What started Buzzfeed?

Jonah Peretti, the founder of BuzzFeed, has had a knack for drumming up emotional reactions since he was a college student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Back in 2001, Peretti submitted a request to Nike to customize a sneaker with the word “Sweatshop” printed on the side, a not-so-subtle jab at the corporation’s long history of alleged immoral labor practices. The company refused, citing the word as a “slur.” The back and forth that ensued resulted in a humorous email exchange between a regular consumer and a massive brand. Before the days of Facebook or Twitter, going “viral” was a foreign concept to most people. But chain emails (you may remember) were quite popular. Peretti forwarded the email string to 12 of his friends who pushed it to their networks, and quickly he was getting responses from all sorts of media outlets. Remarkably, he ended up on The Today Show discussing labor practices with the head of corporate PR for Nike. Through its insights, BuzzFeed has tapped into many cultural trends and connected with users on a deep level. “We think of media as something people use to help them in their lives,” Peretti noted at the recent HubSpot Inbound Conference. Though most of their catchiest pieces seemingly are intended only to entertain, BuzzFeed makes an effort to understand their audience and anticipate what they might be looking for so they can change and adapt accordingly.

The post What started Buzzfeed? appeared first on interaksyonph.