BrainJet Viral Content: Editorial Oversight
As the editor for BrainJet, I pretty much lived my professional fantasy: that is, sharing stories based on the weird stuff that had been rattling around in my head for my entire life. What are the biggest lessons from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer?" What's the life of a prostitute really like? Is a record-breaking domino run really that exciting to watch? How do taxi cab drivers deal with people making coke trades in the back of the car? I used Gateway Media's proprietary tools and my own experience as a journalist to identify trending topics, plan a bevy of content around them and guide my staff through presenting them for our audience. From slideshows about the greatest Target product fails to blog posts about the "Star Wars" movie goofs you didn't notice, we covered it all -- including things for the *ahem* adult crowd. Online influencers like George Takei often shared our content, and our marketing tools ensured viral action for nearly all of our stories.
Note: All screenshots below have been taken at different points since my departure -- some via the site itself and some via the Wayback Machine. Brainjet's CMS has changed multiple times, so not all items appear the way they did when I left and not all links are available. The CMS apparently also has eaten many apostrophes in headlines and blog copy. Please don't hate me for this. I swear that I know how to use punctuation.
Below: BrainJet's landing pages as of April 2016.
Below: headlines for some of my favorite viral listicles and slideshows that I'd either written or assigned (Though I wrote about all topics, I often concentrated on women's issues, sex and retro pop culture). All of these racked up big views, likes and shares. Unfortunately, it appears that the current CMS has eaten most of the bylines.
Below: Some fun content that I'd either written or assigned. FYI, the combination of Brainjet's wonky, ever-changing CMS and the Wayback Machine removed the apostrophes from many of these items. I swear on my life that I had actually put them in and honestly know how to use punctuation properly.
Below: A few clipped bits from some of my blog posts.
For the UberKittens project, I arranged for the kittens' arrival, mapped out video production strategy, interviewed the animal shelter folks and wrote items for a number of Gateway Media's verticals. The company hadn't done anything like that before, and we racked up mega pageviews and video views. Link
Below: George Takei shares one of my BrainJet stories with his 9.5 million Facebook followers.
Below: George Takei also likes the raunchier stuff, it seems.
Below: Playboy Playmate Crystal Hefner also is tickled by my saucier content. This was the first slideshow I'd ever put together for Gateway Media, and on my first day, too. I pretty much cemented the notion that I would raise eyebrows.
