Transparent Companies, Twitter’s Vote of Confidence, Clueless Social Brands

The Strategist picks the day’s most interesting stories for the content aficionados who love the backstory and reading between the lines. Here are the gems you need to kickstart your Tuesday:

Inside a Completely Transparent Company (Inc)
At Buffer, employees know everything about everyone else — from salaries to equity numbers, it’s all on the table.

Here’s why this social media management platform is revealing so much detail about its team. Would you and your company be comfortable in putting it all out there? Is content marketing the key vehicle to make this happen (tactfully)?

Twitter Gets a Vote of Confidence (AllThingsD)
Momentum for Twitter’s new ad business is growing, and according to AllThingsD and the Financial Times, the social media giant has struck a deal with Starcom MediaVest Group.

The terms? Twitter will give Starcom access to preferred ad slots, and Starcom will spend hundreds of millions of dollars over the next few years.

Advice for Clueless Brands on Social Media (Mashable)
This is a hilarious series of Q&A with two of the web’s best social media experts.

Here you’ll find tasteless narcissism from ‘an international teen idol with suddenly tall hair,’ a clueless political party, and a questionably arrogant company that serves ‘one-seventh of humanity. Welcome to the age of relentless collaboration and sharing.

Talking Heads: How a Late-Night Hack Turned Into Facebook’s Next Big Thing (The Verge)
If you doubt the creative power of brainstorming, it’s imperative that you read this post. What began as a late night of hacking might ultimately become the future of mobile media.

The idea launched around one simple question — what is it about exceptionally awesome apps that make them so enjoyable to use. The answer? Messaging components. Now? A platform that pushes communication to the forefront of customer experience — Facebook’s Home.