I'll throw out there that the purpose of a status update is to: stimulate conversation...

If you can write a short note that gets awareness and attention (see attention economy), that's remarkable.

And, if by doing so, you create a conversation with members of your network, you continue to differentiate yourself.

There are two parts to this:

1. write something worth conversing about
2. syndicate that content to your social networks

 I'll tackle #1 in a later post, but for now, want to share thoughts on #2.

I'm invested in Twitter, FB, Skype (home office line mostly), LinkedIn, and Plaxo.

As an MS employee (note: this blog is my personal opinion, not MS's), I live in Outlook (and frankly, I still think it is the best way to manage, sort, slice/dice contacts).

So at some point, I'm in Outlook each day.

1. I use OutTwit as an Outlook add-in which updates my Twitter status directly from Outlook
2. I use Twype (my home PC is almost always on) which syncs Twitter with my Skype status message
3. From there, it's pretty straightforward:
   1. in Facebook, you can add the Twitter app and have your FB status reflect your Twitter message
   2. Tumblr is an aggregation service which pulls feeds from multiple areas (more on that later), but I have Twitter integrated into that
   3. The new Plaxo has a status update feature and you can integrate that with Twitter as well.

 In the event I'm not at Outlook, I can go straight to Twitter website (or via txt) and update and presto...instant publication to multiple networks.

And, as a result, multiple opportunities for network contacts to respond to the conversation starter.

Next up...the Art of the Status Update.