CASE STUDY
How Buzzfeed uses NewsWhip in content production
Andre Borges,
Social News Reporter
—
Industry
Digital Publishing
Company Size
1,000+ employees
“Spike is an inspiration for us – an engine for our content production.”
—
CHALLENGE: How can you find the trending content that’s guaranteed to engage regional audiences, anywhere in the world?
BuzzFeed is the first name that comes to mind in viral content – they’ve mastered the formula for explosive shares with their listicles, memes and emphasis on trending news and entertainment.
Social News Reporter Andre Borges says that social media is the “most key” part of his job, because it both helps him source stories for his millennial audience, and measure the success of his content after publishing. But with so many social networks and sites, how can you be sure you’re never missing something big?
For a site built on social news, with readerships all over the world, BuzzFeed needs to be the first to know what’s about to go viral at any moment. Andre and Social News Reporter Brad Esposito tell us how they use NewsWhip Spike to find the most engaging content for their niche audiences in India and Australia.
“
It’s a big part of my routine. It’s a good tool especially to see something I might have missed on Twitter or Facebook, that someone else may have caught.
Instead of me looking at five different places, I can use Spike to give me an idea of who’s talking about what on that particular day.”
Spike allows Andre to search for the best performing content on each social network – all in one place – and filter by location to only show the top trending content for India. With the ability to drill down on this level, Andre can both surface niche content that would appeal specifically to his regional audience, and analyze the bigger trends captivating millennials.
Examples of stories Andre’s scooped using Spike? Everything from a mashup of Coldplay and a New Delhi musician to a Game of Thrones satire.
Social News Reporter Brad Esposito uses Spike particularly to stay on top of Facebook and Instagram posts that would be important to his audience. Spike ranks stories by the engagement they’ve received across social, filtered by region or category. This allows Brad to immediately see the content that will play well in his Australian market.
“
In that regard, it probably shaves an hour off my day of me pointlessly scrolling through my Facebook feed.
I would recommend Spike to all news organizations as a tool that helps a company or team of writers get a feel for what their audience is interested in and reading.”
NewsWhip Spike is helping the BuzzFeed team get a centralized view of the stories and social posts spreading fastest, over-performing, and most likely to go viral – both globally and for each of their regional markets.
More customer stories
Raidious: building a PR newswoom
Hearst: Speed in content discovery
Reebok: reactive marketing and newsjacking
