According to CrowdTangle, BuzzFeed Entertainment tended to trend during the month of January. If you look at the last three years from 2016-2018, there seemed to be a peek in performance during the January month as compared to the other months during each specific year. Also, the Facebook videos out-trended other content like photos and links.
As far as what specifically trends in January, we have a few stand out types of content. One of those is “Year In Review” type of posts as the year comes to a close and people reflect. Another is nostalgia based posts, discussing how old popular things are (like TV, songs, etc) for the target audience for Buzzfeed: millennials. January also begins award season, when nominations come out and people begin to root for their favorite picks.
It’s not a coincidence that the month of January is such a strong month for BuzzFeed Entertainment. New Years is a common time of year for people to reminisce on the past and look ahead toward the future. BuzzFeed Entertainment takes advantage of this by posting content that makes people nostalgic. For example, they had several posts go viral. One example of a post that was successful last year was “Wow, we’re old AF,” citing how many years it has been since your childhood movie came out or how old your favorite actor as a kid is now. In addition, they look ahead at what the year has in store. Typically, they focus on award season. With the Oscar nominees typically getting announced in late January, BuzzFeed posts content on some of the academies favorite movies of the year. People love reading about and following movies that the media is talking about. It makes them feel like they are in the loop.