The BuzzFeed ™ Brand
It’s 2017 and BuzzFeed is among the highest ranking news and entertainment websites in the world. But is it just a website? Definitely not. Is it heavily influencing the industry and speaking to the desires and needs of society? Absolutely.
BuzzFeed has become the one-stop zone for content, a model that we all want currently. Hundreds of exciting articles, quizzes, videos, photos and more are published daily featuring a range of topics such as food, entertainment, news, DIY projects, cute animals, and heartwarming stories. Many have judged the company for their seemingly vapid content in comparison to “real” news outlets such as CNN. I will be the first to agree that they do not have the most hard-hitting news stories… but is that really a bad thing? I don’t see anything wrong with having some amusing content to balance an endless array of tough world news. If we criticize and affirm that BuzzFeed should cease to exist, then should we also eliminate comedy films and keep critically acclaimed documentaries? Diverse types of content are necessary to speak to the millions of global perspectives. We need entertainment as much as we need to be educated on world news.
Content aside, I believe BuzzFeed is the ideal business model of the future. It has already conquered the digital landscape, and elicited a plethora of partnerships to keep creative content coming. Synergies with other media companies are visible in virtually every platform we visit: there are BuzzFeed stories on Snapchat, a variety of channels on YouTube, numerous Instagram accounts for different target demographics, and the ceaseless Facebook videos shared by everyone we know. Their brand is built upon delivering content to suit a multitude of tastes, such as Tasty, TV, Food, BFF, Music, Photo, Health, and many many more. They have even entered the App world to cater to their audience as efficiently as possible. BuzzFeed has become synonymous with swift and concise sharable content, an asset in the ever-growing realm of reduced attention spans. There are thousands of short yet captivating videos and likeable photos floating around social media every minute. Friends are constantly tagging each other in quizzes, and recipe ideas are stemming from their famous one-minute Tasty videos. Suffice it to say, BuzzFeed is not just a website, but the pinnacle of the social web experience.
That’s not all though. BuzzFeed’s secret weapon? Their “Viral Rank”. According to the Harvard Business Review, the brand’s founders, Jonah Peretti and Duncan Watts, have established a “Viral Rank” algorithm to determine what will most likely go viral, a tool that provides the largest competitive advantage in our digital world. BuzzFeed then tries to maximize distribution by using this formula to let editors, users, and advertisers try all ideas. This type of innovative thinking is what puts them (and keeps them) ahead of everyone else.
BuzzFeed has mastered the art of building a brand and keeping the public’s attention on their content and their platforms. The best media companies bring people together and connect them to the content they want to see, and BuzzFeed is no exception.
