A creative mind that enjoys sharing its knowledge and passion with others.
Often found promoting ideas and innovations, the Fan is a “brand” advocate by heart.

The Fans have an idyllic relationship with a particular brand, sport, person or state of mind and want the world to know about it. Their blog shows genuine passion for the main topic and a strong red line in the communication. The Fans convey a message coming from the heart, punctuated by a rash desire for self-expression.

Fans keep part of their childhood dreams and visions. Their blog focuses on a chosen “hero”; hence, the general layout of the blog can be extreme. It can be simple, almost minimalist with a focus on the actual and personal (creative) content, or it can on the contrary be full of colours, pictures and videos. This depends on the main topic in focus, and the age and state of mind of the blogger. Fans will most probably not use a personal domain name and will use a free, yet personalised, template. The writing style reflects passion which at times can compensate for a lack of mature communication skills.

Fans enjoy interactions regarding their own writing. Comments and feedback are very important, and they gladly share their view with other people. Yet, the purpose of a fan’s blog is to show their appreciation and love, and although the world may be listening, their contribution still is something very personal. Most Fans therefore have few or limited readership, but have a very strong bond with them. One can also be a fan of his own life and use his blog as personal diary, as an autobiography and for self-branding purposes.

Fans are quite knowledgeable about their preferred subject and will be able to find a balance between evidence and opinion. They probably have several interesting sources they're tapping into, but are not necessarily visible. Fans provide their readers with their own and unique view on the subject and do not wish to resemble an exhaustive encyclopaedia or replace the official press. They will therefore combine their acquired knowledge with the message they wish to share, rather than talking about crude facts.

Fans will probably be members of different social networks and will potentially use other social media to share their passion. The blogs will likely use videos and pictures, yet the use of many textual links should not be expected. The Fan’s Blogroll will expectedly have related fan blogs and other subjects of interest which are not directly related to their blog.

Advertising and affiliations are not important and adverts should have a connection with the blog’s subject and its design.

Example of blogs: Groupie, Sport Fan, Supporter, Amateur Philosopher, Brand Lover, NGO member

Talking about sharing, I have learnt that very few have actually share information about fellow bloggers or micro-bloggers. This might have been the case in the beginning of the blogging age, but today, few are the rookies succeeding in making their place and many decide to call it quits. When saying great minds are often less than capable communicators, it also means a potentially great loss for the virtual community.

Wasn’t Web2.0 about collaboration and helping each other out? Why not organize mentoring, coaching and webinars for new bloggers? Are there any headhunters looking around for the talented writer eager to get some readership?

Several efforts have been undertaken such as Bloggersbase, an Israeli venture presented at LeWeb. Its model is based on a contest where the quality of the posts provides you with a status. The higher your status, the more visibility you get - same as everywhere else. However, there are organized timeslots where bloggers compete. Those elected as the best can, in time, join the elite. In other words, if the system works well, everyone has a fair chance to get his share of the spotlight. It works like an international football (soccer) tournament: you start with qualifying pools and the winners continue until the finals. Then you start again, with the former winner maintaining a small head start.

As I stated before, social media is a form of bartering, and thus we at ZackBrandit have decided to start with our own hopefully not too futile small initiative. We have noticed that there’s no bloggers listing for members on LinkedIn, and as a network of professionals there are surely plenty of interesting ones. We have created a list using Deli.cio.us, which can be found here. This list is updated daily with LinkedIn members who have asked us to add their blog, and each blog is forwarded to my Friendfeed account. In this way, we wish to provide a helping hand and create increased visibility to fellow bloggers, while at the same time perhaps finding some great content (yep, not everybody is on Tweeter yet).

Should you wish to be added to this list, please send an email to zack@zackbrandit.com and include the following details: 1. LinkedIn profile URL 2. Name of Blog 3.  Blog URL 4. RSS Feed 5. Is your blog professional, semi-pro or hobby? 6.  3 tags 7. Language of blog

You can check every blog one by one or make a search using the cloud, but most importantly, each blog is connected to a LinkedIn profile giving you more information about the author.

Please be assured that this list is not used for other purposes than for the listing.

Also, do not hesitate to send us suggestions to improve this list.

 The Mechanic

Mechanics have an adventuresome spirit.
They have a compelling drive to understand how things work and like to take things apart to understand its functioning.
They have an action-oriented, “independent” spirit.

