• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, September 25, 2013

Of course, people are prone to clicking on the sexy, the seedy, and the shallow. That sort of content, however, is not what performs best among mass online audiences, says Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed co-founder and CEO -- and arguably the foremost authority on social content sharing. That's because clicks are increasingly contingent on what consumers find in their Facebook and Twitter feeds, and what appears in those content streams all depends on what sort of content their friends are willing to share -- and that all depends on, “what people are proud to share,” Peretti told attendees of Media Magazine’s “The Future of Media” Forum, on Wednesday morning. It’s about “making content that people are proud to share with friends,” he said. More broadly, Peretti addressed several challenges facing BuzzFeed, like scaling its culture as the company continues to grow at an exponential rate. It’s not a bad problem to have, but, as Peretti stressed, it’s critical to the future success of the business that everyone be kept informed about “the larger mission of the company.”