Three minute read: Three critical bits of info for modern marketing.

These "trends" may be nothing new, but I have found them largely ignored or misunderstood. Let's hit these suckers super quick, you have things to do.

• Dark Social. I'm not talking "dark web" illegal activity. Dark social is a term for the impact of dwindling metrics marketers can count on. When someone on Facebook shares your content peer-to-peer and do not have their privacy settings on "open", it will not show up in your metrics.

Peer-to-Peer, rather than public may now account for 65% of all social sharing, according to Get Social.

• Video. I talk to so many companies that say, "We need to produce more video". That's a "feeling" the executives have. Getting your video out there isn't forward-thinking, it's catching up.

60% of the web's content today is video. By 2020, that number will rise to 80%, according to Neilson.

• The breaking point of personalization. Contrived, funnel, segmented personalization failed our industry in 2017. Perhaps this is because the tools are cumbersome, time-consuming and don't deliver the smart AI that was promised. Until affordable and true intelligent tools catch up with the marketing consumers, it is wise to invest in 3-5 audiences, and (unless eCommerce), try to avoid stamped out, mediocre personalization. If you want to personalization the right way, be prepared to invest in ALL of these:

Cross-referenced data

Context in micro-moments

Learned behavior.

Monitoring sentiment in real-time.

Round-the-clock content team.

These might not even be your top three "need to knows", but they are critical to consider if your company is weighing heavily on the "buzz" d'jour.

Tapping out here, my 3 minutes are up. ;-)