As with all relationships, when it comes to the progressive digital mix, there is a lot at play -- and often stuff that is out of our line of sight.

Forrester analyst Shar VanBoskirk recently shared her firm's updated interactive marketing forecast. I don't pay attention to forecasts, but I thought the directional assertions were correct. Forrester says that advertising budgets, overall, will decline, but investment will pick up in other areas to drive growth.

I generally spend between 10% to -20% of my time talking to folks about their careers -- either giving advice about potential job moves, or talking up opportunities in new media and start-ups generally, or in specifically recruiting folks to Simulmedia. I like doing it. I think that it is important to do. Given the importance of start-ups to the future of our industry, I thought that it might be helpful to share some of the career tips that I give those who are considering joining start-up companies. Here they are....

There are two primary schools of thought in online marketing (at least if you ask me, there are). The first school of thought is "The Basics," used by the folks who do search, affiliates and general display. They do it efficiently and it works well at achieving core business objectives, but there's not a lot of risk and there's not a lot of reward beyond the forecasted expectations. The second is what I lovingly refer to as "The Triumvirate," and it refers to the domination of three primary vehicles that work exceptionally well when they are coordinated properly: TV, online …

Here's this article in a tweet (less than 140 characters): "Potential Twitter business model: unlock massive mobile marketing dollars by using tweet content and GPS."

If a news event is contrived, should the media cover it? But guess what? In the age of social media and citizen journalism, for many events, especially on a local stage, this question really doesn't matter. The community takes care of it -- for better or for worse.

Our precious attentions are bombarded not just by email spam and untargeted advertising. Electronic devices are guilty as well.

Yes, it's time for the digital marketing industry to move on from the term "PII" ("personally identifiable information") as the defining benchmark for what information is anonymous versus what is personal when it comes to providing notice and choice to consumers.

If I were a rich man, sometimes referred to as an "Angel Investor," and I were examining all the different companies in the social media space, I'd gather together a little more investment money and do a roll-up strategy that could package a very effective offering for brand marketers.

Facebook's latest change to its advertising guidelines has caused quite a stir. Of course a change in policy regarding advertising on the world's largest social platform will cause a commotion, especially when every marketer and agency is putting in late nights trying to figure out where they fit into the social media landscape. But I would argue that if you are doing a "good" job utilizing Facebook from a marketing and advertising perspective, the new terms of service shouldn't concern you.