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.