Mechanics live in the world of the concrete and the applicatory . They have patience and may devote a lot of time to “research”. They enjoy taking their latest gift apart and analyzing the way it works. Though not interested in theoretical concepts, they are good at logical analysis. Mechanics have a free and adventurous spirit and a rich inner world where everything seems connected. Though not necessarily the most structured communicator, they know what they want to tell and will pass the message accordingly. Some Mechanics can write methodically and almost algorithmically while others may resemble mad scientists.

Mechanics are mainly attracted to technology, cars, computers, mobile phones, etc., but some are more scientifically oriented and will dissect formulas and algorithms instead. They are often technical-minded and quite skilled in their field. Mechanics are ingenious people, but their creativity may be used as a means to discover the truth: how something works. This also means that the Mechanic knows how to appreciate harmony.

The Mechanic’s blog is often very descriptive and will use many pictures and videos to present their discoveries and share their opinion. The blog does not necessarily require a unique domain name nor does it need to have amazing looks. This however might change based on the blogger’s readership and the desire to be more appealing and understandable.

Mechanics are not particularly people persons and tend to feel and understand emotions like the functioning of a clock. They are not critics and will first explain objectively before expressing an opinion. Their blogs are mainly a monologue, a place to share their discoveries. The blog-posting pace depends on their capacity to acquire new items. Mechanics do not often respond to comments and even less to critics and will provide personal information on a “to know” basis. (This is of course relative to their personal limitations).

The Mechanic’s blog is introverted, meaning the writing style and informative part will be based on personal vision and knowledge rather than external sources. They might carry out many comparisons between competitive products but will not specifically look for other sources to confirm their analyses (whether technical or theoretical).

Mechanics do not wish to convey a message or express an opinion. Their desire is one of objectivity and to share the truth with their readers. Though not a pioneer, they will often look for new products on the market in order to sustain their interest and remain relevant as an information provider.

Mechanics are usually not particularly well-connected and limit their involvement in social networks and media. Their Blogroll is often not comprehensive.

Mechanics do not care about commercials and will strongly limit them on the blog. Their focus is on the objective information they can deliver and the joy they have by sorting it out. The rest is secondary and can be perceived as a nuisance.

Here comes the second profile.

The Administrator

Often seen as a pillar in the community, they live in a world of facts and concrete needs. Their eyes constantly scan his 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.

For the Administrators, nothing is more important than the relevance of the conveyed information and the way it is applied by the new owner. Though creativity is appreciated, it only comes second. Administrators are highly regarded for their ability to explain how things should be done.

Their blog is usually well structured and to the point. Administrators have good insight and are very knowledgeable about the chosen subjects. They often have enough experience and confidence not to use too many external links in his posts, but will gladly share their sources with others. When presenting schematics, they are most often their creations. On the one hand, they believe and trust in their own capacities and succeed in passing on this confidence to their followers. On the other hand, Administrators are humble enough to not put themselves at the forefront. Most Administrators are experienced and therefore of older age. Their writing style reflects their gained wisdom.

Administrators do not post very often and prefer bringing value with each of their writings.They do not really like sharing personal information except in cases where anecdotes could be used to provide added-value to an explanation. They are pragmatists, living in the world of deeds. People appreciate their insight and envision them as leaders in their area of expertize. They are often extremely active in society.

Administrators are extrovert and believe in the need for interaction. They might be actively using micro-blogging solutions, but again to share relevant information. There is only one way for building society and it starts with sharing. They are gatherers by nature. 

Administrators are not looking for new stuff. They are not pioneers, but rather prefer focusing their message around systems that already have proven results. Sustainability is very important. They will not be the first to write about a particular subject, but will integrate it when there is some quantified and qualitative data available.

Administrators will most often have their own domain name and a personalized template, though a simple and straight-forward one with little navigation capabilities.

Administrators do not have the need to use social networks and may use a select few. They are not actively looking to create new connections and readers, as they are automatically attracted or referred to them.

Advertising is not a priority on the Administrator's blog and they would normally limit it to be relevant to the content.

Example of blogs: CEO, Business Man, Politician, Social Sciences Specialist, NGO

We will use a series of posts (like this one) to present our 16 profiles one by one.

