BuzzFeed Publisher Interview Tao Nguyen: How analytics change editorial work

BuzzFeed specializes in viral content and actively uses data analysis when preparing its publications. This is a special department in the company, headed by 41-year-old Tao Nguyen. Her position at Buzzfeed officially sounds like a “publisher”, but she has already been nicknamed “the queen of data” in the press.

Tao Nguyen is not responsible for distribution and sales. She runs Buzzfeed with all employees who are not directly related to the preparation of content and advertising. We are talking about the technical part, working with data and everything that is somehow connected with the publishing platform. And this is no less than 100 people, which is about one sixth of the whole Buzzfeed team.
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Thanks to the work of the analytical department, Buzzfeed traffic has increased 5 times.

The publisher Buzzfeed told about the features of his work in an interview with FastCompany. We translated the most interesting moments.

About the nature of news consumption

In the past, Tao Nguyen managed to work in the French newspaper Le Monde , where she was responsible for the launch of new products, content optimization and the technical part. It was then, according to her, that she understood the nature of news consumption, which is radically different from the consumption of other products.

No one wakes up thinking that they want to be informed.

Not. It is a habit. This is a person's identity ... If you looked through the main page of The New York Times every day in order to be informed, you will most likely be viewing it tomorrow with the same purpose. ”

This knowledge, according to Nguyen, is especially important when working with data. Behind each unique visitor of the site is a personality, and, therefore, its habits and behavior should be understood.



Buzzfeed work scheme. Company internal document

How Nguyen teaches editors how to work with data

The newsletter editor Den Oshinski is now reporting on his work as a wording. But for a long time he worked directly with Nguyen.



Buzzfeed newsletter editor Den Oshinski

“You come, report to me, we make a product together, we discuss data with you. Of course, you are working on content. But you work for me. And when both of us understand that you are ready to make decisions, you return to editing. We use the Campaign Monitor for mailings. There is an analyst in it, though not very detailed. But the editor already knows how to work with the data, so he can use it to improve the product and expand the audience. ”

How to use data to increase the audience in social networks

Buzzfeed has 90 Facebook pages. The analytical department keeps track of all the statistics on them. When is the best time to post? How did the published video affect audience growth? How are his large groups and pages? How to use a page with many subscribers to grow a small page? Why are page subscribers more responsive to videos than to other posts?

“We work very closely with the SMM team, which is part of the editorial staff. We tell them what, in our opinion, is happening ... This is a real feedback, it gives the editorial board the knowledge for which there are no tools on Facebook yet.



We turned many small pages into large ones. Why did we do it? Can we repeat this success many more times? Data may indicate the correct answers to these questions. But there is no magic formula - it depends a lot on quality content. ”

That metrics will no longer be the same

“For a long time this was the case: you want more subscribers, you want more clicks, you want fewer bounces. But everything we talked about is not a job on any one metric.

If you want to optimize one metric - you will have problems.

This obsession must be abandoned. My instinct tells me that the time for such rhetoric has passed. There are no metrics separately. ”

On the role of data in the work of Buzzfeed

There are many myths about the use of data media project. So, you can hear what researchers are telling reporters about what to write about, and what about not.

“It is a mistake to assume that while preparing, say, the text under the heading “ 27 sandwiches that are better than a boyfriend ” , work was carried out with a large array of information about sandwiches and their connection with boyfriends. The data will never tell you why an event happened. The data will tell you (and even if you are lucky enough) what exactly happened, ”says Nguyen. If you want to find the answer to the question “why”, you will need a slightly different set of skills and qualities, primarily related to your brain and heart.

But if in doubt, which version of the title or illustration will become more effective - test.

The more you publish, the more data you have at your disposal, with which you can get an idea of ​​the effectiveness of your work and formulate ideas for new publications and methods for their distribution.

“I do not think Buzzfeed has a monopoly on data. I think we just use them properly, ”says Nguyen.

About the benefits of weak posts

The greatest amount of traffic to the publication is brought by single publications, in which the total number of views exceeds a million. But the study of posts that are not "shot", Nguyen considers more informative.

“You should not pay all your attention only to viral publications,” she says. By studying posts that have not received due attention from the audience, useful conclusions can be made. In addition, weak publications simply more, and, therefore, more and material for study.



The post “27 signs that immigrant parents brought you up ” turned out to be incredibly successful and gained about a million views in the first 12 hours after it appeared on the site. The secret of success, according to Nguyen, was that in preparing this text, previous experience was taken into account, namely, previously published posts on similar topics. They were also quite successful, but the latest publication significantly bypassed them in the number of views.

“The trick” turned out to be that the list of 27 ridicule over immigrant parents ended with the exact opposite, which put pressure on the audience’s filthy feelings: “You had the most wonderful childhood, and you would not trade it for anything” This last point served a very specific function - encouraged readers to share this publication with others, because, in addition to the good mockery of the "ancestors", he allowed to express his love for them.



Founder of Buzzfeed by John Piretti

About business strategy, editorial relationships and advertising

Luck Buzzfeed is that the commercial and editorial side are equal. All departments of the company work together and strive for the same goals. This is, according to Nguyen, the business genius of the founder, John Piretti , and the main difference between Buzzfeed and many other media.

“We do not sell mailing banners. We monetize letters, but do not place banners there.

You want to increase the number of subscribers to sell ads at a higher rate. But no one clicks on advertising, because no one makes an effort to click on the banners. Is not it so?

And native advertising is about something else, the user is interested in watching branded material or video that we made. The editors also make efforts: just being in the user's mailbox is not an achievement. It is necessary that he looked, learned something, cooked, something else ... "



Tao Nguyen and John Piretti

I’m sorry for organizations where people who analyze data are somewhere in the middle of the hierarchy and don’t know how to communicate with different departments of the company.

Because these departments have different goals. I think I have a simple job, but it becomes easier because of how it is organized. And this moment is undervalued. Many say that native advertising improves user experience. But no one says that native advertising aligns departments in the company and everyone, thanks to this, works more efficiently, and advertisers are happy. ”