The web used to be a medium where people looked for and found information. Over time it has become more of a tool: most recently trends have been dominated by people contributing to the web, making comments, posting blogs, publishing content, even revealing a lot about themselves in personal on-line pages and social networking contexts. The latest trend sees a slight dampening down on how much people want to contribute (except in a personal arena), but an increase in how much they want to hear the voices of their peers.

The big questions we are always asking is how do brands capitalise on these trends? Where do brands fit within this new way of interacting? The answer definitely lies in embracing it, experimentation and constant improvements based on experience. Most recently it has become apparent that audiences are less interested in what a brand has to say about itself, and have become more interested in what other people have to say. For example: Recipes with ratings that other people have said are good recipes are way more likely to engage an audience than a straight recipe that you say is good. This is evidenced by a recent Forrester Group study which shows that consumers mainly want to know what other consumers think about brands, not what marketers themselves have to say.