Industry News You Can Use: How “The Dress” Went Viral

Here’s a look at a couple of topics that set online communities abuzz this week.

What #TheDress means for BuzzFeed’s ad revenue

Last week, the social media world was divided on the colors of “#TheDress.” Was it black and blue, or white and gold? No matter which colors you saw, one thing is certain: “The Dress” speaks volumes about BuzzFeed’s ability to make content go viral.

The post, which took only five minutes to create, earned 28 million views in 24 hours (more than 37 million views to date) and the hashtag #TheDress trended at number one on Twitter in the U.S. As more brands and advertisers look to replicate that kind of ubiquity, could BuzzFeed’s content plus distribution model be the key to unlocking such success?

Gian LaVecchia, managing partner, digital content marketing at MEC says, “It’s simply the latest example of how BuzzFeed owns, sustains, propagates the viral distribution game. They have clearly and consistently perfected the art (creative plus content) and scientific precision (algorithmic distribution) of this space and basically owned the internet for hours.”

(Image courtesy of BuzzFeed)

How the latest Pinterest monetization rules affect influencers

Recently, Pinterest eliminated the use of affiliate links in pins, causing much dismay among Pinterest influencers who frequently work with brands and agencies to create content. This once-lucrative business model for influencers is in jeopardy on Pinterest, since compensation from affiliate links has often relied on traffic driven to a brand’s website from an influencer’s pin. According to Pinterest’s data, approximately two-thirds of pins on Pinterest are related to brands.

Pinterest claims that their decision to ban affiliate links was because they were “becoming spammy and hindering user experience on the site,” and the social media powerhouse has no plans to replace affiliate links with its own system.

Tell us you feel about the new Pinterest rules and what it means for influencers.