Distributed media Why BuzzFeed Is All About Social

Mariana Marcaletti @mariamrom October 24, 2015

“Make content that people share”

STORY PRODUCTION

The Internet agenda: hashtags, trending topics Gate-keeping, social scanning for newsworthy topics Special attention to: outrage, women rights, injustice, LGBT, visual memes, conflict, identity, human interest, protests Regular brainstorming sessions “Is this a story?”

THE AUDIENCE IS THE PRODUCT

FRAMING + FORMATS

The “who” is what matters the most: people Service-oriented posts, explainers, “As Told to” First person narratives, reporters/activists Visual elements, social aggregation in stories

EXPERIMENTAL STORYTELLING

“Give people something to talk about”

CONNECTING/ ADAPTING

Don’t ask people to come to your site. We go wherever they are. Ex. Facebook video. Not “One size fits all” but platform-specific approach

Make it easier for people Speak their language Share their interests

SOCIAL AS A THERMOMETER

Use social, short form post to assess likes Make data-driven decisions Launch and iterate, post-mortems

Make people feel Invest in their interests

Ask them, listen and act on it

HEADLINE OPTIMIZER

MOBILE DISTRIBUTION

DISTRIBUTED CONTENT

“Experimental squad”

graphic artVIDEO PRODUCERS

“We never focus on clicks and page views. Shares are a more powerful metric.”

Jonah Peretti

Thank you! @mariamrom