ZackBrandit being located in Belgium, is in the center of a cultural crossroad. The country has 3 official languages as well as Germany, UK, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and France as neighbors - each one with its own language, communication and entrepreneurial culture. Belgium developed Netlog, The Netherlands brought Hyves and the others introduced their own set of social networks and other media.

When Brian Solis, a prominent new media thought leader, introduced the Social Media Prism, most of the brands that were included were from US based start-ups. In the meantime new prisms were created for other countries such as Germany, Japan and China while international start-ups were added to the original one.

In February 2010, Brian Solis wrote a blog post about
the state of social media around the world where he uses a study by TrendStream to explain that although Facebook dominates the market in most countries, social media usage can vary from one place to another.

For a complete analysis I invite you to read Brian’s blogpost. What interests ZackBrandit the most is the evolution of the blogosphere. Projections of the research show us that in most western countries we mainly use social media to upload pictures and manage a social network profile. Only 10% of people who have internet access (average of 50% of the population) write their own blog. On the other hand, if we go to Asia or Latin America we notice that blogging has a predominant position; often much higher than social networking; yet, rates of internet access remains proportionally much lower (except for South Korea and Japan).

Most social media technologies originated in western countries; which also means they mature faster in western societies. Whereas Asian and Latin cultures, where life isn’t as fast-paced, show that online communication is also evolving at a slower speed.

At first glance this may not sound alarming, but we may expect a further decline of blogging in western countries and probably also in the rest of the world on the long run.

Larger and more influential social networks will start looking to expand beyond their virtual borders. It has already started with Facebook Connect, but with time we may anticipate much more interaction between the different existing platforms.

This also means that companies with a business model revolving around social shopping, affiliation and online marketing will start to see local and international shifts in their communication strategies. Thus, can we start talking about glocal online communication?

How does this influence ZackBrandit’s model?

Though we originally developed the Zilhouette and our affiliation model for bloggers, we value being active on different platforms. This of course demands a lot of energy; priorities must be established. When we decided to create ZackBrandit about 5 years ago, we expected to see Europe follow the US lead in social media. With time we realized that cultural and perceptional differences were telling us otherwise. This complexifies ZackBrandit’s model and its goal to push conversation forward.

So, where are we going to? What direction will social media take?
We can only guess, but we expect to see standards and interconnections popping-up.
Language remains a strong barrier; however automatic translation is also improving.
Server costs can be very expensive and partnerships to reduce them are also viable.
3D, virtual and augmented reality will become even more immersive. Today we connect to the internet; tomorrow the internet will connect with us.
Indeed, social media is still in its infancy…

When I say Belgium you think… 1. Frites (Belgian fries) 2. Beer 3. Politicians 4. Waffles 5. Chocolate

Belgium is indeed quite well known for its many culinary marvels and today’s post is about Belgian Chocolate.

There are many chocolatiers in Belgium. Some of them with their names echoed all over the world, while others prefer to keep a low profile and enjoy producing quality artisan pralines.

The ZackBrandit team is multicultural but we all have one point in common, we love chocolate! That is why we’re looking to promote these delicious wonders.

We recently discovered Eclat Cacao in Brussels and we’re all sold!

Meet David and learn more about his new chocolaty venture. Discover how pralines, bars and easter eggs are made. You can really taste the passion in his work!

All these chocolates are of course available on the ZackBrandit platform, fresh and delicious directly from David’s shop.

How many brands and logos do you see a day ? 100, 200? 500?! What if you could watch 2.500 different logos in 15 minutes? Would you feel dizzy?

The French design collective H5 worked 6 years on a short film completely composed by logos. Logorama is an award-winning one liner satire about a society flooded by corporate culture, brainless blockbusters, wanton extravagance and consumerism.

The film starts with a police chase where Ronald McDonald is pursued by Michelin dudes. It moves fast, it’s full of colors and you will be amazed by the amount of logos that you recognize.

Some may perceive it as a piece of art, while others will argue it could be a marketing vehicle, serving to advertise hundreds of brands in a short time frame. We at ZackBrandit were quite impressed and just enjoyed the show.

It is most probable that some companies will not be pleased about the way their logo was used without their consent. On the other hand, this film can be seen as corroborating the fact that companies do not own and control their brand and that user-generated content develops in significance.

As a spectator, we enjoyed the way that the brands were represented as well as the personalities that were given to a certain extent. It’s a matter of perception and while some will laugh at the crumbling Windows building others will agonize watching the scene that is falling in disarray.

Have a look at the trailer, enjoy this in-depth review and discover more about the future projections.

Once in a while you hear things like blogs are passé or blogs are losing ground to new social media platforms such as micro-blogging like Technorati posted recently. Being addicted to blog reading, I had a hard time imagining such a thing and wanted to learn more about this perception. This is the reason why I decided to attend the largest bloggers event in the world, named of course Blogworld Expo!

First of all, though many thought leaders were present, I think we can safely say that the participants do not represent the general state of the American blogosphere; mostly because of the venue and the price tag. The majority was in attendance because of their professional backgrounds, and even if there were novice bloggers in attendance, they had a specific outline of their goals during their blogging time. 

I attended several keynote presentations and must say that most of them were of very high quality and sometimes extremely funny and captivating.  (Thank you Timothy Sykes!) 

