BuzzFeed VP Scott Lamb Fireside Chat
General Assembly LA hosted a fireside chat with BuzzFeed’s VP of International Scott Lamb. With content marketing becoming one of the most influential marketing tools as of late, I was intrigued to see what a VP from one of the most successful content websites had to say. The chat started off with irony as Lamb’s first piece of advice was to “never ever use the word viral at all, it’s horrible.” With BuzzFeed being a website built around viral content, I’ll admit, I was confused. But, he had a point — “viral” has become a cliché buzz word that is often misused. For example, if Kim Kardashian tweets a photo, and gets 7.2K retweets, that doesn’t mean it’s a viral photo. She has 20 million followers, she should probably be getting more retweets than that. Instead, virality consists of content that is posted by anyone (non-celebrities), and is exponentially shared and interacted with. Lamb offered the three main reasons why people share content:
- Timeliness: Sharing as a way to make yourself appear relevant “Hey we were just talking about this!”
- Identity: Sharing as a way to confirm your identity “OMG this is totes me!”
- Emotional connection: Sharing in the form of a gift to another person “I wanted you to feel how I felt!”