We also like to sound like insiders, a person with an inside scoop. A blender that can grind marbles to dust is remarkable so we will tell people about it. No one wants to sound boring or look like an idiot, so we like to talk about things that make us seem more interesting.
Social currency: – “We share things that make us look good”. These are your STEPPS.Įach principle is discussed individually in 6 chapters. According to Faye Keller research only 7% of word of mouth happens online.īerger has put together 6 principles designed to make it more likely that your idea will catch on and go viral. And we talk offline far more than online. Word of mouth is effective when people talk. We tend to share information with people who we think will be interested in the topic.Īnd this is not a technological argument Berger notes that social media like facebook and twitter are technologies. We listen to friends and acquaintances and trust them far more than adverts. Its persuasive strength lies in the fact that is more trusted than advertising. Berger cites research to show that word of mouth is responsible for between 20% and 50% of all purchasing decisions. People love to share stories, news and information with each other. It comes from having a message that thousands of ordinary people want to pass on. Contagion does not come from a small group of special ‘influencers’. Berger believes Malcolm Gladwell got it wrong in The Tipping Point. You also need to remember the seeds of contagion lie in the content and not in the messenger. You need to give your idea characteristics that lend itself to being shared. The good news is that almost anything can catch on and go viral. There is another reason, which Berger calls social transmission, and this is what this book is about. However sometimes these logical reasons just don’t explain it sufficiently. So what’s the secret to a product or idea catching like wildfire? It could be just brilliant, or better, or cheaper, or massively and cleverly advertised.
If you have a message or idea and you want to make it popular, this book will give you a good grounding on how to get started.
If I had to criticize it, I felt that it was a little padded at times, but then I often feel that way about business books. It is full of examples and makes its point quite clearly.
It also made the New York Times bestseller list, so it should be no surprise that it is a very readable and well-referenced book. Jonah Berger is a marketing academic at Wharton business school, and this book was named the best marketing book of 2014 by the American Marketing Association. Why do some products or ideas catch on? It’s actually a really good question, and Jonah Berger explores it well, and gives some good suggestions on how to make it happen, packaged in a neat acronym called STEPPS. Contagious: Why things catch on by Jonah Berger
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