Socially Searching

For a while now, Google have been basing a lot of the search results you receive on what your social links have been sharing, talking about and rating.

To see how influential your own social graph is to your Google Search results, try this search query:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=active&source=hp&q=macmillan&btnG=Search&tbs=frim:1

It’s just a Google search for ‘macmillan’, but the ‘tbs=frim:1’ bit at the end makes any Google search query only use your social influences.

You’ll see why you receive certain results by the line under each one saying things like:

Katie Smith shared this

Macmillan Cancer shared this on Twitter - 28 Jun 2011

Mike Hobday shared this on Twitter - 4 Oct 2010

Macmillan - Digital shared this

or my favourite:

Rebecca Cryan shared this on Twitter - 4 Feb 2011

Since each Google Search for the same term can now return completely different results for each user, influencing the usual ‘dumb’ search is becoming less and less important.  Queries like the one above, along with the work of Louise and Richard in Marketing, help us understand how our social interactions are influencing our search rankings… and for whom.

There’s more on this SlideShare presentation.

Let Them Tweet Cake

I'm celebrating almost a month - time flies - with the digital team at Macmillan after taking over as caretaker social media officer.  And I've been both immediately impressed and inspired by the approach they are taking to social media and their online community.

There was cake in reception when I arrived on my first day. Not for me, admittedly, it was one of the receptionist’s birthday - but quite a first impression.  And on being led through the greenery of the office for the first time I noticed sweets and cakes at the end of virtually every bank of desks.  It's obviously something that's encouraged I thought. Or a philosophy that breeds lots of micro-sugary actions.

And that's not the only thing I like that's being encouraged. What's really refreshing is the desire to involve staff in social media and encourage them to actively uphold the principles and values that underpin the organisation: the values that give them immense pride in the work they do.  By helping them to understand the tools they can use to communicate the brand.

But it's by no means about asking them to shout loud and demand action from supporters.  Nothing is demanded of any member of staff.  Simply, the language of social media is explained so that they can feel confident joining the conversation. And be sure of the place they're coming from when they engage in their social networks.  If they see something they like they can share it with confidence.

And it's an approach that I think will lead to an increase in inspiration being turned into action. Because when you do need action, when you do need a few ripples for a cause, you know the power of the people in your network, you know how to reach them, and all you need then is to ask them to have their cake and tweet it.

Have Google Just Demonstrated the World's Biggest Social Network?

...or am I just nuts?

Probably

Have Google just shown their hand in the big social network gamble?  And has it been there all along?

Okay, so I may sound like an insane conspiracy theorist, but with the update of Google Profiles - the quiet backwater for the geeks and profileistas - Google seem to have shown us what a social network really looks like.