We are a viral tracking Web site with 4 million monthly visitors, a viral network with over 50 million monthly impressions, and a viral media platform with awesome technology for launching and optimizing content. In short, we’re the best place to find out what’s going viral online, and the first place to start if you want to make something go viral. The easiest way to see what we mean is to sign up for an account and start experimenting.
Er, no. We have human editors that pick content for the front page from a wide variety of sites and aggregators that we track, as well as a robust community that posts content going viral. We also track viral content on dozens of other sites, from the Huffington Post to Best Week Ever. We also make it easy for you to create your own BuzzFeed and launch ideas you’d like to make viral (see more below).
Viral, viral, viral, viral, viral.
Viral traffic is traffic the comes from elsewhere on the web. Even if a post is very popular on BuzzFeed, we don’t consider a post viral unless it is getting shared, searched for, and linked to from the web at large.
When you sign up for a BuzzFeed, you get your very own page, where you can post new things, Rebuzz posts, or have people submit posts to your page.
Go to your profile page and you’ll see a set of buttons underneath your user information. These allow you to post different types of buzz: links, images, videos, etc. Click one of those buttons and fill out the form to post your buzz. You’ll be able to see a preview before you post it.
See our elegantly written editorial tips section below for posting guidelines.
Our editors choose what gets posted to the homepage.
Your post is definitely awesome! But here’s the thing: In addition to following the general editorial guidelines as set out above, we look for things with a good chance of going viral to promote to the homepage. And we generally try to feature things like videos, images, lists and quizzes rather than just links, so be sure to try a wide range of Buzz types to increase your chances.
Badges are assigned by BuzzFeed algorithms which take the number of badges votes a post gets, its viral traffic, and editorial merit into account. A few badges, such as gold stars, as purely at the fickle whim of BuzzFeed’s crew of heavy-drinking editors.
When you’re signed in, you’ll see a green button at the bottom of every post — next to the reaction buttons — that says "Rebuzz". When you click it, you’ll add that post to your BuzzFeed, and you can write a note about the post.
If you want, you can let other people submit posts to your BuzzFeed. Learn more.
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.
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.
Facebook Connect is a service offered by Facebook so you can sign into your favorite sites using your Facebook username and password. To try Facebook Connect, just click the Facebook Connect button anytime you’re presented with a sign-in prompt.
In addition to making it easier to sign into BuzzFeed, Facebook Connect 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. You can read more about Facebook Connect here.
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 promoted 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!
From your settings page (there’s also a link next to your name in the top right of ever page). From there you can change all your public profile information.
From your settings page click the “Account Settings” tab. From there you can enter a new email address and change your password.
Sorry, 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.
Absolutely. If you really, really need a different user name, you can always just create a new account.
From your settings page (there’s also a link next to your name in the top right of ever 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.
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.
If you want, you can let other people submit posts to your BuzzFeed. 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 BuzzFeed page, 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.
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 BuzzFeed, 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”.
Go to your profile page and you’ll see a set of buttons underneath your user information. These allow you to post different types of buzz: links, images, videos, etc. Click one of those buttons and fill out the form to post your buzz. You’ll be able to see a preview before you post it.
See our elegantly written editorial tips section below for posting guidelines.
If you hover with your mouse over a post on your BuzzFeed page 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 that once your post has been featured on our front page or awarded a badge you will no longer be able to edit it.
Um, we just said that. But 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.
At this time you cannot edit a contribution you’ve made to another post.
Much like 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.
BuzzFeed is for sharing the best of the viral web, as well as for launching new viral memes. It’s not a general purpose, personal blogging or messaging platform like WordPress, Tumblr or Twitter. Things posted to BuzzFeed should be interesting to a wider audience than just your friends or family.
Your posts go directly into the Raw Feed, and the best stuff gets featured on our home page. In addition, your post can win various badges depending on user votes, viral traffic, or editorial merit.
Yes! By which we mean no. Posts with original content like image, video, list or quiz posts tend to do better than link posts. If you can have a compelling image (which you can link back to your site) and structure a post around it, that gives it a better chance of making it to the front page as well as giving it a bit more potential for readers to link to on their own sites and share with friends. If you like, you can link the image back to your site.
Try to make each post stand alone as a news item — a snippet of information with a bit of personal spin that speaks for itself, with the idea that readers can click the link or check out the video for more.
Keep the title short and capitalize it. If your post is good, it might get promoted to the homepage and the widgets on BuzzFeed or our Network. Shorter titles work better in widgets and the promoted areas of our site.
Keep the description short and sweet, too — usually no more than two or three short sentences. A good model to follow is one sentence that’s to the point and sums up the idea, followed by a bit of personal spin or humor.
NSFW (Not Safe For Work) content is okay as long as it’s interesting, buzzy or newsworthy, but it should be marked as such. Outright porn is not permitted and will be removed.
Contributions to buzz have a “flag” button below them. If you find a contribution offensive, click the flag button and our moderators will take a look at it. For regular posts, feel free to fill out the feedback form if you see something really offensive.
Still Stumped? Use our feedback page to contact us for more support.
