Met an old colleague the other day. Nothing too interesting, just an afternoon talk about work, holiday plans and weather. One thing led to another and, just when the conversation got a bit boring ( I'm mean and easily bored, of course), she told me she had given up maintaining her online traffic. Not really given up for good, just for a while, 2 months tops. “Just to see what happens”, Laura said, while stirring the green straw in her obviously non-alcoholic drink.

I shrugged, still not fully interested, but asked : “Why would you want to do that?”. “It's just not worth the effort” she replied.

There was a time when content was available only to a few fortunate consumers. When owning a good book or a lyric drama meant power and standing above the average. It is almost unbelievable nowadays – not being able to see, watch, listen to whatever you want – out and away from the current madness content distribution process – when even most purchases are based on content related judgments.

But still, from the internet revolution, and making content available to all, many things have changed and are still changing. The way people perceive the commercial messages, most of all, has mutated greatly to the consumer's advantage.

It is not advisable anymore to propagate a powerful false message on the internet, believes marketer Seth Godin. Along with the social media evolution, the prospects' liberty in reacting to a “lie” has become greater and greater. The content has to be true, available to all and have the amazing property of causing a chain reaction: creating new content with the same properties, believes social media strategist Paul Cotton.

It's not easy to stay on top of things anymore. Because things that used to be simple, have become incredibly complicated. It's a changing, crazy, world - that would basically mean marketers should be the same. Crazy, complicated, chasing impossible dreams, trying to change all for keeping up with the trends. An expensive, blank path ahead.

Alan Cooper, software designer leader talks, in one of his books, about personalizing experiences for customers. He believes that it doesn't really matter the general, useless complexity of the product you are selling, but the state of complexity that is focused on your customer's needs. Following the crazy, general trends of your market, you may loose from sight the simplicity required by your prospects. People buy for a purpose and that matters the most when trying to sell them something.

Keeping things simple may become harder by the day, as the remarkable “specific” is now easily lost.