It is impressive to see the energy created by these bloggers. Even though the main subject of the event was blogging, most attendees were on their laptops or iPhones tweeting non-stop one idea or expression after the other. This was happening so much that I still can’t tell if Twitter is about broadcasting or interacting.  Actually, the fact that Twitter was omnipresent during the event forced people to wonder if it was being misused. Because of this, a lot of buzz started regarding the state of the Blogosphere. This activity is growing rapidly; it’s is great news for the community! 

Furthermore, I had the opportunity to meet the guys from Blogcatalog, a blog directory where the ZackBrandit team is quite active. Great guys by the way! I was really surprised to hear that 60% of their members are located outside of the USA. 

To summarize, Blogworld was a cool and very well organized event. I discovered that monetization is a very strong theme for many bloggers (because more people are taking it to the professional level). There are blogs with millions of pageviews I’ve never heard of and mommy blogs (blogs written by mothers) that are very trendy. 

I also received some great feedback regarding the ZackBrandit platform, concept and ideas for further development. With this I also want to share with you that we are only a few days away from our afilliation launch!

Stay tuned and let me know if you also had the opportunity to visit Blogworld or if you know other social media events to attend.

Take care.

While drifting through my Friendfeed account I discovered a funny little thing that made me realize something big is happening.

I present to you Conan’s sword and by Crom, it’s an impressive one. This sword is the original used in the movie and this picture was shot in the Californian Governor’s office.

So, what’s so unusual about this?

As you all know (or don’t) Governor Schwarzenegger is very active online. The socially savvy Governor has about 1 million followers on Twitter and has just started a new Twitter account called MyIdea4CA.

But what interests us here is where this picture was taken from, namely Twitpic and how people reacted to it.

Here are a few comments you can find on that page:

• Thats so cool Arnold!!
• Make the Conan King movie, show us the last fight of this sword. CROM!!!
• holy shit arnie thats badass!

Have you noticed how “personal” these comments are? Do not forget that they are addressed to a celebrity and one of the most influential political figures in the USA. Even if “Arnie” doesn’t read all these pieces of text, it doesn’t matter. This example shows that social media is starting to have a strange influence on our behavior and the way we perceive proximity.

Normally, when we meet a celebrity in the street we shyly go ask for an autograph, conscious of the fact we may be disturbing this person. But online, all these inhibitions disappear, leaving space for “friendly” relationships.

While just a few years ago people used to hide behind a nickname and a fake picture, today we all become pals whether we’re a student, a CEO, a celebrity or the President of a country. And even if we’re still using a nickname and an avatar, with all the social networks around and the ‘About’ pages on blogs, it’s getting easier to know our interlocutor.

Now the big question: if one feels pride when directly dealing with his favorite celebrity or politician, how does the alter-ego feel? It is nice to see we are connected with people, but do we feel any real connection?

One can have a populist view on the matter saying that quantity is what matters but, as we’ve recently noticed, many social media experts have started cleaning out their “entourage”.

While in the past we used to be amazed when facing his Highness the King, nowadays we call him by a somewhat irreverent diminutive version of his first name. Does this mean that by creating a pretence of proximity, easy and frequent exposure to the Internet actually encourages us to adopt a blasé attitude?

What do you think? Are we losing touch with reality? Or are we changing society by breaking social strata that have no sense anymore?

Twitter this, Facebook that, Friendfeed here - and you know what!?!

We’ve been under the spell of social media for some time now, trying different platforms and every day seeing new websites popping-up. The question is: where would they be without their first users and advocates? More than any other kind of service, social media platforms rely on the personal brand of their members and often require illustrious people joining them and help promote their service.

Where would Friendfeed be without Robert Scoble? Would Twitter be as successful without Ashton Kutcher or Martha Stewart? (just to name a couple of examples)

This reminds us a little about advertising by Hollywood actors, - except that it’s totally free. I wrote some time ago that social media converges with online bartering. People share their fame and in exchange they see it grow even more; eventually achieving a special status.

This then brings us to two questions:

1. Can a new platform become successful without a famous champion?
2. What if this champion decides to leave the platform?

Let’s focus on Robert Scoble to answer the above. Robert is an employee of Rackspace, a prominent blogger and chief troublemaker in the Building43 community of Internet fanatics. In one of his latest posts, Robert explains why he champions Friendfeed and considers it as a great way to communicate with his audience. Many people have joined Friendfeed following Robert’s suggestion, but will they continue if Robert decides to leave and move on to something else. Will people once again follow his lead?

There are hundreds of new web services opening daily to the public and websites such as Killerstartups help us discover them. Yet the press will only be intrigued by platforms that show serious traction and this often happens with the influence of well-connected and trusted agents. 

We at ZackBrandit haven’t yet found our cheerleaders except for Does this mean we’re doomed to fail even if we have a great plan? Or should we be able to become sustainable with a slowly growing set of followers who believe in our project and values?

Robert can be perceived as a Patron.

Keenly in tune with the way things look, taste, smell and feel, Patrons have a strong appreciation for aesthetics and new things. Compelled to stand out, they are always looking for what others do not have and how to help them get it.

Robert’s blog focuses on the relevance and pertinence of the information he can share with us, and provides a good balance between personal thoughts and concrete facts. His blog has many widgets that focus on his network, yet they do not distract the reader from the posts and the many comments contained. Though Robert has many followers, he only moderately interacts in his blog, preferring to do so on other social media.

There are other reasons why Robert could be perceived as a Patron; for a full description, please visit this portrait's forum and don't hesitate to comment and share your feedback.

Of course this particular profile or Zilhouette is only one out of the 16 possible perceptions; based on your personal background, you might perceive him in a totally different way.

Want to know more about our Zilhouettes?Check this link!