These posts will help you better understand our approach with the Zack’s Profiling System which we will be launching very soon.

The Promoter

Often representing the interests of others, Promoters know how to convey an important message and creatively direct the target reader to the right place.

A Blog with a Promoter profile is often perceived as someone with the desire to communicate a message rather than facts. Charm and creativity have a central place in this blog. The blogger has no desire to explain something logically or philosophically, instead he would like us to know how he envisions a specific brand, subject or item and the way we should perceive it.

Promoters will use different techniques for this purpose. The blog has usually some form of a business-like approach; hence the visual quality of the blog plays an important role. It can be formal or fun, colourful or not, but Promoters will often arouse the reader’s senses. They probably uses a personal domain name and a paid or personalised template. The writing style and its layout might be well studied and a “PR”-like feeling could be experienced.

Promoters enjoy interactions, comments and feedbacks and will naturally seek to understand what people like and need in order to make the appropriate connections with his readers. They want to have one positioning voice in the middle of many interactions. Their blog often uses widely used features and becomes a small gathering place for lovers and fans of the Promoter's chosen blog subject.

Promoters like to share and believes in the need to use external links, videos, music and other media, provided it is in his interest. The Promoter’s Blogroll will expectedly have some famous names or brands.

Advertising and affiliations are important and adverts should have a connection with the blog’s subject and its design.

Promoters are often extrovert, has a high number of acquaintances and may use several social networks or media. Those are found on the blog in widget form.

Example of blogs: Advertisers, Marketers, self-proclaimed Top-Bloggers

The web has evolved a lot since the ‘90s. We have known Web 1.0, we are living today in the Web 2.0 era and are slowly moving towards Web 3.0.

It seems there is one thing in common and that is the “0”. This zero shows that we are speaking of an evolution or maybe even a small revolution.

Web 2.0 has provided us with interactive web applications, features and services such as blogs, mashups, social networks, wikis and others. We have moved from an individual user’s perspective to a community approach, keeping in mind that it always revolves around the user’s personal experience.

With Web3.0 also known as Semantic Web, we intend to go a step further. The Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work cooperatively.

 

 

 

The idea is to have computers tap into metadata and create meaningful relationships without the need for a powerful artificial intelligence.   The Web will be linked in a way that it can be used more effectively across various applications. The Semantic Web will contain and link resources corresponding to several kinds of objects such as media (images, clips, etc.), people, places, organizations and events.

Web visionaries have been working for some time on this new evolution. Semantic web is a combination of crowd sharing, done today to an extent through tags, natural language processing and machine learning techniques.  Semantic web could change the Web the same way Windows’ metaphoric desk replaced the textual DOS at the end of the last century. A semantic browser will learn from the user’s behaviour and adapt its links. Gradually and with the help of mind maps and virtual worlds, the web could become an adaptive platform represented by a metaphor based on the user’s interests. This however, is a future step which might result in introducing Web 4.0.

This brings us to Advertising 3.0, an information-rich model where adverts become more relevant and grow to become content. Though it may sound very tempting, the underlying risk is that message and facts can be mixed-up. I believe there is great potential, but like my spandex-clothed friend once learned – with great power comes great responsibility.

The ZackBrandit team believes in the necessity to support a rich and relevant Web. Information is as valuable as the meaning we endow it with. But meaning does not necessarily indicate factual data; life is indeed more than just facts, it is also about the way we as people apprehend the information. At the end of the day, it is us who give meaning to words.

Zack’s Profiling System (ZPS) transforms a particular blog, brand or product into a set of elements perceptually annotated by users. The idea is to offer meaningful categorization based on pertinent criteria. We would like to know how people perceive blogs, brands and products, how they categorise them and use this data to create new relationships.

If the actual rating systems are linear and provide one result for a specific product (usually an amount of points or stars), ZPS has the unique capacity of linking up to 8 different criteria, thus resulting in meaningful profiles. The profile is the result of crowd participation and therefore brings the user’s perceptive meaning into our database. Hence the possibility to introduce a new browsing approach reflecting one’s moods, feelings and personal view.

It is not a replacement, nor is it semantic web. ZPS is a smart but standardised tagging system that will more easily support the arrival of Web 3.0 and its share of advertising.

And we are those embodying it!