Dang. It’s time to chose a Top Five contest winner. And I don’t know what to do. There are SO MANY great ideas…and some that won’t work, but really made me laugh. In retrospect, we should have narrowed it down and let you guys choose your favorite. But we promised to choose, and announce, today so that ship has sailed.

We really love Gin and Topics from Barry Silver, Pure Ginious from Brandon Emkes, Thank Blog It’s Friday from Vince Roberts, SpinCycle from Jennifer DeVitt, Gini’s Mind Mined from Paul McConaughy, Spin Sucks, But Friday Rocks from Ken Mueller, The Friday Afternoon Wine Flight from Lisa Gerber (though she can’t compete!), and We Did All the Hard Work for You, You Just Have to Read from J.D. Kimple. And so totally inappropriate ones (but VERY funny) such as: Abbie Fink’s Nooner and Danny Brown’s Premature Factulation

And then, Barry’s and Lisa’s ideas made me consider our own wine:thirty, which is every Friday at 4:30 in our offices. So you see, we have a dilemma.

We really love Gin and Topics. But what if someone from my team eventually takes over the top five post? Then that name won’t work. So Thank Blog It’s Friday and Spin Sucks, But Fridays Rock work for more strategic reasons. And, after the first few, you can begin to abbreviate Thank Blog It’s Friday to TBIF and include a subhead for the week. But Gin and Topics is really good.  Crap.

I think we have a winner (that took you seconds to read but about an hour for me to write)! Barry, it’s yours! Even though it may not fit strategically, we’ll cross the bridge when (if?) we come to it. We’ll send you a copy of Branding Yourself by Erik Deckers and Kyle Lacy. Gin and Topics it is.

And with that…the top five stories of the week.

5. If Social Media Were a High School. I always joke that I love social media because I was not popular in high school, but I am online. This Flowtown blog post breaks each social tool into the different cliques that are high school. If it were true, I’d be a Gossip Girl, which is so far from me in reality, but really very funny!

4. Groupon Pulls Controversial Ads; Apologizes Again. Just when you though the Groupon Super Bowl talk was beginning to give you a headache, there’s more! I actually feel a lot better about the second apology (looks like they either listened to their PR critics or hired a PR counselor), but what’s really funny in this post are the ads that Conan O’Brien has been spoofing all week.

3. What’s Wrong with Viral Marketing. We have a joke internally that, if a client wants to make a viral video, we recommend two guys kicking each other in the nuts at the end. Then we know it’ll go viral! But Liz Strauss (she’s taken over Spin Sucks today!) has a better formula. Check out her tweet and the 21 people who responded to it.

2. Dress for the Job You Want. It’s no secret I think people who give keynotes and speeches at conferences shouldn’t wear jeans (although I’ve softened a bit, depending on your audience). And, while the Swiss may be a bit over-the-top, the idea that you should dress for the job you want isn’t new. I know it’s cool and cache these days to wear jeans full of holes because they were designed that way. And I know most jeans cost $200 or more. But how many CEOs do you see wearing jeans to client or new business meetings? This article describes why you should dress the part, even if you have years before you’ve climbed that high.

1. Ten Tips from Bootstrapping Entrepreneurs. I agree with all 1o of these tips and add: Watch the bottom line, not the top and always think big.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Gini Dietrich

Gini Dietrich is the founder, CEO, and author of Spin Sucks, host of the Spin Sucks podcast, and author of Spin Sucks (the book). She is the creator of the PESO Model and has crafted a certification for it in partnership with Syracuse University. She has run and grown an agency for the past 15 years. She is co-author of Marketing in the Round, co-host of Inside PR, and co-host of The Agency Leadership podcast.

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