social f/x by Lou Ordorica

We all know that community plays a vital role in improving the effectiveness of search results through the success of Google's Pagerank system, but how do firms integrate community content into their search experience?

First, it might help to begin with an operational definition of community content, within the context of a technology firm like Sun:

Knowledge and information Data contributed through community participation on company-sponsored venues that permit read / write access to members that is not vetted by the company. Examples: forum threads, wiki pages, blog posts, product reviews.

Studies show that customers highly value peer contributions, and are reluctant to make important decisions such as buying without first learning the opinions and reviews of others.

Customers expect to see community content on your web site. Whether their task is researching and learning, downloading, trying, buying or troubleshooting your products, the contributions provided by others like themselves build trust and credibility in your company and brand.

The degree to which technology firms integrate community content into the search experience varies. Assuming a user starts at the home page, firms generally follow these approaches:

• Filtered — users must narrow search results to display content originating from the community
• Embedded — community content is shown in default search results, but identified as such
• Segmented — users are not shown any community content by default, and must visit the community venue to perform their search

Let's take a look at how Sun compares with other tech firms. I'll start on the home page for each site, and search using the term "jre".

Company	Approach	Click to View
Sun	Filtered
Dell	Filtered
H/P	Embedded
IBM	Segmented
Cisco	Segmented
Apple	Segmented
VMWware	Segmented

It's clear that technology firms value community content, but placement and integration in the search context differ. The majority of sampled firms split company information from community content in search, requiring users to first access support areas to perform their search. Both Sun and Dell exclude information from community sources in default search results, though easy access to this content is provided. H/P distinguishes itself by showing forums posts with no additional steps required by the user.

The popularity of social media has redefined content and community — value is a reflection of individuals interacting in groups, creating, sharing and collaborating. Technology firms that recognize the critical role of community contributions, and are able to weave these voices into the user experience at every level — including search — will reap benefits.

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