SCIENCE CONFIRMS WHAT BUZZFEED AND UPWORTHY ALREADY KNOW: IN THE HIERARCHY OF DIGITAL CONTAGION, CONTENT THAT EVOKES POWERFUL EMOTIONS FLOATS MERCILESSLY TO THE TOP.
A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal profiled Gawker editor Neetzan Zimmerman, whose job is to post content that's poised to go viral. Zimmerman does his job quite well. His posts generate about 30 million pageviews a month--tops at the site by far, six times what the second-leading staffer generates. Zimmerman's success is not the result of some computer formula; on the contrary, rather, "he understands the emotions that might compel a human being to click on something online," the Journal's Farhad Manjoo writes.
Image Courtesy of cooldesign / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
