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Help and FAQ

How to Use BuzzFeed

Going Viral

Technical Support

Website Tracking

Advertising and Partnerships

How to Use BuzzFeed

What is BuzzFeed?

BuzzFeed is a place for you to discover, share, and track everything awesome that is happening on the Internet as soon as it happens.

How do I post to BuzzFeed?

Sign up for an account here, and then click “Start Posting” to open up the BuzzFeed posting interface. You can post standalone items such as a video or an image, and you can also post lists of stuff - all using the same interface!

Here are some examples of finished posts:

Once you’ve added your content, write a good headline and a description and add a thumbnail to the post. Doing this part well is essential if you want your post to succeed.

What should I post to BuzzFeed?

Post cool, funny, interesting stuff that you’ve found online or made yourself that you think has a strong chance of going viral and being shared by other people. Better yet, post lists of things. Here are some examples of awesome lists that you can look at for inspiration. BuzzFeed’s editors will feature the best posts from BuzzFeed’s community on our front page every day.

What should I avoid posting to BuzzFeed?

Porn, spam, links to your blog. Don’t post those things, as they will likely result in the removal of your account or curtailment of your posting privileges. :(

What happens to the stuff I post to BuzzFeed?

Your posts will automatically appear in the “Just Launched” section of BuzzFeed Community. Our community editors can then choose to promote them to different areas of the site.

How do you decide what gets promoted?

Our editors choose what gets posted to the homepage.

How does BuzzFeed handle timestamps?

Timestamps in our posts reflect the timezone where the reader is located. If an editor in New York publishes a post at 2:03 pm, a reader in Los Angeles will see the post’s publication time as 11:03 am.

Something offended me. What do I do?

Let us know using this form. DO NOT RESPOND TO THE PERSON WHO OFFENDED YOU. It only makes them worse.

I posted something first but it didn’t get featured. Why?

Yikes. This one’s a tough one. First of all: It’s not personal. Buuuuut …. here are 4 possible reasons why your thing didn’t get featured:

  1. An editor wanted to frame the same content in a very specific way that was not covered in the original post
  2. The writeup for the post wasn’t adequate or required too much editing
  3. The content of the post was something that was all over the web anyway and was posted multiple times by users and editors
  4. We just missed it - we’re not perfect!

How do badges get assigned?

Our main badges (LOL, Win, Cute, etc) are assigned by BuzzFeed algorithms which take the number of corresponding reactions a post gets, its viral traffic, and editorial merit into account. Other badges, such as gold stars, Fact Checker, etc, are purely at the fickle whim of BuzzFeed’s crew of heavy-drinking editors.

What are Reactions?

Reactions are a simple way for you to express your reaction to a post. We use these signals to help badge, categorize, and feature the best content. You only get three per post so use them wisely!

What are Special Reactions?

Special reactions are, well, special. You’ll win some when one of your posts wins a badge or when you win an award. If you win a special reaction you’ll receive an email pointing you to a page where you can claim your reaction.

Sometimes a BuzzFeed partner sponsors a new, limited-time reaction. When this happens you can use as many as you want while they’re there, but once they’re gone they’re gone.

Going Viral

What does “viral it out to the whole school” mean?

See this video for more information.

Technical Support

I’ve forgotten my password! Can you please help me?

Take a deep breath, find your happy place, and then go to the sign-in page and click the “Forgot Password” link. Enter the email address you used when you registered; your password will be reset and a new one will be sent to you.

I never got my validation email! Where is it?

Unless you signed up with Facebook Connect (see below), you will need to validate your email address. If you never received the validation email try going to the sign-in page and click the “Forgot Password” link. Then enter the email address you used when you registered. A new validation email will be sent. If you still don’t get that email please let us know.

How do I edit or delete a post?

If you hover with your mouse over a post on your Feed you should see two icons on the right-hand side of your post. Click the pencil icon to change your post or the × icon to delete. Please note: once your post has been featured on our front page or awarded a badge you will no longer be able to edit it.

Why can’t I edit or delete my post?

It bears repeating, we guess: If your post has been promoted to the homepage or was awarded a badge you will no longer be able to edit it anymore. If you find a typo or want to change something at that point feel free to email our editors and they will do their best to accommodate your request.

Can I edit or delete my contributions?

At this time you cannot edit a contribution you’ve made to another post.

How do I remove someone else’s contribution from my post?

You cannot remove a contribution someone else has made to your post. Feel free to flag contributions if you feel they are spam or abusive. Our editors will try their best to remove inappropriate contributions.

How do I change my name, photo, or other details?

From your settings page (there’s also a link next to your name in the top right of every page). From there you can change all your public profile information.

How do I change my email address or password?

From your settings page click the “Account Settings” tab. From there you can enter a new email address and change your password.

How do I change my username?

While you can change how your username appears on the site (see 2 questions up from here), you cannot change your username. BuzzFeed is all about getting posts linked to from all over the web so we are very careful not to ever break links. Since your username is your url for all your posts (http://buzzfeed.com/username/post-name), doing so would break all links to your existing posts. That would make everyone sad. If you really, really need a different user name, you can always just create a new account.

How do I customize my page?

From your settings page (there’s also a link next to your name in the top right of every page). From there you can update a fancy banner image, add links to your Twitter and Facebook pages, and more. In the future we may add more customization options.

What are “submissions” and how do I get them?

If you want, you can let other people submit posts to your Feed. To turn this feature on, go to the settings page and make sure you’ve clicked the checkbox that allows submissions to be turned on. Then when other people visit your Feed, they’ll see a button that says "Submit." They can add anything — a link, a video, a list. If you’ve turned on the alerts setting you’ll get an email telling you that you’ve got a new submission. If you like what they’ve written, you can approve their submission and it will be added to your page.

What are “account notifications and alerts”?

If you opt in, we’ll send you an alert when there’s specific activity relating to your account, such as a post getting promoted to our front page, a post going viral, someone submitting a post to your Feed, or someone accepting one of your submissions. To change this setting go to your settings page, click the “Account Settings” tab, and click the checkbox labeled “Send me account notifications and alerts”.

I already have a BuzzFeed account. Can I sign in with Facebook?

Sure! First make sure you are signed out of BuzzFeed. Then go to our sign-in page and and click the “Facebook Connect” button. You will be prompted to enter your BuzzFeed username and password. Once entered your accounts will be linked and you can sign in with either your username and password or simply by hitting the Facebook Connect button. Huzzah!

What is “Log in with Facebook?”

“Log in with Facebook” is a service offered by Facebook so you can sign into your favorite sites using your Facebook username and password. Just click the “Log in with Facebook” button anytime you’re presented with a sign-in prompt.

In addition to making it easier to sign into BuzzFeed,”Log in with Facebook” also allows you to use your name, bio, and profile photo from your Facebook account on BuzzFeed and to share with your friends by easily posting your contributions, reactions, and buzz posts to your Facebook stream.

What is my “Facebook Fan Page ID”?

If you add your Facebook Fan Page ID (from your settings page we’ll stick a neat facebook widget in the sidebar of your page. You can see an example of this here. Note that this only works with Facebook fan pages, not regular user Facebook accounts (this is Facebook’s limitation, not ours). You can find your Fan Page ID by going to to your Fan Page, clicking on your image in the upper left, and grabbing the number in the URL.

Website Tracking

Will BuzzFeed’s Viral Dashboard make my life awesome?

Probably! If your site publishes content on a regular basis and your goal is to make that content as viral as possible, then BuzzFeed’s Dashboard — and the sweet, sweet stats it provides — are for you.

If your site is a brochureware site, a very personal site, or gets very little traffic then it’s probably not your cup of tea.

Will BuzzFeed’s tracking code work on my site?

Most likely! If you have access to your template files (usually HTML or PHP) and can add a simple script tag to them, you should be all set.

If you have a self-hosted site running WordPress, MovableType, or other such software you shouldn’t have a problem. It also works great with Typepad, Tumblr, Squarespace and other hosted platforms that let you install Javascript code.

Some platforms, such as WordPress.com and Google Sites do not allow you to install 3rd party tracking code so in those cases it won’t work.

What’s the difference between seed and viral traffic?

Glad you asked! Seed traffic is internal traffic, or when visitors land on a page after following a link from another page on your site.

Viral traffic is traffic from visitors coming from elsewhere on the web such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, search engines, and direct traffic.

Advertising and Partnerships

How do I advertise on BuzzFeed?

If you’re a large brand or company looking to run a major viral advertising campaign, we’ve got a very exciting platform for you; learn more here.

What does “partner” mean?

The “partner” designation you see on some posts and thumbnails on BuzzFeed means that the content is brought to you either by the editorial partnerships that make up the BuzzFeed Network or our advertising partners.

How can I apply to be an editorial partner?

You can submit an application using this form