I’ve seen a ton of upgrades and website enhancements during my tenure with YTB. Quite honestly, I’ve lost count how many times our sites have been updated with new looks, technology features, and a wider array of product offerings.

Not to diminish anything the company has done in the past, because at the time it was released it was big. However, what I saw yesterday afternoon with a new look, technology improvements, social connectivity and user friendly design of this site tops anything the company has ever released.

Welcome to the new ZamZuu.

See, this is a result of what happens when companies pay attention to current trends and hot features of the day. Technology, especially on the Internet, is constantly changing and evolving. What’s really cool about a site like ZamZuu, is that you can implement certain features and redesigns like this on a regular basis to keep customers engaged.

There are many new features with the new site. The new look is much easier to navigate, by redesigning categories, keeping everything is what’s known in site design as “above the fold”. Let’s face it, people are lazy and scrolling down a long page just doesn’t cut it. Now, just about everything can be found without the need of scrolling down a single inch. (Trust me, it’s a very important feature – more important than you think.)

Another new addition is the shopping cart within ZamZuu.com. Now, customers can shop and purchase products within the same shopping experience. This in turn will increase the average amount of cash back for customers. (The more they buy – the more they save.)

On a promotional front as either a Free Agent or Site Owner with Zamzuu there’s a very cool feature that personally I’ve been waiting for.

Twitter and Facebook integration.

Now Free Agents and Site Owners can link directly to hundreds of stores with a simple click of a button. See a special sale at Macy’s? Tell your Facebook family about it with a link directly to Macy’s through your ZamZuu site. They get cash back, and you get a commission.

How easy is that?

I’ve got about 1000 friends on Facebook, and a portion of them are also partners in YTB and ZamZuu. They’ve already gotten the hang of this feature, and they understand what a real game changer this is.

There’s still a bit of cleanup to be done, and more stores to add over the coming weeks. While the links are correct in the Facebook integration, the API pulls a generic description for ZamTek for example. (Easily changed manually at this point however.)

There are a couple bugs to be fixed – which is inevitable when a release like this is offered to the general public. Then the company will focus on the next upgrade.

Another upgrade you ask? Yes, another upgrade for the YTB Travel Network sites with much of the same functionality as our new ZamZuu sites.

Can you imagine?! The travel site upgrade was supposed to be released in two weeks during Funshine. However, with all the work being done with the ZamZuu sites, and the new partnership with Orbitz, Funshine has been postponed until the travel upgrade is ready for launch. If it’s anything like this ZamZuu launch – I can pretty much promise it will be worth the wait.

And to the folks at the Home Office who worked on this ZamZuu upgrade. Hot damn! This is a nice upgrade!

Many thanks to you for your hard work – and especially for implementing the features the field wanted most.

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Would you like another clear cut example that “word of mouth” works?

Yeah, I know – I’m preaching to the choir here, but this type of documentation and research can be very useful when talking to prospects about owning their own home based business. It appears that market research firms Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies found that people are more likely to recommend brands they follow as fans on Facebook and Twitter. Likewise, these same followers are more likely to buy from the brands they follow.

The study was conducted with 1500 consumers and here are the hard numbers:

• 60% of Facebook fans and 79% of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a fan or follower.
• 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers are more likely to buy the brands they follow or are a fan of.

With now over 400 million Facebook users on the internet these days, one might conclude that there’s an opportunity to be had here.

What’s even more interesting is that these users now actually expect business to have a presence in these mediums. The comments found in the release are very telling:

• “It’s EXPECTED that a company have some digital face – whether it’s on FB or Twitter I don’t know – but they need a strong electronic presence or you doubt their relevance in today’s marketplace.” Female 50-54
• “Either they are not interested in the demographic that frequents Facebook and Twitter or they are unaware of the opportunity to get more exposure in a more interactive method.” Male 35-39
• “It shows they are not really with it or in tune with the new ways to communicate with customers.” Female 18-24.
• “If they’re not on Facebook or Twitter, then they aren’t in touch with the “electronic” people.” Female 55-59

Clearly, Social Media has come of age, and those that embrace this medium have found a market that’s not only able – but very willing to recommend (aka “promote”) for you.

Those of us who’ve work in Direct Sales and Network Marketing (and do it the right way) have known about this phenomenon and how it works first hand. It’s really nothing new. You hook up, provide useful information that benefit them, and the next thing you know all sorts of people are purchasing based on a simple recommendation. There’s no need for heavy sales pitches or arm twisting when done the proper way.

In fact, anything heavy or over the top turns more poeple away can be the death of any online business in this environment.

Just relax, and be…well…”social”. Sounds obvious I know, but it’s the first step in building a long lasting relationship that will build trust and loyal fans and followers. Be part of the community and without much effort at all, you’ll find yourself climbing up the social media ladder – which in turn leads to exposure – credibility – and eventually sales.

Studies like this prove that Social Media not only works, but it’s now required if you want to build a viable business in this day and age.

Kind of puts a whole new light on the new ZamZuu marketing campaign launched less than three months ago doesn’t it? ;-P

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If I asked you who Mark Zuckerberg is would you be able to tell me?

I wouldn’t have been able before this weekend. (So don’t feel too bad if you don’t.)

Rather than keep you in suspense, I’ll just come right out and tell you Mark is a former-Harvard student who created Facebook. When it launched in February 2004 it was used to communicate between other Harvard students. It quickly gained considerable notoriety and was soon being used at Stanford, Columbia and Yale. Zuckerberg ended up dropping out of Harvard to pursue his dreams and began running Facebook full time.

When Mark Zuckerberg showed up in Palo Alto, he had no car, no house, and no job. In August 2005, “thefacebook” (it’s original name) was officially called Facebook and the domain facebook.com was purchased for a reported $200,000. Today, Mark is at the helm of a smokin’-hot social-networking site. Back in 2007 it was projected that Facebook would generate $969 million in revenue, with 48 million users, by 2010. At that time The New York Times and others reported that Yahoo had made a $1 billion offer to buy Facebook.

Zuckerberg and his partners turned it down.

That was 2007 and it’s now 2009 and Facebook has far exceeded expectations. Back in April this phenomenon went over 200 million registered users, with 100 million logging in and using a combined 5 billion minutes every day.

I found a couple other stats that blew me away:

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