provides lots of screenshots like this one. It’s important to note that the bookmarklet is using Google’s own algorithmic rankings for these revised SERPs.

Click to enlarge - Which response is more useful?

Danny does include the other side of the story. Sites like Facebook and Twitter do not license their content to be crawled, so why should Google include this content?

“Google, in particular its executive chairman Eric Schmidt, has argued that it doesn’t have all the data it needs to include other social services in the way it does for Google Plus. The failure to reach a deal with Facebook; the failure to renew a deal with Twitter, these have prevented the social signals it needs from being used, Google has said.”

What the Focus on the User group has done is clearly demonstrated that Google could have included other content if it wanted. And to my read Danny has made a convincing argument that Google SHOULD do this, because it delivers the highest quality search results back to the user.

If legal concerns are really what is holding Google back, they should challenge Facebook and Twitter to allow them to use the same inputs Focus on the User has accessed via the bookmarklet. If those companies refuse, then publicize that decision.

I’ll be installing the Focus on the User tool this weekend and doing my own comparisons. If anyone out there is already using this, please drop a comment with your impressions.

Survey of Social Media Adoption Shows Mixed Bag

Last week I came across a new survey on corporate social media adoption. It was published by SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management. To my read it contained both encouraging and sobering statistics on how companies are trying to incorporate social media into their operations.

The survey universe was a randomized sampling of 532 recruiting and staffing personnel in various industry sectors. The survey announcement led with the positive sounding statistic that 55% of surveyed employers planned to increase their social media activities in 2012. Some other results called out by SHRM:

• More than one-quarter (28%) of organizations have a social media strategy. Larger organizations and those with multinational locations are more likely to have a social media strategy than smaller employers and those with U.S.-based operations.
• Organizations with social media policies rely on their HR department to create (43%) and enforce those policies (44%).
• Besides marketing departments (35%), information technology (17%), HR (14%), and management (14%) lead social media efforts at organizations.
• More than a third (39%) monitor their employees’ social media use on company-owned computers and handheld devices.
• A third of employers (33%) with a social media policy have disciplined an employee who violated the social media policy in the past year.

Here are some findings that jumped out at me:

• Almost three quarters (72%) of organizations DO NOT have a social media strategy (the other way of presenting point #1 above).
• 72% of respondents with companies that had social media activities said the strategy was not clear (strategy needs to come before tactics).
• Only 50% of respondents said they monitor social media mentions of their organization (listening comes first with social media, and its easy to do).
• 79% of companies engaged in social media are not measuring the ROI (seems incredible to me).
• Only 14% of respondents said they outsource any part of their social media activities (not an exciting stat for my firm)!

Here’s the SlideShare of the full survey courtesy of SHRM:

January 2012.survey

My firm is most successful when the PR/Communications staff inside a client company leads social media activities. (PR is almost certainly a subset of the Marketing percentage in the study). It’s communicators who have the most experience telling a compelling story and modulating that story to suit specific audiences.

Content marketing strategies that promote quality content via highly targeted social media channels are the secret to success for my b2b and b2g clients. And they demand and receive quantifiable ROI.

Human resource professionals are SHRM’s most important audience with this study, and if I was one I’d be a little worried reading the percentages. Marketing/PR departments get to lead social media activities and (in some cases) demonstrate ROI for the organization. The HR department gets to police internal social media use and punish employees who break the rules.

Not a recipe for job satisfaction in my book.

Latest Wine and Dine Column — Ripple

WINE & DINE COLUMN

Recently I was asked by online magazine WashingtonExec to write their new Wine and Dine column. My most recent column appeared this week, reviewing the buzzworthy Ripple in Cleveland Park. Here’s the review.

Wines discussed are the 2010 Grochau Cellars Pinot Noir and the 2010 Sharecropper Cabernet Sauvignon.

What Does BMW M Mean Anymore?

Image courtesy of carsplanet.tk

I own two BMW M cars, a 1999 M3 and a 2002 M5. I’m a fan of the manufacturer and the M line. But BMW has muddied the M identity by producing so many models in the past couple of years.

This point was brought home yesterday via a discussion on the Facebook page of Bimmer magazine. The question being debated was whether the upcoming BMW 550d xDrive sedan should be considered a M car. It’s a diesel, four wheel drive and comes with an automatic transmission — all attributes that would have until very recently disqualified the car from the designation.

