Pixar’s Storytelling Formula, Value of Google+, Zappos on Facebook

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:

Pixar’s Storytelling Formula

Business2Community posted former Pixar story artist Emma Coats’ tweets revealing Pixar story basics. They include keeping in mind what’s interesting to the audience, not what is fun for the writer to do.

Characters need to get out of their comfort zones and learn to deal with the uncomfortable. The ending should be thought out before the middle, and characters need to have opinions.

Google+’s Importance

Brian Clark of CopyBlogger writes about how important it is to be on Google+. He says that it has more members than Twitter and ranks second to Facebook.

It helps in terms of authorship rank on Google and it is a place that welcomes content. He says, “It’s a topical network, organized around content, not who you went to high school with.”

Zappos’ Highly Effective Facebook Page

According to Mashable, because of the Zappos Facebook page, the site received much more business.

From November of 2012 to January of 2013, there were 85,000 visits to the site thanks to the page. Forty two percent of the status updates led to purchases, while the other 58 percent of updates led to “likes,” shares and comments. Most of these updates included a URL with a link to the retailer’s site.

Self-Published Books Now in iBookstore

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple has introduced a new section of iBookstore called Breakout Books that features self-published authors.

There are 60 titles already in the section in the romance, mysteries, and fantasies genres, to name a few. Chief Executive of the Idea Logical Co., publishing consultants Mike Shatzkin said, “This could be Apple wanting to do a good enough job for self-published authors that they won’t go Amazon-only for their titles.”

A Guide to Guest Posting on Blogs

Content Marketing Institute’s Jami Oetting writes about the rules of guest posting on blogs. She says that guest posters should start with one to two posts per month and think about what they want to accomplish by contributing.

They have to consider the audience and determine what value the content will bring to them, and determine at least three business goals to achieve with that content.