Buzz
Overview
Buzz refers to a specific post or piece of content on social media drawing explosive attention in a short time, with a flood of likes, reposts, and comments. The English word "buzz" means the humming sound of bees, and it describes people chattering about a topic. In Japanese it's also widely used as a verb, bazuru (バズる, "to blow up online").
The difference from going viral is the timescale. "Viral" refers to spreading that grows little by little over several days to several weeks, while "buzz" often refers to an explosion over a short period, from a few hours to about a day. Buzz hits a high peak in the moment, but it also dies down quickly.
When a question box answer blows up
Question box answers that blow up tend to have things in common. They're surprising, they stir emotions, they're relatable, and they make people want to "screenshot and share." In particular, when a comeback to an anonymous question is brilliant, the screenshot tends to spread with comments like "this reply is genius."
But buzz isn't always a good thing. Answers can spread in contexts you never expected. An answer meant as a joke can be taken seriously, or it can be clipped by a particular community and become a target of criticism. You can't control buzz. Once it starts spreading, it takes on a life of its own, regardless of what the person who answered intended.
Running your box without chasing buzz
Writing answers aimed at blowing up is a risky way to run a question box. When you're thinking about buzz, your answers tend to get extreme or go for cheap laughs. You may get attention for a while, but it's hard to build trust with your followers. Followers you gain from buzz drift away if the next burst doesn't come.
A healthy way to run your box is not to make buzz the goal, while sometimes blowing up as a result. Face each question honestly and answer carefully in your own words. As that adds up, an answer that happens to strike a chord with many people is born. That's real buzz. Manufactured buzz gets seen through, and even if it does blow up, it leaves a bad aftertaste.