Content Marketing

Monopoly Token Vote, LinkedIn Hits 200 Million, Content Marketing Tools

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:

Monopoly Token Vote

Facebook fans of Monopoly have the chance to decide the fate of the game pieces, ClickZ reports.

The Save Your Token campaign lets fans vote for which game piece must go, whether it’s the Scottie dog, wheelbarrow, race car, iron, etc. Then, Hasbro will decide, based on votes, whether to replace the least popular piece with a diamond ring, guitar, helicopter, cat, or toy robot.

Fans also have the chance to save their most beloved pieces by sharing videos and images on Facebook and using the Twitter hashtag #tokenvote.

LinkedIn Hits New Milestone

ClickZ reports that LinkedIn has announced that it now has more than 200 million members.

The U.S. leads with 74 million members while India comes in second, with 18 million accounts. It’s seeing growth in Indonesia, Turkey, and Colombia. The most popular industry on the site is IT, followed by telecommunications, higher education, financial services, and computer software.

Content Marketing Tools 

The Online Marketing Blog’s Kari Rippetoe highlights the best tools that content marketers can use in 2013.

There’s TrendSpottr, which shows timely and relevant information about any number of topics online, Bottlenose, which offers social media analytics and listening for marketers, Google+ communities, where interesting conversations can be monitored, and Storify, which allows users to curate content on different topics.

For content planning, marketers should tap into Bubbl.us, a site that easily creates mindmaps, and Podio, which is a project management tool. On Visual.ly, marketers have creation tools for visual data (think: infographics), and Divr.it assists marketers in delivering their content to Twitter and Facebook streams from RSS feeds.

Univision Creating Media and Advertising Sector

According to the New York Times, Univision Communications will announce, on Monday, its new internal advertising and media agency.

The new Univision Agency will “create promotional content for all Univision properties, including broadcast, radio and digital, and provide research and creative services for internal and external clients.” It’s going to be responsible for $500 million in advertising inventory, and have 65 employees
Content Marketing Trends and Changes

Joe Pulizzi of Content Marketing Institute writes about the changes occurring in content marketing.

He says, “Even though there still is confusion over what content marketing is and is not, as an industry we are beginning to come to a consensus on what term we use to refer to our discipline. This means that thought leaders, brand marketers, and agencies are starting to align in their terminology — a necessary milestone for learning and true understanding to  occur.”

Agencies, like McMurry and TMG, are beginning to merge, and PR’s Richard Edelman is claiming that agencies in his field are equipped to create content as well for brands. Pulizzi says this means that traditional media companies may “get into the buying mix.” Also, he says the industry will get worse before it gets better since many people don’t understand how to produce quality content marketing.

Producing an E-book

Mitz Pantic of Business 2 Community reports on how someone can go about creating his or her own e-book.

E-books should help people solve problems or show them how to do something. If a website has popular articles that get people talking, they should be included in the e-book. Content can also be outsource if the creator has writer’s block.

In terms of formatting, MS Word should be used, and should include headings and subheadings, a table of contents, large font, and chapters. E-books must be branded with social networking buttons, logos, a footer message/copyright, and a cover. On a website, there should be a separate sales page for the e-book, along with a thank you page for the buyer.

BuzzFeed Facing Accusations of Theft

According to Mashable, Redditors on the r/photography group are accusing BuzzFeed of stealing pictures. 

Photos used for a Samsung-sponsored post called “14 Amazing Photos That Are Totally Not Photoshopped” were allegedly taken from Redditors without their permission. BuzzFeed has removed the photos and used ones on Flickr under Creative Commons instead.

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