The Met’s Series of Art Videos

Paid Content reports on the start of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s year-long web series called 82nd & Fifth, which features curators talking about art.

Throughout the year, 100 episodes that are two minutes long each will be released. In a statement, the Met’s CEO and director Thomas Campbell said, “In a sea of constant information, these two-minute, authoritative commentaries are a welcome way to get powerful and compelling content in quick doses.”

Brazilians and Social Media

The Wall Street Journal reports that Brazil is quickly embracing social media sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

In Brazil, there are 65 million users on Facebook, making it the second biggest user base (the first is America). In 2012, it ranked as one of the top five places for YouTube revenue in the world, and it was “the biggest market outside the U.S. by number of unique visitors” for the site.

Twitter claims that Brazil is becoming one of the top-five most active user groups on its site. The number of time spent on Facebook and YouTube is steadily increasing across the board in the country as well.

Three Big Publishers Launch Bookish 

According to the New York Times, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Group USA and Hachette Book Group have launched Bookish, a website that offers information on books and authors.

The content on the site is mostly for informational purposes, but books are sold on there as well. There are also features on the site, like a “Fifty Shades of Grey” review by The Onion and an Elizabeth Gilbert essay.

Expedia Gets Emotional Again 

According to ClickZ, Expedia has transform the “Find Yours” campaign yet again. It is now allowing people to “turn their travel photos into multimedia videos complete with music and Google Earth flyovers” through a Facebook app.

It aims to help consumers invoke emotion with their travel photos. The app also allows viewers to pause on particular photos or go backwards if one went by too quickly.

Facebook App Will Share Location

According to Mashable, Facebook is going to put out a new app that “keeps track of user location, and reports that information to friends when they’re nearby.”

The app is going to be released in March, and will let users know when they’re near each other physically, even if it isn’t open. The app was created in part by members of Glancee, a mobile discovery company that Facebook acquired last year.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

The first step was to offer the platform in Spanish, which happened this month, and soon it plans to expand to French, German, Portuguese and Japanese. It also seems to have its eyes on the Japanese market.

According to Advertising Age, Pinterest signaled its intention to focus on global growth when it revealed its choice of the Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten to lead its $100 million funding round last month, saying the investment was the beginning of a strategic partnership “to help [Pinterest] expand in Japan and into Rakuten’s 17 other global markets,” according to a statement.

Any business with a global strategy must grapple with how it will use content on a cultural level. Beyond languages, cultural shifts from country to country can make the process complicated.

For example, with Pinterest, U.S. users like to post home improvement and design inspirations, while the cultural interest in DIY is not as strong in Japan, where renting a home is more common and housing units tend to be much smaller, according to Peter  Moody, managing director of Profero Tokyo.

In Brazil, some think Pinterest will fade into oblivion once the early adopters lose interest. Brazilians are much more likely to use to platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where they can keep tabs on what their friends are actually doing as opposed to looking at images that can only broadcast what they like, according to Sergio Valente, president of DDB Brasil.

Just as important as having a local content marketing strategy, once a company is ready to expand globally, the content must match it.

A few brands to take cues from are Red Bull, Coca-Cola, Oreo, and Converse. Coincidentally or not, these brands are also among the top brands worldwide on Facebook.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently