What makes something go viral? It's a common question these days. And in the quest for answers, brands would be remiss to neglect an entity like BuzzFeed, a platform described as a new kind of media company for the social world.

Jon Steinberg, BuzzFeed's president, notes that visitors to BuzzFeed simultaneously engage with an endless mashup of high- and low-brow content, from news to wacky animal photo montages. All categories of content are welcome, Steinberg says, so long as they meet BuzzFeed's simple threshold -- is it shareable?

According to Steinberg, brands that work with BuzzFeed need to consider three things when figuring out how to create content worth sharing.

• Does the content have a voice or point of view?
• Is it a content gift?
• What does the content do for the brand?

While the last question might seem obvious to anyone who works in advertising, the...