When you think of BuzzFeed, a few things come to mind. For me, it’s animated GIFs, hilarious posts and a killer community. The company, founded by CEO Jonah Peretti, is on a mission to create its own vertical as a publication, and has taken a step today to grow even more. BuzzFeed has hired former FINS Director of Product Management, Dao Nguyen, as its “Director of Growth.”
What does that title mean? Well basically, she’s going to come in and build traffic by helping readers find the content that they want to read. That sounds pretty simple, but it’s not. BuzzFeed has grown dramatically since it launched, and continues to carve out its special place on the web. Personally, I have the site open in a tab all day.
Nguyen’s role as a “growth hacker” at BuzzFeed is a milestone, because like my role as Community Director at TechCrunch, we are looking for new ways to bring you, the reader, what you want and when you want it. Nguyen was also a CEO of a news site, knows how to code and she has an extensive mathematical background.
BuzzFeed tells me that:
Every publisher will have someone like this in a year or two.
And I agree.
The company has raised $27M to date, with its latest massive funding round coming in January.
What can we expect from BuzzFeed in the future? Well, we’ll have to wait and see. I expect great things, and I think it’s an amazing move for the company, even though it’s incredibly forward thinking. Hats off to BuzzFeed for seeing into the future with all of us. Welcome to our world, Dao.
[Photo credit: Flickr]