BMW M used to be a fairly straightforward concept. The subsidiary BMW Motorsport GmbH was originally established to assist BMW’s racing program in the 1960s and 1970s. Eventually the focus shifted from racing to producing a higher powered, higher revving version of the BMW 3, 5, 6 and Z series cars, with firmer suspensions and other changes both performance and cosmetic. Basically the M meant that BMW had taken a model already fun to drive and made it even more so, with a special drivetrain and other items.

From Automobile magazine:

“By the time M established itself in the mainstream lexicon, it had already undergone a metamorphosis from race-car builder to street-car tuner. An M badge on the back of a BMW meant you were looking at the fastest, best performing variant of that model. It had rear wheel drive and a high revving, normally aspirated engine, and was nearly as competent on the track as it was on the street. This strategy worked well at M for years.”

Of course there were other things to know, such as BMW’s practice of creating differences between European and North American M versions. To be into BMW has always demanded a mastery of arcane details. But an explosion of M trim options on regular BMWs and the proliferation of M models themselves has really diluted the brand.

In 2000 BMW sold six different types of vehicles in North America, and two of them were offered as M cars (the E36/8 M Coupe and the E39 M5). By 2010, BMW offered 10 different types of vehicles and five of them offered M versions (the E90 M3, the E60 M5, the E63 M6, E70 X5 M and the E71 M6 M). SUVs now come in M versions.

Two years from now, BMW plans to offer full M versions of the new F30 3 series. The sedan will stick with the M3 designation, but the coupe and the convertibles will be know as M4s. Of course you can buy a M Sport package model of the F30 later this year.

And finally, BMW is launching a brand new M Performance line this year, slotted somewhere above the standard car models but below a full M. Here’s how they try to explain it:

All that clear? I’d guess not to many customers. BMW has always been needlessly complex with its list of model options, but the situation is truly getting absurd.

You could argue that BMW is simply doing what customers want. If someone will pay tens of thousands more for a car with some go fast items on it, why not slap an M on every style car BMW sells? 2011 certainly was a strong year for BMW, selling the highest number of cars since 2007. 

But as I wrote back in March, it’s getting harder to be a certain kind of BMW enthusiast. The DIY some things, keep the car for many years type of enthusiast. This treatment of the M brand is another manifestation of an overall trend away from that type of BMW ownership experience. And that’s a shame.

Excellent Broadway Dinner and a New Barbera

I grew up in Stamford, CT and traveled home for the holiday season with my wife Gabriele. Stamford is only about 40 miles from New York City, so when we visit we try to get into the city.

Right after Christmas we went in to see Rent Off-Broadway at the New World stage (good show). We went in early to give ourselves time to enjoy dinner before the show. Earlier in December we did some online searching for a good place to go, since the theater district isn’t known as the best culinary destination in NYC. A few years ago we ate at Scarlotto’s which was fine but nothing special, though we were introduced to a nice Barbera.

Just a little time on Yelp uncovered a large number of positive reviews for Trattoria Trecolori, on West 47th Street. We had an excellent meal, and the owner working that evening made an excellent Barbera recommendation.

It was a Prunotto Mompertone 2006, a Barbera/Syrah blend from the Piedmont region of Italy. We’d never had a Barbera blend before, and it was very enjoyable. The wine had a fresh, earthy nose and the trademark tart cherry fruit we expect from a Barbera. The Syrah added some body and richness not usually typical in a Barbera, and for us the package worked very nicely. The wine wasn’t light or heavy, and was a good match for our dinners. It was also offered at a fair mark up, especially by NYC standards.

Our food was very good. If you like tomato and mozzarella appetizers, I’d highly recommend Trecolori’s version with eggplant added to the mix. Gabriele really enjoyed her squid ink pasta with seafood, and my Veal Sorrentino was a very good example of a classic Italian entree. The atmosphere was bright and lively, the prices fair and the service was excellent.

Two small nits on the service, one of which I should have seen coming. Our entrees arrived 30 seconds after we finished our apps. I really dislike that when having a nice meal out, but I’d not considered this was a theater district restaurant. Many diners who come in probably want and need that quick turn to make their shows. I mentioned this to our server Mark, who was a pleasure to deal with and he suggested letting them know ahead of time when you don’t have to rush to make your curtain.

