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The leading candidates

• FriendFeed
• AlertThingy
• SocialThing

Each promises to pull in "streams" from sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. to give you one place to get all of the updates on your networks.

Staying on top of the info isn't easy and my award goes to....

SocialThing

Why?

Well, I believe that the person is the channel and it is the only one that centers the updates first by person, then by chronological order. This gives me a chance to see what that person is "broadcasting," thinking about, etc. It provides context, which matters.

The others are nice (though I don't like the interruption of AlertThingy, reminds me of Outlook's new mail notification, that is nothing but a distratction), but it's more of a "stream of consciousness," James Joyce-ian experience.

I need a bit of order, so that's what works for me.

SocialThing doesn't have all the big services yet, but it will with time...and that'll just make it better.

I'm lifting it wholesale from Virginia Miracle of OgilvyPR who has a brands worthy of a weekend category.

Why?

Because I think it is a great litmus test for the value you are delivering.

It's a good one for you as a consumer and your relationship to brands...and the flip-side, for yourself as a brand. Are they/you worth the time?

If the answer is no, how do you stand out in a noise-filled marketplace?

On a micro-level is the brand of my friend, Jason, working on getting his story right.

On the macro-level, Microsoft, trying to get its CRM story right.

And everything in between.

As a "raving fan" or "true fan," where would you spend your time, voluntarily, helping the companies you love?

The question for those companies...how  do they find you, the proverbial needle in the haystack?

Part of the answer: they need to listen. This is one of the promises-and potentials-of social media. To facilitate the interaction and connection of like-minded individuals.

Some of mine are:

• E*Trade. I do everything on their site and wish they could do more
• Seth Godin. He's my marketing guru (here's my raving fan pic)
• Israel, definitely in need of re-branding.

• and possibly Metamucil, despite the ups and downs of our relationship. (ok, maybe I'd ask for free samples for this one, so not fair) and probably only because the raw entertainment value of thinking about the challenges of marketing/branding Metamucil!

Some of the folks I follow on twitter or whose blogs I read (see blog roll below right), but interesting how more and more, it's the people who are the brand (along the lines of this post)

And even more interesting...there aren't that many I can think of that are "worth a weekend."

So, which are your "worth a weekend brands"?

We know that they don't, but as consumers, we aren't always rational.

When lacking other information, our minds have been conditioned to take the mental shortcut.

Higher price equals higher quality.

Was watching DVR of Top Chef the other night (I've used this show as a reference before as a guest blogger).The  blindfolded contestants had to identify which of the comparable ingredients were higher quality.

On the screen, however, we were flashed only the item name and it's price.

The assumption is that the more expensive item is higher quality, of course.

True?

Who knows?

Who cares?

Potential lesson: remember this when pricing your product or service.

You know that every single interaction with another individual matters and can increase or decrease the value of your brand.

But, are there times when you can (or should) consciously take a hit to a portion of your brand so that you can increase the overall value?

We'll use a corporate example, but the same could apply to an individual situation....

Say, for example, that Microsoft decides to start really investing in an online experience in an attempt to avoid Google from becoming the Web OS.

And, to do that, MS had to decrease investment in some aspect of Windows or Office (maybe MS given its huge resources isn't the best example, but you get it).

As a result, let's say that current sales of Windows or Office suffers or maybe the product lacks a certain feature, etc. in the short-term. Maybe the stock suffers.

In the long-term, though, let's say that Microsoft does make inroads against Google.

Is it worth it?

Obviously, you never know, but is risking your brand equity something that is smart or stupid?

There's no market clearinghouse for advertising a la Nasdaq that allows you to see what the prices are across the web.

Well, my friend Amar Goel just pinged me with the launch of his new service, an AdPrice Index to help answer that question. 

An interesting addition to the transparent Web...

(Add me to your RSS reader)

The attack on the desktop business is well underway with Google Docs, but this moves go at MS' bread and butter in terms of the corporate market.

A somewhat technical (9 min) video is below.

Now, the gloves are off....it's going to be fun to see how Ballmer and Co respond.

Good chance to take a look at HOW you are communicating using twitter. Are your words adding value? Making an impact? Or just making noise?

I liked the concrete suggestions on how to improve your writing, the recognition that it's not a "quick fix" to do it, and that there are MANY complex parts to a well-written story.

What I didn't enjoy so much was that, well, to be honest, I didn't find the book all that hypnotic. I wanted to be enraptured the way I was with,say,Kite Runner, but that didn't happen. In fact, it's taken me about 3 months to finish it (ok, we had a baby-liveblogged birth here, but still).

At the end of the day, good writing, like anything else is a discipline. It requires practice, refinement, and hard work. That much, I got out of this book.

If you (or I) am not willing to make that investment, it's probably not worth the read.

The story or the product?

Seth Godin raised this theoretical question (and gave an answer) in yesterday's post.

Today, in chatting with an MS sales rep re: the challenges of selling Microsoft CRM [CRM=Customer Relationship Management software], I had a real-world example staring me in the face.

I've been calling it Microsoft's "Cool Hand Luke" problem for a while now and this is no different.

"SalesForce," he says, "starts off a customer call with the F-18 cockpit view of your sales and marketing situation. It's a dashboard, there are lights. People get it."

"We start off with 'this is how CRM integrates into Outlook. We talk about features. It's a completely different approach."

Microsoft's CRM may be a superior product in many ways, but the company is having a hard time telling the story about it.

When I sold SQL Server 2005, I never started off with all the reasons why it was better than Oracle or DB2 or whatever. No, I said..."every presentation will start off with a screenshot or demo of Balanced Scorecard Manager (now Performance Point), because within 20 seconds, any executive in the room will say, "I want that! I NEED that!"

And they did.

Microsoft has the pieces of a great story. They just need to be woven together.