Well, I got the first case study for my book back from Synthesio – its for Accor hotels and it’s exactly what I asked for – smiling. I realize that in asking people to fill out a form with details in a certain structure that I’m making more work (but it’s also the way that many other types of forms are structured – for a specific purpose).
In my case, I need to compare what the case studies show, look for overall patterns and trends, some of that will actually be spreadsheet analysis – some with be broad statements on what Social Media ROI is or is not.
I can’t share the Case Study yet, but it was several pages – it will be in my book along with many interesting diagrams (some of them vendor generated) no one has ever seen before. What I show will make perfect sense when the book is published.
I am meaning to update my web journal and make some commentary on the recent Google – Groupon acquisition rumors but it’s really hard to do it when all my spare time is going into the book – event the book site isn’t ready yet – it’s still too noisy – frustrating in that as fast I try to move – there is only so far and fast I can move. It’ makes me more appreciative of how difficult it is to get moving parts to all line up (probably the biggest problem agencies have, if you ask me – along with the idea if that they may or may not be relevant any longer, esp PR agencies – what’s their value proposition?)
One thing that is coming up a lot is Google, and from my talk with Giles Palmer of BrandWatch over the weekend in Brighton, I got an appreciation of how much Google Instant and Google C affine have been changing the web, improving it, yet skewing it to show results that are largely pre cached in order make a richer search experience. The problem is – if your not someone or something that is searched on often (the long tail or even the pre-long tail) you not going to get that extra “massaging” by Google caching and preprocessing the results.
A few more interesting posts I’ve read include
Research Examines What Motivates People to Comment Online in RWW and JAtIN’s blog about Google Complexity – according to the post …
As Google grows in complexity, the number of bugs in their system multiply. Sometimes you don’t rank because you screwed up. But sometimes you don’t rank because Google screwed up. Typically Google sees minimal difference either way, as there will always be another website to fill up the search results. But as a business owner, when Google gets it wrong you can be screwed pretty bad, particularly if you stock physical inventory and have to tightly manage your supply chain & cash flow.
Another reason why Search Engines need to be regulated – as much as they hate that idea – it’s needed.
