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!

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.