How the Public Sector Can ‘Buzzfeed’ Its Content
By: Nick Halliday, National Audit Office (UK)
Originally posted on Govloop 
I recently attended an excellent event called News:rewired. As part of the event there was a speaker from Buzzfeed who highlighted their underlying principles. In particular they aim to ‘bake in the share imperative’ by creating engaging content that triggers actions such as:
- inspiring awe
- being positive
- surprising its readers
It’s easy to be snooty about Buzzfeed particularly if you look at their site with its LOL, Win, OMG yellow buttons. However, they are clearly very scientific about their approach and use a grid based on users who might or might engage with their content:
Likes it Does not like it
Gets it Does not get it
And of course it works. After the event I downloaded their app and I must share at least one item a day from Buzzfeed. So are there any lessons here for the public sector? Why not?
How far do we focus on creating content that our users must share?
If we have factual information – such as money spent on a failed IT project is this an OMG moment?
Do we have great case studies of successes in the public sector that would inspire awe?
What about our top ten list of reports on X topic?
So when you are next commissioning new content why not check the Buzzfeed site and see if you can apply their magic to your own work. Though I am not sure how you would get the cats in — yet.