When I initially decided to launch the ShamaTV site, I had my designer and I asked her if we could do something fun and creative with this. So she asked me if she could turn me in to a cartoon a cartoon of myself. I have to tell you that at first I was a little skeptical, and kind of like, ah, I’m not so sure how that will turn out, but she took it and she ran with it and did an amazing job.

But something happened with it besides it being something I really liked and something people resonated with. What was amazing was how many people connected with this, what I’m calling, image personas: an image, just a j-peg drawn image,- a creative graphic image, and how people connected it with me and the ShamaTV brand. It’s really, really funny for me because I never expected this.

What was also unusual was that we started getting a whole bunch of e-mails and calls saying “who did this site?” We tell them clicktoclient, the company I run, has designers and developers, and they did it. And we got a whole bunch of requests for creating image personas for other people.

We’re intrigued by this because I think it really allows people to connect. I’m not even sure why this is… I haven’t figured it out yet. I’m not sure what aspect connects so well with them because there’s a lot of websites and things that have pictures of people on them, and for the longest time we’ve been told that a picture really connects with a person, but what about a graphic image? What about an animated sort of image? So we’re wondering if that can, just as powerfully connect with people because so far the experience I’ve had is pretty fabulous.

To tag along to that, when I went to South by Southwest last week, Dave Taylor was there, and lots of people know him from askdave.com. He always has these stickers with him – I wish I had one with me right now to show you guys- but it’s an animated little picture of him saying, “Ask Dave Taylor.” And we met someone when I was with him and he said, “Hey, I’m Dave Taylor,” and handed her a sticker. She didn’t recognize him by face, but when she looked at the sticker she goes, “Oh, you’re this guy! I’ve seen this before!” There was an excitement, and a genuine connection between the brand and the person.

So I’m wondering how powerful image personas can be in the business. So far, my experience has been that they can do a great job at connecting with the audience, and I’m excited to hear what your thoughts are on this.