You have probably already visited the site: BuzzFeed is a very popular platform for viral content. In six years, BuzzFeed went from 0 to 80 million unique visitors per month. BuzzFeed has grown big with “fun and entertainment oriented content", And therefore invest heavily in social media. Such as Executive Editor Doree Shafrir says: “We are good at creating content that is well shared. We examine what works for each platform. ”

Viral on Facebook

Facebook provides the most traffic for BuzzFeed. On the one hand it makes sense because Facebook is the largest social network ever, with 1.3 billion users in June 2014, on the other hand Facebook would rather not see the users click away to another website. Facebook's algorithm ('Edgerank') is therefore not so favorably over the left. Last year Facebookselfs announced new measures: links placed with photos are shown less often than links placed as a link with a thumbnail, image, domain and description (link post). According to research by Facebook, 80% prefers a title that tells what content they get to see.

What makes BuzzTalk content go viral? “On Facebook mainly emotional, positive content or humor works, things that people share with some pride. That type of content has a longer lifespan on Facebook, "says Shafrir.

What is Clickbaiting?

Everyone knows (unfortunately) the clickbait phenomenon: a title that is so shocking or seems to contain so much news value, you have to click on it. That's how GeenStijl placed the article ”OMG! Six pitbulls devour 4-year-old girl!'to then explain clickbaiting (and fortunately the pittbulls are listening carefully to the girl). Clickbaiting is at the expense of quality or accuracy, relies on sensational headlines (Indeed, such as De Telegraaf, Story and Weekend) and encourages sharing.

Honest click bait by Brian Gordon

Clickbaiting uses the so-called 'curioity gap': as a reader you get enough information to become curious, but not enough to satisfy that curiosity without clicking through. Finding the right title is a real challenge for a blogger: you have written a beautiful piece, but people will not read it without a good headline.

BuzzFeed titles that work on Facebook

Reddit.com (news website built by users) user MiniMaxir wondered: which words in a BuzzFeed headline provide shares on Facebook? Before that he did the necessary research on BuzzFeed on Facebook and he experienced the overview below.

Adapted for Facebook

Before you notice that people are primarily interested in what kind of character they are ("character are you"), consider that these titles work well on Facebook. For many people, Facebook is distraction, fun and anything but serious. The medium determines the message. If you want to use Facebook successfully, you will have to adjust your message to what works on Facebook.