Bob's Blog

I was enjoying a great annual Pre-Beaujolais dinner with longtime friend, Hugh Panero. Hugh is currently running XMRadio, but we met up years ago while on business in France. We started these Pre-Beaujolais dinners after we were both fretting over the extra bottles of last year’s Beaujolais Nouveau that we had stored in our cellars shortly before the new vintage arrived. Beaujolais Nouveau is a fun party wine from France that is released on the Third Thursday of November each year. Hugh and I were at a release party in Romanèche-Thorins, France when we met. We immediately hit it off, partying long into the weekend, and have stayed in touch ever since.

Back to our PBD (PBD is what Hugh calls them when he texts me about plans). The dinner is a chance for us to finish off last year’s vintage to make room in our cellars. We rotate the location amongst our homes, and the event has grown quite a bit over the years. The menu is up to the host, but we only drink Beaujolais from that year. In fact, we each set aside a few bottles when we first get the wine specifically for the PBD.

So we were enjoying our PBD at Hugh’s wonderful house in Montgomery County Maryland when my phone buzzed. The call was from my dear friend Robin, who minds my house in Delaware while I am away. Apparently there was an issue with the roof on the guesthouse due to the strong wind and rain. Neither one of us knew a contractor, but she had a few names from friends.

I went to find out more about these contractors online prior to calling. Doing a little research in Google, I was presented with numerous results, but none were from the site of the contractors. Google had a local listing, similar to a phone book listing. Complete with a map, phone number and details about hours, payment, etc.

Other results came from third party sites, such as Angie’s List and Service Magic. These sites offered more details about contractors, as well as opinions from previous customers. Highly optimized for search engines, these sites appeared above the sites of those few contractors who had web sites.

Reading through the sites, I talked to a contractor and connected him with Robin to handle the repairs. The experience highlighted something that we should all consider: there is a lot of content being written about your company that isn’t on your website. You would be well served to research these results and confirm the accuracy. Many simply infer the information from other databases to get the process started. Most of these sites offer you a chance to review/modify your information. One of our restaurant clients did this and noticed that their headquarters was incorrectly listed as a location. That might explain the frequent visits by dressed up couples from out of town.

With the roof repair well in hand, I was able to get back to the party just in time to join in on the ceremonial opening of the final bottle. Tradition has it that everyone circles around the host singing ‘American Pie’ while the final bottle is uncorked. Hugh raised the bar this year, and I look forward to hosting it next year under my new roof!