By Marnie Faundez
As traditional news organisations shrink, new media sites like Buzzfeed and Viral Nova have risen in their ashes. They have taken the internet by storm by providing their audience with just the right amount of news, pop culture (and native advertising), in a less than traditional format.
So what lies in the success of these articles?
What better way to figure that out than by writing a buzz article about buzz articles. Inception anyone?
- Article + List= Listicle
One key element that sets ‘buzz publishing’apart from the rest is the listicle. By writing in a structured sequence, the writer is able to engage directly with their audience. This is important as it allows them to capture the attention of the reader and hold their attention for the rest of the piece.
List journalism can drive traffic to a website and should never be considered any less important than the traditional structure. At the end of the day the target is to reach the audience, and a reader who is entertained is a reader that stays!
- Visualisation is Key
I don’t know about you but GIFs (Graphics Interchange Format) get me through life. If there is a GIF in an article I am hooked. Through images alone an article can manage to expand its target audience and reach people who would otherwise have no interest in the topic. It really changes the tone of an article and allows the reader to view it as a lighthearted piece.
Like the saying goes, ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’. If the audience can visualise a topic, they will become more invested in the story.
- Niches drive traffic too
The effectiveness of online publications is not limited to pop culture topics! The large capacity of articles published online allows room for more niche topics to be discussed. The entertainment value of the listicle has the ability to personalise topics and drive traffic through subjects which are less prominent in pop culture.
- Headlines can make or break
If the title can cut through the noise and catch the audience’s attention, you pretty much have guaranteed success. Click-bait to a certain extent is necessary to gain the initial engagement of the viewer and the listicle article is the number one way to draw an audience in.
So, the buzz publishing format is basically a bedazzled news article. Turning what could have been regular, boring news into an interesting and to the point form of entertainment for the reader captures their attention and provides them with a quick fix of the information they want.
