What You Need to Know Before Posting Content to Buzzfeed

Ah, yes, Buzzfeed- the hub for all things pop culture, innovation, informative and the ever so popular “Tasty” videos. Buzzfeed is where the internet goes to find those digestible lists, the quizzes that will tell you which Disney Princess you identify with most and how to make a 5-minute wedding decoration. Buzzfeed is the big brother website you look up to and hope, “maybe one day I can be that viral.”

Maybe you feel like your ideas couldn’t break the viral wall of Buzzfeed, but honestly, that’s okay. Simply being on Buzzfeed, viral content or not, is said (according to our in-house SEO specialist, Shaley McKeever) to help SEO, regardless of how high the ranks turn out. But here’s another catch, Buzzfeed doesn’t necessarily publish just any content either. Follow these guidelines to get your Buzz on, because even if you don’t go viral, at least you’re doing your SEO department some justice.

The Format

First, we have to nail down the format for our Buzzfeed article. If you’re representing a company or a person from a company, keep the company brand in mind when writing your Buzzfeed post, while writing to the audience of Buzzfeed. Think about all the content you see when scrolling through the site and what catches your eye the most. The best way to capture the voice of the publication you’re aiming for is by finding a specific link that inspired you and emulate that post but make it better. This will help you brainstorm a solid foundation and direction for the rest of the post.

An easy way to climb up in ranks on BF is by morphing your post into a list format. BF says 9 out of 10 list articles go viral. So… why the heck not?

Try this: Pull up the inspire link (explained above) and in a separate document, come up with a list of 5-10 talking points to expand on in your article. Now find a few more inspire links to fill in the information for your listed items. Boom, half the brainpower is already done!

The Links

As the RBM published media specialist, I know it’s hard to gain internal links when publishing content on other outlets. Most websites have policies against internal linking to avoid sounding or looking promotional and salesy. Lucky for you, BF keeps internal links! Now, before you run off and link every landing page and blog article in your BF post, think about this, 60% of audiences turn down salesy content.

Try this: Include 1-2 keywords in your article and link it to your blog page instead of a demo page. This way you’re providing them with more content from you so the readers can cover more ground and get to know your brand further before deciding to find your demo page on their own terms.

The Visuals

I don’t know about you, but when I get home from work and I’m scrolling through the web, list-style articles with memes or gifs that can explain the entire concept is like brain candy. My brain doesn’t want to perform any extra tricks by the end of the day and I’m sure many others can agree considering colored visuals increase reader’s willingness to read a piece of content by 80%. Memes and gifs are a relatable way to articulate a thought and using characters in pop culture is an added bonus. Plus, if you can relate boring business to Tobey Maguire’s cry face, props to you, bossplaya.

Try this: It’s okay if you don’t know how to find the best gifs. I only say that because I just learned so I could earn my place among the branchers 🙂 The secret? Google. Search exactly what you’re looking for. Let’s say I want to find a gif of someone dancing and celebrating. Search: funny dancing gif. The end. That’s it. Get to scrollin’ until you find something that suits your needs. Once you find the gif of your liking, save the gif as an image to your desktop so it’s easy to find when you need it and you’re ready to insert it into the post.

The Internets

As always, the internet is your friend and can help you promote your thoughts and ideas if used properly…and within reason. Chances are your audiences will be impressed if you share your very own Buzzfeed article on your social channels. Share, tweet, like, post, all those things, to your article on personal and company social channels to broaden the reach of your witty, colorful post. Resurface the content on social channels after a few weeks or a month have passed to catch those readers who missed it the first time around.

Buzzfeed is a crazy popular website, so don’t get your underwear all twisted in a bundle if you don’t go viral. The best you can do is create killer, laughable and digestible content to share amongst your peers and let it go from there. Good luck, Buzzy bees!

The Branchers

We build the best damn marketing campaigns on the planet. And we do it for industries and companies you might not identify as easy to market (right away). Working here takes a very special kind of person.