I have a super exciting announcement for you!! We are launching our e-commerce platform this week! I know eh? I’m so excited to start my holiday shopping on the siteJ.  We added so many brands including well-known, household names and unique artisans representing their countries. And the best part is, there are still more to come!

Personally, I think I might even buy myself a Christmas present; I’m debating between HTC’s reputable smartphone, HD2 (that I’ve been eyeing for a while) and the new  iPanda iPod speakers from Amethyst (too bad they don’t have an iLemur). Oh heck! Why not both! While I’m at it, I think I’ll pick up one of Artemi’s necklaces for my friend Zaya…

Now that the site’s up and running, I have a little more time to relax. I would really like to take some time off to meet you, especially to THANK YOU for being a part of our online community.

Just to show you my appreciation, my team and I created the Zack's #1 Fan monthly photo contest! Invite me to your home, take pictures with me, send them to my team and you could win 50Z*, a feature article about your blog posted on our website and the title Zack’s #1 Fan. I can’t wait to visit you and discover more about you! Visit our contest page for more details.

And of course our Zilhouette blog rating system will still available for your use. Invite your readers to rate your blog and you’ll have a clear idea about how your blog is perceived in terms of content, tone and mood. Visit our Zilhouette page for more details. Happy Holiday Shopping and I hope to see you soon! J

Yours Truly,
-Zack

PS: Don’t forget, you can find me on your favorite social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and Blog Catalog!

*Z is the name of the virtual currency used on the ZackBrandit Platform. 1 Z = 1€ Z’s can be used to buy any product on the ZackBrandit platform.

Our platform is improving day by day and so will our communication.

I come to you today with 4 headlines:

We have finally launched our French blog. Instead of it simply being a translation of our main English blog, we decided to give it its own life and its own path. If you speak French and want to learn more about this facet of the ZackBrandit community, do not hesitate to click on the FR button on top of this page or on the link I just shared with you and register to our RSS feed.

We launched another blog called Zack's Informal Communication Page! 
I think the name describes it well; while this blog is our formal communication channel (sort of), our Tumblr page will focus on short ZackCards (e-cards) through which we share press releases, news and other stuff in a fun way.
And not to forget our CONTESTS! Surely you’ll want to know about their launch!

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!

Brand-advocate, evangelist, ambassador, aficionado, etc.That’s a lot of names for one who tries to influence our purchase decisions. We listen to them, we sometimes trust them, but do we actually know them? Following a recent study by Mintel most American people who bought a product or service online did it based on recommendations by their friends and relatives; with other words someone they know well. The same results should be visible in most places around the world.

It seems on the other hand that recommendations by strangers have less influence on the decision making process. And I thought this was changing…
If that’s the case, how can we really leverage social media to intensify e-commerce and what happened with the idea that people trust bloggers and other members of their network?

Chris Brogan (yes him again) would ask if You’re a trust Agent. There might be more to it than just knowing someone… Though I’m impatiently waiting for his book, I’m asking myself one question: If people trust mainly their closest entourage, how can affiliation models leverage this? What about the long tail?Doesn’t it mean that affiliation models focusing on personal or niche blogs will on the long run become more successful than those working with the larger and more well-known publishers?

The same survey shows that in the end, the most influential criterion is the price of the product. With other words, if you have a promotion offered by a well-known blogger and a better one by a very small blog owned by a friend, you probably won’t hesitate and go for your friend's.

In addition to that and as Brian Clark suggests affiliate marketing disclosure can be used as a selling point, meaning when you know you audience personally, you won’t mind putting disclosures for the promotions and discounts you can offer. 

So! What are we waiting for?! When will someone leverage this model?

Oh! Yeah! I forgot…We do!!!

Moreover, we believe that it would be great to be able to share our trust in a blogger with other people (your network and strangers). That is why we created the Zilhouette, and to show you how it works we will start by presenting bloggers and one way they could be perceived by their audience (on a total of 16).

The first one would be…of course CHRIS BROGAN!

Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs and passionate blogger on social media can be perceived as an Administrator.

Often seen as a pillar in the community, administrators live in a world of facts and concrete needs. Their eyes constantly scan their personal environment to make sure everything runs well. Administrators have such a clear vision of the way things should be, that they naturally take on leadership roles.

I’ve been wondering for a while now, do bloggers experience the Blank Page Syndrome the same way other writers do? It’s not easy to maintain a decent blog with quality content and frequent updates. Authors, journalists, columnists and bloggers all share a need to be sustainable in their work. Deadlines are very important even if they differ from one type of publisher to the other.

Writing a book requires months of work whereas magazines and newspapers have daily or weekly prints. Blogging and micro-blogging on the other hand have increased the pace and information has to be visible the minute after an event happened. But does it have to be like that? And what if you’re uninspired or have no valuable content to share?

You never know when to expect it to happen; the Blank Page Syndrome is indeed a tricky adversary, but there are precautionary measures one can take to keep it at bay. There are actually many blogs talking about it and I noticed it’s often connected with deadlines and a desire to start with a brilliant opening. With other words, the two main aspects are:

1. People need to have access to the information at a specific time
2. The content must be eye-catching

This brings me to one of Chris Brogan’s latest posts Audience is King. This post has one central thought that publishers have to realize their biggest value is in their audience and that content is molded for the audience's appreciation. It reminds me of the following question: If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to see it or hear it, will it make any sound?

The issue with blogs however, is that there are millions around and most of them have a very limited audience. Does it mean these falling trees are not nice to behold? Does this mean the blogger has no wish to continue writing?

This is where we get to the second question: If you hear the falling tree, do you actually enjoy it?

Each writer has a purpose, a mission. One can write thriller stories to frighten the readers, some writers may want to inform, while others yet only wish to share personal events. The way content is updated is based on the author’s mission and achieved value. A professional writer will seek to enlarge his audience in order to increase his status and commercial value. A teenager’s blog will focus more on what the person likes and experiences and is directed to a limited set of friends and family members. As a reader, what value do you get from each of these blogs?

This simply means that not unlike the falling tree, it’s all about the way you experience something and perceive this experience. You could say that each one of us is a forest with many falling trees, each one representing an action we undertake, a print we leave in life.

When you finally discover a new forest, because you were lucky enough to hear one of the falling trees, wouldn’t it be nice to know more about the forest and why or how his trees fall?
Is it a large forest with many trees that are slow to fall? Is it a bamboo forest that grows daily a thousand new trees? Or is it a very old forest with large and heavy trees that make a lot of noise when they fall?

Well, with this little tree falling I would like to share with you a secret – there is a way to know and it’s called a Zilhouette. The Zilhouette is like the outline of the forest, telling you more about the way it is perceived by other people that walked in there and saw its falling trees.

Starting now we will have more falling trees on the ZackBrandit blog. Don’t worry these are only virtual ones and we will use them to create new ripples while focusing on the value of the content. In order to explain you how our Zilhouette model works, we will present you other famous and less famous forests (bloggers) and show you how they can be perceived and understood by passersby.

This is not an easy task and we greatly appreciate your feedback!