Digital marketing insights.

The Collaborative Economy – a keynote at Social Shake-Up with Jeremiah Owyang – left an unexpected impression on me that’s had me thinking for weeks.

How often do you think about the reading level of the men and women who read your web pages, blog posts, and downloadable offers?

As anyone who has been following my Twitter feed recently would have observed, I attended the Social Shake-Up event (hosted by SocialMediaToday) in Atlanta. I was prepared to come back and write a few posts about what I’d learned, but instead I want to start by giving a few thoughts about the conference itself.

When you use your own website every day, it can be hard to notice anything wrong with it. It looks just the way you wanted it to and nothing seems out of place, so why would you need to make any changes?

The idea behind sales funnels has been with us for quite a while, and there isn't any big mystery about the way they're supposed to work: You create offers (like downloadable content) to get prospects interested, and then present successive offers and communications to engage them further.

What if the back end of your business website knew who your customers were, and automatically made decisions about how to classify them based on their activity on your website?

Guest blogging – on the right blogs – can be a powerful way to reach a new audience, gain new readers, and network within your market or industry.

In the few years since Amazon first rolled out its Kindle publishing program, the book industry has been spinning on its head. Suddenly, it became convenient and affordable for writers to share their works, whether they were industry specialists (like me), first-time novelists, or even established writers and publishers. Think of these as your ultimate premium content offer.

The power of Twitter is that, as a platform, there is so much to be found - new connections, weird facts, and business opportunities abound. It's important to know what to listen to.

Will blogs soon go the way of wooly mammoths and bell-bottomed jeans? Some online marketing leaders certainly think so. In fact, many of them are giving up their blogs already, taking their content, fans, and inspirations to Google+ and other social venues.

Should you do the same?

Before we answer that question, let's take a quick look at a case for and against giving up your blog.

As a rule of thumb, having more content in more places is a very good thing for marketers. At the very least, it gets your content in front of more eyes. At the same time, we all recognize that there are only so many hours in a day, and so many great ideas to pursue. That makes choosing the right channels for your articles incredibly important.

Pop-ups, pop-unders, waiting a few seconds to watch an ad before you can play that video, articles with advertisements mid-stream and email marketing are all interruptive advertising strategies. And, much like that phone call at dinner time, less than welcomed by your prospects.

Although many in the SEO and online marketing industry like to speak about Google's algorithm as if it were an ancient secret buried beneath a mythical tomb, secrets known only to a chosen few who spend their days meditating in silence, the reality is actually a lot more mundane. Even if we don't know exactly what Google wants from a website, we've had a pretty good idea for several years about what our visitors want.

Summer's here and people are taking to the water, whether it's rafting down a slow creek or getting out the waterskis. If you're avoiding the sun by staying in the office, there's a take-away we marketers can learn from the people splashing around at the lake: there are the skimmers, and there are divers.

Not too long ago, I encouraged marketers to skip over what I called "second-tier content" that's designed to attract views and shares, questioning if it really adds anything to your message.