Matthew Perpetua
Writer and content designer
Who is Matthew Perpetua?
I’m a writer and content designer with extensive and varied experience in creating quiz content, interactive media, end-to-end customer journeys, content curation, and critical writing.
I’m very passionate about understanding audiences and creating well-researched but also totally intuitive user personas. I have some experience working with AI and chatbot functions and would love to do more work in that area, and in exploring the possibilities of VR and the metaverse.
Also... I truly believe that the current media/game/app market is wildly underserving audience demand for quality quiz content and if you'd like to talk about this, and how to create something exciting and innovative in this space, please message me.
Work Experience
September 2021 - present
Content Designer, Aquent
• Content designer at Meta working on product teams building commerce tools for sellers on Facebook and incentive programs for shops on Instagram.
• Collaborate with product designers and engineers in creating, updating, and reviewing content throughout an end-to-end user journey.
• Create content educating users on Meta policies and best practices for operating shops on Instagram and Facebook
July 2020 - December 2020
Content Consultant, Wade & Wendy
• Collaborated with product designers on developing UX for quizzes in both traditional quiz forms and branching chatbot structures
• Developed detailed persona taxonomy for platform users
• Devised an elaborate personality sorting quiz akin to Myers-Briggs geared towards separating users into relevant career tracks for individualized content, complete with detailed result profiles
• Developed and wrote secondary content specific to each career path/personality type
July 2012 - February 2019
Director of Quizzes and Games, BuzzFeed
• Built the BuzzFeed Quiz brand from the ground up, growing traffic for quizzes and games by 50% or more every year between 2014 and 2018, averaging 350 million page views per month in late 2018, with a core audience of 1.7 million diehard users taking at least 30 quizzes per month
• Served as editorial lead on all quiz projects, overseeing production of quizzes and games on the O&O website and apps, as well as experimentation with quiz formats on distributed platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook
• Developed editorial strategy based on analyzing user data and behavior, as well as encouraging staff writers’ creativity and experimentation in ongoing brainstorms in Slack and periodic cross-company quiz summits
• Wrote hundreds of quizzes, posts, and video scripts, including 120 posts with over 1M views and more than 300 posts with over 500K views
• Worked closely with in-house product designers and web developers on refining quiz builders in BuzzFeed’s CMS, wireframing and developing new quiz formats and apps, and improving user experience for both readers and community quiz-makers
• Served as an internal consultant in developing the quiz brand with projects on YouTube, Facebook video, licensed board games, game shows, and collaborations with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Microsoft Zo
February 2019 - present
Freelance Content Consultant
• Collaborate with clients including Universal Music Group, Concord Music Group, Civic Entertainment Group, CNN+, Moonshot CVE, QuizGriz, Shuffle, LiftOff, The Beano, WhoDo, and others in content audits analyzing and developing their quiz product strategy, UX writing for sites and apps, creating quiz content models and projects, setting best practices guidelines, and advising on creation of bespoke quiz CMS projects
Meta
In my time at Meta I've helped create commerce tools for sellers on Facebook and Instagram, including educational content informing sellers of Meta metrics, best practices, and policies for selling on their platforms. I've also worked with designers on creating content for incentive programs and gifting initiatives, mostly on Instagram. You can see some of the flow for an incentive program below.
Please note that I do not have complete designs, only samples of projects – I was a little nervous about what I could share publicly from my work there. If you have questions about projects or would like more detail, we can talk.
Promotional referral copy for Instagram
Microcopy for Shop Builder
Copy for badges program and checkout flow
Wade & Wendy
I developed an elaborate personality sorting quiz for Wade & Wendy's job hunting AI that sorted users into an original set of professional persona, along with secondary content specific to each career path. Unfortunately the vast majority of the test and content has yet to be completed on the company's site, though some elements are present including copy written for the chatbot. I wish I could show you more because I'm quite proud of the work I did with them, but this is just how it goes with startups sometimes.
BuzzFeed
I am immensely proud of my work as the editorial leader for quiz content at BuzzFeed. It was incredibly fun, creative, and professionally rewarding work that was focused on innovation and exploration at every step of the journey. Here's a taste of the most experimental work I did there, which involved close collaborations with product designers, engineers, editorial and creative content creators, video and social creators, and more. In addition to all this, I personally created an enormous amount of content including well over 100 quizzes with over a million views each.
Media Experience
March 2019 - present
NPR Music
Freelance contributor to NPR Music with features on "The Post-Brexit New Wave," Wilco, Spoon, Stephen Malkmus, Primal Scream, Beck, and Cristina.
July 2019
R.E.M. / Concord Music Group
I wrote the liner notes for R.E.M.'s 25th anniversary reissue of Monster, which included new interviews with the members of the band and producer Scott Litt. It was a dream to be asked by the band to do this project, particularly as Monster is one of my all-time favorite records.
July 2012 - April 2014
Editor, BuzzFeed Music
I was the founding editor of BuzzFeed's Music vertical. I managed and edited a small team of writers and freelance contributors, and served as the site's primary music critic.
December 2010 - June 2012
Associate Editor, Rolling Stone
I wrote dozens of news posts every week for the magazine's website, in addition to interviews, reported features, and video content. I also wrote assorted uncredited copy for various in-house projects and branded content, and edited content created by junior employees and freelancers.
October 2008 - June 2009
Associate Producer, Public Radio International
I wrote and produced all music segments and several general pop culture segments for Fair Game, a nationally syndicated daily news and culture program. I booked artists for live radio sessions and interviews, including Robyn, The Mountain Goats, The National, Goldfrapp, Stephen Malkmus, and The Slits.
January 2006 - present
Other Freelance Credits
I've written for many notable publications including Vulture, Pitchfork, Associated Press, MTV, Decider, Spin, Slate, and The Atlantic.
I have been writing Fluxblog, one of the first and longest-running music blogs since 2002. In addition to featuring writing about new music each weekday, the project's scope has expanded to include regular curated playlists, podcasts, and a weekly newsletter. Fluxblog has been praised by institutions including The New York Times, New York Magazine, Spin, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, NPR, Newsweek, and Time.