Dive Brief: 

• The viral masterminds at BuzzFeed are continually experimenting to find new ways to boost its social sharing. 
• On accident, BuzzFeed discovered that a creative URL can drive traffic to posts after it created a field in CMS to allow editing of the URL. 
• An example of what BuzzFeed now calls the "social URL" would be for a piece title "28 Snapchats from Harry Potter" with the URL http://www.buzzfeed.com/jarrylee/snapechat. A post that will likely stir an emotional reaction would have the URL: http://www.buzzfeed.com/maggyvaneijk/your-emotions-are-valid

Dive Insight: 

While it might be hard to track whether or not a clever "social URL" is driving traffic, it does add a bit of geeky fun to the whole experience. For publishers considering a similar approach, keep in mind that changing the URL away from key words will affect search results. BuzzFeed is socially centered—and therefore unconcerned about search rankings—but other publishers may be more dependent.