Contagious: How to Build Word of Mouth in the Digital Age

by Jonah Berger

Both stories are also pretty remarkable, so they make the teller look cool for passing them on. And both offer useful information: it’s always helpful to know about products that work well or restaurants that have great food.

Principle 1: Social Currency How does it make people look to talk about a product or idea?

Principle 2: Triggers How do we remind people to talk about our products and ideas?

We need to design products and ideas that are frequently triggered by the environment and create new triggers by linking our products and ideas to prevalent cues in that environment. Top of mind leads to tip of tongue.

Principle 3: Emotion When we care, we share. So how can we craft messages and ideas that make people feel something?

Principle 4: Public Can people see when others are using our product or engaging in our desired behavior?

Principle 5: Practical Value How can we craft content that seems useful?

Principle 6: Stories What broader narrative can we wrap our idea

As it turns out, if something is supposed to be secret, people might well be more likely to talk about it.

They found that sharing personal opinions activated the same brain circuits that respond to rewards like food and money. So talking about what you did this weekend might feel just as good as taking a delicious bite of double chocolate cake.

we all made similar inferences because choices signal identity.

We make educated guesses about other people based on the cars they drive, the clothes they wear, and the music they listen to.

Give people a way to make themselves look good while promoting their products and ideas along the way. There are three ways to do that: (1) find inner remarkability; (2) leverage game mechanics; and (3) make people feel like insiders.

But the most important aspect of remarkable things is that they are worthy of remark. Worthy of mention. Learning that a ball of glass will bounce higher than a ball of rubber is just so noteworthy that you have to mention it.

The key to finding inner remarkability is to think about what makes something interesting, surprising, or novel. Can the product do something no one would have thought possible (such as blend golf balls like Blendtec)? Are the consequences of the idea or issue more extreme than people ever could have imagined?

One way to generate surprise is by breaking a pattern people have come to expect.

They preferred to do better than others, even if it meant getting less for themselves. They chose the option that was worse in absolute terms but better in relative terms. People don’t just care about how they are doing, they care about their performance in relation to others.

People are talking because they want to show off their achievements, but along the way they talk about the brands (Delta or Twitter) or domains (golf or the SAT) where they achieved.

Scarcity and exclusivity help products catch on by making them seem more desirable.

Like Blendtec’s Will It Blend? we need to find the inner remarkability. Like Foursquare or airlines with frequent flier tiers, we need to leverage game mechanics. Like Rue La La, we need to use scarcity and exclusivity to make people feel as if they’re insiders.

marketing isn’t about trying to convince people to purchase things they don’t want or need. Marketing is about tapping into their genuine enthusiasm for products and services that they find useful. Or fun. Or beautiful. Marketing is about spreading the love.

We had been focused on whether certain aspects matter—specifically, whether more interesting, novel, or surprising products get talked about more. But as we soon realized, we also should have been examining when they matter.

Sights, smells, and sounds can trigger related thoughts and ideas, making them more top of mind.

When French music was playing, most customers bought French wine. When German music was playing most customers bought German wine.

Whatever is top of mind is a good place to start. If something is accessible, it’s usually relevant to the situation at hand.

Top of mind means tip of tongue.

So rather than just going for a catchy message, consider the context. Think about whether the message will be triggered by the everyday environments of the target audience.

Products and ideas also have habitats, or sets of triggers that cause people to think about them.

As we discussed, one key factor is how frequently the stimulus occurs.

Frequency, however, must also be balanced with the strength of the link.

Linking a product or idea with a stimulus that is already associated with many things isn’t as effective as forging a fresher, more original link.

It is also important to pick triggers that happen near where the desired behavior is taking place.

Unlike the bath mat ad, its video triggered the message (don’t consume sugary drinks) at precisely the right time: when people are thinking of drinking a soda.

What’s a good trigger in this instance? Anything you have to take with you to buy groceries. Your shopping list, for example, is a great one. Imagine if every time you saw your shopping list, it made you think of your reusable bags. It would be much harder to leave the bags at home.

The more something is triggered, the more it will be top of mind, and the more successful it will become.

Triggers and cues lead people to talk, choose, and use. Social currency gets people talking, but Triggers keep them talking. Top of mind means tip of tongue.

As more people see and share the article about financial reform, citizens may become convinced that financial reform deserves more governmental attention than environmental reform, even if the financial issue is mild and the environmental issue severe.

For something to go viral, lots of people have to pass along the same piece of content at around the same time.

It turns out that science articles frequently chronicle innovations and discoveries that evoke a particular emotion in readers. That emotion? Awe.

According to psychologists Dacher Keltner and Jonathan Haidt, awe is the sense of wonder and amazement that occurs when someone is inspired by great knowledge, beauty, sublimity, or might.

Awe is a complex emotion and frequently involves a sense of surprise, unexpectedness, or mystery.

Sharing emotions also helps us connect. Say I watch a really awe-inspiring video, like Susan Boyle’s performance. If I share that video with a friend, he’s likely to feel similarly inspired. And the fact that we both feel the same way helps deepen our social connection.

Sadder articles were actually 16 percent less likely to make the Most E-Mailed list.

The most obvious difference between different emotions is their pleasantness or positivity. Awe is relatively pleasant, while sadness is unpleasant.

Articles that evoked anger or anxiety were more likely to make the Most E-Mailed list.

psychologists have argued that emotions can also be classified based on a second dimension. That of activation, or physiological arousal.

What is physiological arousal? Think about the last time you gave a speech in front of a large audience. Or when your team was on the verge of winning a huge game. Your pulse raced, your palms sweated, and you could feel your heart pounding in your chest. You may have had similar feelings the last time you saw a scary movie or went camping and heard a weird noise outside your tent. Though your head kept saying you weren’t really in danger, your body was convinced otherwise. Every sense was heightened. Your muscles were tensed and you were alert to every sound, smell, and movement. This is arousal.

Within ten days, more than 3 million views and 14,000 comments. In December 2009, Time magazine listed “United Breaks Guitars” as one of the Top 10 Viral Videos of 2009. United appears to have felt the negative effects almost immediately. Within four days of the video being posted, its stock price fell 10 percent—the equivalent of $180 million.

Rather than harping on features or facts, we need to focus on feelings; the underlying emotions that motivate people to action.

But any product or service can focus on feelings, even those that don’t possess any obvious emotional hook.