One of my favorite books is “Contagious: Why Things Catch On” by Jonah Berger. Dr. Berger is a celebrated Wharton professor and this book is basically about why ideas and messages catch on and become viral. From Trending Twitter hashtags like #Rihannaisjamaican to manifestos by Gary Vaynerchuk, these ideas all had something “sticky” that helped to create buzz and make people want to participate and share.
According to Berger, while great products, wonderful pricing and compelling advertising all help, there’s something to be said for social influence. Throughout the book, he covers six principles that encourage Word-of-Mouth (WOM). Ready to go through them all? Let’s roll.
1. Social Currency
This is when we tweet with popular hashtags on Twitter so we can seem cool and current. If your hashtag can trigger that in most people, then that will help it trend. Social Media gives us a way to participate in popular commentary. Want to go viral? Give people content that they want to participate in.
2. Trigger Happy
If you live in Jamaica, the word “ackee” will make you think of “saltfish.” The terms “peanut butter” and “jelly” have been universally linked. This happens because of triggers, or “stimuli that prompt people to think about related things.” I’ve had many friends who have given up smoking, and find themselves triggered to smoke by a cup of coffee or a cocktail. According to Berger, if you can link your product or messaging to something in the environment, you can help trigger the thought of your product/messaging more often. That will make it “top of mind”. Top of mind means virality. This means retweets and shares. Boom!
3. Emotion
When we feel something about a post, we share it. Emotion is one of the chief reasons that we share content. We share things that make us feel things like joy, sorrow, or anger. One video of Peppa Pig getting a beating from a small child, got 152,000 retweets. What emotions do you think that people were feeling when they shared that?
4. Showing means Sharing
If we can see something then we can imitate it. Products that advertise themselves through their logo or their “look” pave the way for their own popularity. For example, look at Starbucks, Apple Macbooks or Clarks; visibility is a key factor in driving products and ideas to virality.
This imitation is not only limited to product use; it also affects our behaviour. Here’s another great example from this book: there’s a reason that canned laughter from old school television shows like Friends was so popular. We are primed to laugh when others around us laugh. Similarly, when others around us are toting Starbucks branded cups or Clarks Wallabees..we feel inspired to sip or lace up, imitating this behavior. It’s important to note that we may feel inspired to imitate the behavior of others when doing so reinforces what we want to believe about ourselves.
5. Can It Help People?
Value is everything. If your content has value because it teaches us how to save time, money, improve our health etc, we will want to share it with the world. Why? Because people like to help other people. According to Buzzsomo, 2017’s most viral Facebook post was a post about organizational hacks that get rid of clutter!
Messages with utility, with intrinsic value, can transform people’s lives and this makes us feel good. How did you feel about the last person that gave you a good tip? I’m betting you had a pretty positive emotion about that person.
6. Weave Us A Tale
Think about popular shows like Power and Game of Thrones. We get immersed in stories and use them to engage with other people. Think about how many times you’ve stayed up past midnight, watching a series on Netflix. Even as the sleep whispers in your ear and you think about how early you have to wake up tomorrow, you push through because you have to see what happens next! According to Berger, stories act as “trojan horses” in which you can transmit your message. What was the last show you watched that was so good you just had to tell others about it?
Applying just one or two of these principles to our content can make them more shareable. Even better, imagine how you could put out content that encompasses all of these principles?! That would spread like wildfire! At Match Sync we are always trying to find the right recipe to make our client’s content and their brand #contagious.
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