BuzzFeed Style: How To Write Buzz

First and foremost, think about framing your post in a way that will make people feel that they need to share it.

People like to share things ...

... that say something about themselves: "I am a person who knows about typography," I am a person who appreciates beautiful things."

... that are highly visual: "100 beautiful examples of tilt-shift photography;" "20 logos with hidden messages."

... that have a call to action: "Add your own image in the comments!"

Experiment with what works, and duplicate your successes. Try loads of different things and figure out which kinds of posts readers respond to the most.

Finally, whatever you choose to post, remember that your presentation could be the difference between a viral sensation and a dud. Don't overwrite, but take care to make your title snappy and engaging, and spend time with your writeup to ensure that it matches the tone and style of BuzzFeed.

We present new trends and discoveries with a wry sense of humor and an ironic detachment that allows us to cover a wide variety of subjects without getting bogged down in them.

More simply: Use humor to maintain professional distance from your subject matter.

Less simply: Apart from exceptional cases, don't talk about how a piece of content makes you feel. Instead, talk about what's going on, what the context is, and why it's important. Give your audiences cues about how they can expect to feel, but don't attempt to dictate their emotional response for them by interjecting your own experience of the buzz. And whatever you do, be funny about it.

The Composition of a Post

Title

Your post should have a short, primarily descriptive title (unless you have, like, a hilarious pun that you need to share with the world). Think more about the kind of keywords people would use in Google to find your post than standard newspaper-style headlines.

Example: New Old Spice Ad Campaign

Every first letter of every word in the title to your buzz should be uppercase. In the case of hyphenated words, both words in the compound word should have uppercase first letters. Exceptions: Proper nouns like iPad, iPod, eBay.

Example: 71-Year-Old Woman Threatens Robbers With Friendly Front Yard Sign

Description

The first sentence should be pretty descriptive, informative, nugget-like: "Here's a video of a dude falling off a bike!" This sentence should be bold.

Commentary

The rest of the post, ideally just one or two short sentences, is for a bit of spin or a joke -- something to give your buzz a little bit of personality. Don't bold this part.

Example: HIMYM Goes Meta

Tags

Adding tags to your post increases its SEO value. Be sure to add tags that will help people find your post -- again, think about what people are going to be searching when looking for your post.

The Various Types Of Posts

The BuzzFeed superposter is a streamlined way for you to post different kinds of buzz in one easy interface, whether it's a video, a link, an image, or a combination of those things. Here are some of the most common post types.

Images

This is for a one-off image. You probably don't need to do a ton of explanation.

Image Overlay

Use the image-overlay tool to allow users to remix an image. Is an image of a celebrity doing something crazy going viral? Give people a chance to participate in the process by placing a cutout of the image in different situations.

Lists

You can make your buzz way more shareable by turning it into a collection. Not everything needs to be a list, but chances are that if people are struck by one disastrous Facebook update or amusing stock photo, they're going to be even more excited to see a list of the very best of the genre.

Video

The BuzzFeed posting interface will turn links to YouTube, Vimeo, and LiveLeak videos into an embedded video, using this option. You can also often post "Embed" code that will be recognized by the interface.

Links

By all means put links in your post to augment your post, but do not make your post only a link, since that's just boring, among other things.

Notes on Style

Internet-Speak

Try not to use it! You are writing for an audience that is not necessarily as Internet-literate as you are. Avoid words/abbreviations like "pwned" and "FTW", as well as insidery references to memes. If you find yourself reporting on a story that relies on insider knowledge, try and find a way to give context for the backstory in your description, at the very least by providing a link to a topics page.

Example of good practice: Boxxy

Example of bad practice: Tech support...LIKE A BOSS

Movie/book/album titles

Just use titlecase for these - (i.e., ensure that the first letters of each word in the title are uppercase) and put them in quotes, not itals.

Decades

'90s. Not: 90's, 90s, nineties, nighties, or any other combination!

Other Issues

Crediting

Always try to credit your sources. At the very least, you should credit the site where you found the buzz, but you can also credit the original source material as well. The superposter has a built-in option for you to do both of these things.

TAME Vs. NSFW

Anything that is PG-13 or up should be marked as NSFW and not TAME. This includes the use of swear words in the title or any post that is sexual, disturbingly gross, or extremely violent. Err on the side of caution. If you think the user needs warning, also add [NSFW] in square brackets at the end of your title.

Example: Do Not Watch This Video [NSFW]

Checklist

Check to make sure that all these things are true before posting your own buzz, or promoting a user's buzz, to the front page:

1. Does your post have a short, descriptive title, with the first letter of each word (including compound words) in uppercase?
2. Is the first sentence/complete thought of your writeup bold?
3. Did you mark your post as "Tame" or "NSFW," as appropriate?
4. Did you add tags?
5. Did you make sure that your post has a compelling, clickable thumbnail, unencumbered by black bars (this will often happen if your thumbnail has been pulled in automatically from YouTube) or white space?
6. Did you credit your sources with a "Via" (and, where necessary, a "From") link in parentheses after your post?
7. Did you doublecheck to make sure a user or other editor hasn't already posted the same story?
8. Is your post awesome/hilarious/heartbreaking/world-changing, etc.?

OK, great! Post that shit!

How BuzzFeed Editors Should Moderate User Posts

When fixing up a post from a BuzzFeed community member to promote to the front page, remember that most of the same standards apply. You don't need to exercise too heavy a hand in editing the writeup if the structure of it is OK, but make sure it's the right length, the right tone, and error-free. If you need to, just leave the main point intact and add an editor's note. Here's a basic checklist that you should follow every time you promote a user's post to the front page.

1. Fix the title. Should be short and snappy and the first letter of each word (including compound words) should be uppercase.
2. Fix the writeup. Doesn't need to be a major edit, but should be short (a couple of sentences, max) and in the tone of BuzzFeed.
3. Add tags.
4. FIX THE THUMBNAIL. The thumbnail should not suck. This is important.

Avoid the Fuzz!

Fuzz is short for "fake buzz". It means posts that look like buzz but that aren't really. It's lists that are lazy and ill-thought out, or too short, or meaningless. Something that says "the best of" that seems random and not actually the best of anything. Or an image that has a one- dimensional joke that isn't really funny. Learn to see fuzz for what it is by asking yourself whether you would consider sharing the post with your friends. If you're not sure whether something is fuzz or not, ask another editor for their opinion before promoting or posting it.