Isabel Walcott Draves:

I was looking for comparisons to Web 2.0 and the Long Tail and was happy to find this one by Joshua Porter. My comment is, "Almost, but not quite." Folks disagree on exactly what Web 2.0 means, but I like Ross Mayfield's comment best: "Web 2.0 is Made of People".
To me, the buzzwordy "Web 2.0" is about people connecting more easily, not deeper access to previously-hidden databases. It's what drives the whole nascent Word of Mouth Marketing industry. What was unavailable before was a large audience for the personal rants of someone who is not a journalist, the personal photos of someone who's not a professional, the movie reviews of someone who's not a paid critic, the videos of someone who is not a filmmaker.
It's the same concept as the fact that there is now a market for the author who is not a best-seller, or the TV show that isn't good enough for prime time... just further down the long tail.
Before, you could only show your wedding pictures to your relatives and friends. Now, the entire world can see them. And a subset of those viewers are eager to get ideas from you about your dress, flower arrangements, etc. While the captive pre-internet audience may have been bored witless, there's a quorum of internet users who are actually interested.
Porter gets back on track at the end of his post when he describes the effect of "increased choice" from the "whole catalog" of "previously unavailable" material. So true. And marketers can choose to learn how to participate in this activity, or miss out on the majority of the world's messaging opportunities.

Funny how the same people who persuaded us it was OK to switch brands are now pissed off that we're switching brands!! Talk about karma.

There's been a groundswell of complaint from Ad Agencies and the BigCo's they work for that America's customers are losing brand loyalty. Some JWT genius has coined the term "sluts" for those who change brands flexibly, probably because greater than 80% of all household purchasing decisions are made by women. Including those you wouldn't necessarily expect to be made mostly by women, like 66% of computer purchases, 62% of online purchases, 70% of ringtone purchases, and 74% of all NBA and NFL apparel.

Well, what if we just haven't found Mr. Right yet? As some folks (like Howard Greenstein) have pointed out, what if we're really looking for marriage? Are you husband material? Good Word of Mouth Marketing campaigns are about establishing a relationship with your customers. Bad ones are about trying for a one-night stand.

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