How to submit?

Viral Content Buzz Does Social Media Sharing, Gangnam Style

 

The Internet is a noisy place, and social media promises to keep turning the volume up. And while the channels to spread the news are many, viral content hits that make themselves clearly-heard remain few. With the aim of amplifying great stories to where they’ll keep humming before our eyes and in our ears, arrives Viral Content Buzz.

 

 

 

 

Viral Content Buzz is an online platform for boosting social media presence. Share within this community so that your content stands out in Internet traffic like an ambulance whizzing through stoplights on a choked city street. Combine personal social media accounts with other VCB users, outside of the usual circles, and turn content into viral honey.

 

Because stories are shared only among established social media accounts, there’s no artificial sweetener here. Nothing is automated or disseminated through fake interest. Generate genuine attention through VCB that is compatible with Google and other search engines. Viral Content Buzz is integrated with Facebook, Twitter, and now Pinterest, to maximize the number of messenger bees passing content throughout the media colony.

 

 

 

 

Belonging to Viral Content Buzz is free of charge. The power of the crowd fuels content motion. Users earn credits by sharing content, which can then be spent on tweets and likes from within the community. Each account holder decides when to share content and controls what is shared.

 

While it may sound obvious, the secret to content going viral is sharing only content that you would want to read and be comfortable passing along to friends. Founder Ann Smarty has learned this and other social media lessons while working as a serial entrepreneur. In addition to creating Viral Content Buzz, she’s been the Editor in Chief at SearchEngineJournal.com, the current owner and CEO of MyBlogGuest.com, and the Community Manager at Internet Marketing Ninjas.

 

 

 

 

Mom, SEO consultant, blogger, happily buzzing entrepreneur – Smarty took a brief respite from the Internet hive to tell KillerStartups more about her company and sharing viral content.

 

How did you come up with the idea for Viral Content Buzz, and how did you first go about building the company?

My partner, Gerald Weber, was the one who came up with the idea. He was heavily involved in social media sharing and he thought that [VCB] would be a great platform that would help people share their content with a wider audience of social media promoters without sacrificing quality.

 

He was a long-time friend. So when he invited me to partner with him, I was happy to give it a try. Our team is still pretty scattered around the world: Gerald and I are in different parts of the United States, and our development team is based in the Ukraine.

 

When do your best ideas come to you? In bed in the morning? Mid-tweet? After working for 16 hours? While playing tennis? On your third margarita?

While in the shower and when having trouble falling asleep… In most cases, this means I should stop trying to relax and start getting focused – so I do not forget that idea when I am out of the shower or waking up in the morning. I usually can’t sleep, because I feel inspired.

 

What distinguishes Viral Content Buzz from the competition?

Our focus is quality. We have chosen the hard way: most people who seek social media promotion, don’t feel like getting engaged or providing really high-quality content. They are up for easy ways and shortcuts.

 

We want to make it clear that we only support high-quality content to be shared by established social media profiles. We manually moderate what is being submitted to VCB for sharing. We rank social media profiles based on their following and award them differently. This way, we want to attract social media influencers.

 

 

 

 

Maybe you can share an anecdote that describes the struggles or frustrations you’ve had to work through while starting out?

I don’t have an anecdote yet but here’s what happens to us every day: people refuse to understand what viral content is. We welcome content with high viral potential, but people would submit yet another “How to lose weight fast” article and expect it to be approved and shared.

 

The best way to viral-prove your article is to read it and think, “Would I email it to my friend?” If your absolutely honest answer is “no,” please don’t submit it for the consideration of Viral Content Buzz moderators. This is really hard to explain to people: we are NOT yet another platform for getting likes and tweets for a mediocre article. We only want our users to share really catchy and original articles.

 

How has work on ViralContentBuzz been different from work on previous projects?

With Viral Content Buzz, we attempt to offer value while not sacrificing on usability. I would often add feature after feature, and, in the end, my projects were not easy to figure out. Viral Content Buzz should be different. We are doing our best to make it very easy to understand and lightweight.

 

Also, I’ve never had partners before, so this will be an interesting experiment for us both!

 

What drew you to startup entrepreneurship?

I just love projects. Nothing else matters as much to me. When I have an idea, I implement. I can’t stop. No matter how busy I am, I will still start a new project. I am not a dreamer. I can’t plan a new project for too long. I love actions and I love being busy!

 

Who or what inspires YOU? Role models? Quotes? Entrepreneurs? Video games? Snack food?

Coffee! I don’t think anything else can get me working as productively as coffee.

 

 

 

 

I am not following any entrepreneurs closely enough to get inspired by any. And I don’t think I am capable of getting inspired by anyone without feeling a bit competitive (“Why haven’t I done that?”)…

 

What’s your greatest satisfaction in business life?

People on my team who obviously believe in what I am doing. I love to see people that I’ve dragged into my projects get inspired, work at nights, brainstorm and get excited!

 

We love to know the facts and figures. Any details you feel comfortable sharing with us?

Viral Content Buzz is privately held and operated. We don’t earn a cent from it and we are funding it from our own pockets. When we started, we decided that we wouldn’t rush to make money. We are too afraid of ruining the concept. We want to first build presence and community!

 

 

 

 

Who’s been your biggest supporter?

My husband. I feel so guilty that I can’t give my family as much time as I would love to, but my husband is an amazing supporter. His feedback is what keeps me going. He’s been watching me for many years. He always says I am doing everything right (even if I seem to be failing). He keeps me motivated!

 

How do you picture Viral Content Buzz in 5 years?

5 years? I don’t even know if Facebook is still going to be there in 5 years.

 

Quite honestly, I want Viral Content Buzz to grow naturally throughout the years. I don’t think I’ll seek funding (I usually decline funding offers for my other projects. Maybe I’m just scared. Maybe I love my independence…).

 

 

 

 

What new directions taken or components added do you see in the future for social media?

I am not really that good at predicting the future. It’s funny, when Facebook was introduced, I had hard time understanding how different it was from MySpace and why the latter actually died in the end. I do understand how Twitter was innovative and how it influenced information exchange in the world. I want to see this real-time information exchange better integrated in mass media. I see it as the future of journalism and freedom of speech. I want to see real-time information tools (powered by mobile) capture and organize all the unique moments of our life. Real-time is what I believe in!

 

Where can our readers get a hold of you?

Everywhere!

 

Any other projects you’re working on that we should check out?

You may want to check out my other project MyBlogGuest.com that was previously reviewed on KillerStartups but has added plenty of new features since then (including the Articles Gallery and the Infographics Gallery to easily get your infographics shared on lots of blogs, etc).

 

Photo Credits

ViralContentBuzz | Flickr

Vote on recent startup submissions:

Monthly Sponsors

More Stories