The Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:
Lenovo’s BuzzFeed Takeover
To promote its Ideapad Yoga, Lenovo has posted branded content on BuzzFeed, “12 Awesome Additional Uses For Everyday Objects.”
In true BuzzFeed, form, it features photos, along with short grafs on how to use objects like Alka Seltzer for toilet cleaner and ice cube trays to hold earrings. There is also a display ad and video ad to go along with the sponsored post.
Facebook’s Pages-only News Stream
Good news for brands: Users can now switch their streams to exclusively feature content from the pages they follow on Facebook, according to Pandomonthly.
The social media site has rolled out this feature as a response “to a market uproar as the company began changing the way brand content appears in the main news feed and then charging companies for increased distribution.”
An Increase in Self-Employeed Workers
A press release from Elance says that “online hiring and earnings are far outpacing the traditional employment economy with over 40% growth rates.”
More people are writing online due to bad economies at in their home regions. Niche writing is one of the biggest growing industries, and there have been increases across the board.
The report states, “Specialized writing skills such as speech writing (+474%), script writing (+371%) and sports writing (+282%) have seen increases compared to the same quarter last year on Elance.”
The Meaning of Data to Pepsi
Kate Kaye of AdAge reports that the CMO of Pepsi Frank Cooper is looking at how data can help his brand.
“We need to measure how people are becoming involved in brands, how people are advocating on behalf of brands,” He told Kaye. “We’re figuring out ways to synthesize the data we have.”
Pepsi already looks at information coming from Google Analytics, YouTube, and Collective Intellect, the social conversation analysis company it uses. The company is currently gearing up to release branded content on YouTube and partner up with several major channels on the site.
Where Target Went Wrong with “Revenge” Campaign
Emily Garvey of 360i Blog critiques Target’s campaign for Neiman Marcus during the show “Revenge.”
During the show, ABC “aired a scripted mini-series to craft a story around the new luxury-for-less retail line, mimicking the look and feel of ‘Revenge.’ As the show’s characters unwrapped various Target items, viewers were prompted to tweet with the hashtag #GiftofRevenge, which was displayed throughout the episode,” Garvey writes.
She says that the scripted mini-episodes detracted from the real episode that was airing, and that no value was given to fans of the show. There was also a lack of communication between Target, its #GiftofRevenge hashtag, US Weekly, and Neiman Marcus, she adds.
Coca-Cola and Fidelity Invest in Spotify
Spotify, a streaming music service, is receiving financial support from Coca-Cola and Fidelity, The New York Times reports.
The service, which is worldwide and opened in Luxembourg and Ireland this week, will be valued at $3 billion. It currently has 15 million users, 4 million of who pay for the service.
Pinterest’s Business Accounts Introduced
According to ClickZ, Pinterest has now introduced business accounts. Cat Lee, product manager of the company said, “We want to help more businesses provide great content on Pinterest and make it easy to pin from their websites.”
Businesses will require a verification badge and the pages are suitable for bloggers, online merchants, publications and retailers, to name a few.