The only other thing was not replacing silverware after the first course. Other than that, we had a fine dining experience as well as enjoyed a good show. Trattoria Trecolori doesn’t force you to compromise the former for the latter, and I’d recommend the restaurant when you’re doing a Big Apple dinner and show night. Just let them know if you have enough time to not rush through your meal.

The Race to be the OS of Life

There is a battle going on now among technology companies. They all want to be the online entry point for consumers, the operating system for everything we do digitally. I’ve written previously on this topic, calling it an updated version of the old portal strategy from early Web days.

I think that comparison is accurate conceptually. But today’s fierce competition has many more facets, and the ammunition is non stop innovation. John Battelle wrote an excellent piece last week breaking down this competition into product lines. He looked at five companies — Apple,  Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook – and their strengths/weaknesses in each area:

Image courtesy of John Battelle's Search Blog - click to enlarge

Even if you don’t agree with every ranking, this way of visualizing the struggle is very useful. At the very least, it can help make you a more educated purchaser of these services, either consumer or enterprise. As Battelle points out in his post, this representation also hints at the acquisition strategies that would make sense for the Big Five.

The overall quality of technology coverage has declined due to the decimation of the tech trades. So this type of strategic perspective is very refreshing, and probably why Battelle is a successful author and businessman. Too often these companies are portrayed as behemoths owning their respective niches.

By portraying the Big Five’s product lines, Battelle brings into sharp relief the cage match going on right now for Internet supremacy.

Thank You WordPress — and Readers

According to the login page for WordPress.com, there are almost 385,000 bloggers using WordPress.com (and hundreds of thousands more using WP software). Considering those numbers, the end of year report from WordPress is impressive. It’s got to be an investment to send this report to every WordPress.com blogger.

Here’s a link to the presentation of 2011 Work, Wine and Wheels stats:

http://cparente.wordpress.com/2011/annual-report/

I try hard to provide interesting content on all three topics, so the numbers were gratifying:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 28,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 10 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

In 2011, there were 96 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 297 posts. There were 139 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 68mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was September 30th with 316 views. The most popular post that day was The Supercookie Debate.

I thought last year’s report from WordPress was good, reporting that my blog received about 17,000 visits in 2010. Thanks to my readers, traffic is up 65%. I was also pleased to see that the number one post was my discussion of the Supercookie issue.

Online companies need to be more transparent with users about how the online business model works — discounted or free services in exchange for personal information. It would be good for business AND good for online privacy.

Whether you visit here for technology, wine or BMW news, thank you for your time in 2011. Watch for design upgrades to Work, Wine and Wheels this year. And as always please share feedback on posts and tell me what issues you’d like to see covered.

Fun with Voignier

Happy new year all. I hope you enjoyed your holiday season, and drank some good wine. My wife and I are big red drinkers, but we had fun with the white Voignier grape last week.

The catalyst for this was my Mom. She has been enjoying 2007 Bonterra Voignier as a nice change from Chardonnay since discovering the wine this fall. We had some last week with a holiday lunch.

The wine has a very juicy, melon-y nose with some peach as well on the palate. It’s light bodied, with good acidity keeping the fruit in balance. There’s a rather sharp tartness on the finish. The wine has small amounts of three other grapes — Marsanne, Roussane and Muscat. It’s a nice wine, especially at around $17.

I knew that the Voignier varietal was behind some of the well known white Rhones from France, and suggested a California/France taste off. Unfortunately for me, the only French Viognier I could find in my hometown of Stamford, Connecticut was a 2007 Guigal Condrieu at a cost of $50. That’s not a price point I normally go for without knowing exactly what the wine will be like. But we’ve had a lot of good wine from Guigal and I needed a French Voignier, so home it came.

This wine also had lots of fruit on the nose, also dominated by melon. It was a bit darker wine, more straw in color. There were other flavors blending smoothly on the palate, with peach and apricot as well. The Condrieu was smoother, there was no sudden tartness on the finish, the wine was smoother and a bit rounder. For me it was the perfect aperitif, despite the relatively high alcohol content.

The Condrieu was clearly the more polished wine, but was it worth 3x the price? Our family panel said no, when adding value to the question the Bonterra took the contest. Once we got home, Gabriele and I found a more price appropriate French candidate, the 2010 J.V. Fleury Cotes du Rhone. We found this for $14 at Total Wine in Alexandria.

