Content marketing is one of the most difficult forms of marketing to master. First off, it takes a village. A successful content strategy requires writers, designers and media people who understand how to find the right audience even if it is not through paid media.

Ever heard of Strava? The likelihood that you would say yes jumped astronomically on Jan. 27 -- the day of the Strava security breach. Before that, you had probably never heard of it, unless you happened to be a cyclist or runner. I've talked about Strava before. Then, I was talking about social modality and trying to keep our various selves straight on various social networks. Today, I'm talking about privacy

I went to see "The Greatest Showman," a movie musical loosely based on the life of P.T. Barnum. Early reviews had been, well, let's just say meh. But in the weeks since its release, both the movie and its soundtrack are turning into hits. What about this movie is connecting with audiences and turning it into a sleeper hit?

Have you been part of an agency pitch lately? If so, you will have seen a very different pitch than you would have seen five or 10 years ago. Agency RFPs now include lengthy requirements for data, insights, marketing technology and other digital components. These are not "fluff" requests like "increase likes" or "drive search results."

In the '90s, casual Fridays brought about the slow death of formal business attire in the office. In the new millennium, mobile devices effectively eliminated the 9-to-5 workday and erased the line between personal and professional. Now, the gig economy is about to kill the concept of a company employee.

The Super Bowl is over, basketball is headed towards the All-Star break and baseball is about to herald the arrival of pitchers and catchers. I love sports and all its analogies - so, as we enter into this glorious time of year, I start thinking about how what I do relates to the games we all love to watch.

I read about an interesting study this week. Dr. Morten Christiansen, co-director of Cornell's Cognitive Science Program, and his colleagues, explored an interesting linguistic paradox: Languages that a lot of people speak, like English and Mandarin, have large vocabularies but relatively simple grammar. Languages that are smaller and more localized have fewer words, but more complex grammatical rules.

Sometimes you just get it wrong - way wrong. A number of years ago, on a panel at CES, I was asked for an example of how the internet would make a basic task for the average homeowner measurably better. "In the future, we'll be able to find local, reliable, highly rated contractors," I said. "They'll come in on time, and on budget, and you'll reward them with prompt payment and recommendations to your neighbors and friends via social postings and attributed ratings."

Now that Facebook has decided it's better for us to see more posts from friends than from news publishers, one might be forgiven for assuming we'd go elsewhere for our news. But that would imply that the consumption of news is the important thing, rather than the habitual behavior around that consumption. Our habit isn't about the news. It's about opening the laptop or firing up a tablet or staring at our phone and scrolling through the Newsfeed.

Facebook just reduced its inventory on purpose - unleashing massive speculation on the real reasons why the noteworthy ad platform took this step. Why would a perfectly good and profitable company attempt to take the moral high ground at the expense of shareholders? Altruism seems, well, out of character for a Silicon Valley behemoth, right?