Certain stories are more contagious, and certain rumors are more infectious. Some products get a good deal of word of mouth, while others go unmentioned. What causes certain products, ideas, and behaviors to be talked about more? This book provides cutting-edge science about how word of mouth and social transmission work. And how you can leverage them to make your products and ideas succeed.

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GOODREADS | AMAZON

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KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Virality isn’t born, it’s made.

• There are six principles of contagiousness: products or ideas that contain social currency and are triggered, emotional, public, practically valuable, and wrapped into stories.

• Social currency: make your customers feel good and give them something to brag about.

• Trigger: associate your brand with something that people will encounter often.

• Emotion: The key is to use emotions to connect with your customers, so they will feel strongly about your brand and share it. High arousal emotions like awe, humor, and even anger can be very effective in spurring people to act.

• Public: Make your brand visible so that people will notice it and want to follow it. If they feel a connection with your brand, then they’ll also want to express it as a form of social currency.

• Practical Value: Offer useful tips to help your customers get better at what they’re doing.

• Stories: Embed your brand message within a compelling story/narrative.

• Word of mouth is the primary factor behind 20 to 50% of all purchasing decisions.

• Research finds that only 7% of word of mouth happens online.

• A five-star review on Amazon.com leads to approximately twenty more books sold than a one-star review.

• The mere fact that something isn’t readily available can make people value it more and tell others to capitalize on the social currency of knowing about it or having it.

• Emphasize what’s remarkable about a product or idea and people will talk.