This wine had a lot of grass as well as fruit on the nose. It had good acidity that kept it very dry, and I got some earthiness and spice underneath the fruit. The wine finished with a sudden tartness, much like the Bonterra. A lot going on and a very nice wine for the price.

So give a Voignier next time you want a different white wine. But the operative word here is fun. That’s what wine should be about. It’s not about memorization of varietals or regions, or worrying about what you should like. It’s about learning more about what you do like, and branching out once in a while to try new things.

Put that on your list for 2012, and enjoy!

2011 Content Review

2011 is almost in the books, and it delivered plenty of good material for Work, Wine and Wheels. I’ve a lot to be thankful for, including an increased number of readers. Here’s a look back at some content that proved popular with them.

For Work posts, I tried to discuss important trends in technology communications. In June, I published a post about when to walk away during the sales process when the prospect makes unreasonable demands. Lots of companies say they do this — I shared the email we sent.

My post on the PROTECT IP/SOPA debate from July received good traffic, and I’m glad it was published months before the mainline press started covering this important issue. The trend of companies becoming publishers continues to accelerate, which some call branded journalism and others call sponsored content. This fall Strategic Communications Group partnered with Market Connections to study social media adoption in the public sector, and made the findings publicly available.

For Wine, a consistent theme was new wine discoveries while traveling. One of the best meals we had all year was our evening at Apartment 2g in Front Royal, which introduced us to Sharecropper Pinot Noir. Gundlach Bundschu Pinot Noir featured prominently in two vacation meals, the first in Key West and then in North Carolina. Gabriele and I discovered some good Rhone wines this year, with affordable Rhones being the theme of my first Parente on Parker post comparing our reviews. We were introduced to an excellent Rhone, the 2008 Saint Cosme Les Deux Albion, during our dinner at Villa Mozart in Fairfax.

The biggest Wheels development in 2011 was my purchase in April of a beautiful and well maintained 2002 M5, an incredible car. (The car truly felt like mine after I adjusted the suspension more to my liking.) My 99 M3 got plenty of attention too, with me replacing the rear shock mounts and changing the oil in August.

The post I’m proudest of was one that combined BMW DIY with the wisdom of the crowd, saving a guy in California from an $8,000 repair bill. That post continues to get regular traffic from owners looking to understand their warranty rights related to owning a BMW SULEV vehicle. And speaking of regular traffic, my blog post about BMW quality from August of 2010 continues to be the number one organic response on Google when searching on that topic.

If you’re one of my readers, thank you very much for spending some time with Work, Wine and Wheels. Best wishes and much success in 2012.

B2B Social Media Wish List for Santa

It’s been a good 2011 for my firm Strategic Communications Group. Our brand of b2b and b2g social media marketing has been adopted by clients such as Microsoft, British Telecom, Neustar, Polycom, EMC and Pitney Bowes, plus many fast growth companies that aren’t (yet) familiar names. All this despite an uncertain economic climate and the prospect of less federal IT spending due to budgetary concerns.

The reason I call out b2b/b2g specifically from consumer is that I think it’s a very different beast. As I’ve talked about previously on this blog, b2c social media becomes straight publicity due to the sheer size of the audience, which makes ROI very difficult to quantify. It also demands a level of automation that threatens the authenticity of the conversation – though many in the industry are working on this problem.

So with Christmas right around the corner, here’s my wish list for Santa. Granting these will keep b2b and b2g social media moving in the right direction:

• Strategy before tactics — yes Santa, this is still missing from a surprising number of initial conversations with prospects;
• Think like a publisher — easy to say, hard to do. The production of high quality content that engages, educates and (sometimes) entertains is hard. But its the cornerstone of success;
• Make social media a line item in more company marketing budgets — this one is big. It’s 2012 everyone — companies should not have to poach funds from other areas like conferences or traditional PR to fund social media activities;
• Look to integrate social media activities with back end CRM processes — Strategic has made exciting progress on this front with many clients, and this is why I believe Salesforce is on to something by acquiring Radian6 and integrating that functionality into their popular CRM SaaS offering.

So what’s on your list? Whatever it contains, I hope you’re on Santa’s “nice” list for 2011!