Author:: [[Jonah Berger]] DateFinished:: 8/18/2023 Rating:: 8 Tags:: #📩 #🟥 # # Contagious Why Things Catch On ## 🚀The Book in 3 Sentences - ### 🎨 Impressions - ### 📖Who Should Read It? - ### ☘️ How the Book Changed Me - ### ✍️ My Top 3 Quotes - # Summary Do you think a restaurant selling a $100 cheesesteak would do well in Philly? Most people would say no. 25% of small restaurants fail in the first 12 months. But Wein was different. They started selling a $100 cheesesteak with their house made brioche roll, brushed with homemade mustard, thinly sliced Kobe beef, marbleized to perfection, caramelized onions, shaved heirloom tomatoes, and triple cream Taleggio cheese. All topped with hand harvested black struggles and butter poached Maine Lobster roll. The response was electric. **Wein didn't just create another cheesesteak, they created a conversation piece.** Why products like Wein's cheesesteak go viral while others are left in the dust is the main analysis author Jonah Berger undertakes in his book Contagious: Why Things Catch On. This book fascinated me because it applies so well to college content creation. In particular he shares one of the best content creation tips I have ever come across: the best marketing is word of mouth marketing. **Our goal is to make our content so good that people *have* to share it with their friends.** As Berger says "harnessing the power of word of mouth, online or offline, requires understanding why people talk and why some things get talked about and shared more than others. The Psychology of sharing. The Science of social transmission." By understanding the 6 step framework Berger calls STEPPS, we can make our content more likely to go viral. ### 🪜The 6 STEPPS Of Contagious Ideas: 1. Social Currency: How does it make people look to share your content? Does it make them look good? Does it showcase their values? Does it provide a laugh? Is interesting to share? 2. Triggers: What triggers in the environment are there to share your content? We need to design cues to share your content in the environment and link it to old content to get it shared. 3. Emotion: When we care we share. But what emotions should we evoke? 4. Public: "Monkey see monkey do." Can people see when others are consuming our content or being influenced by it? 5. Practical Value: Does your content provide practical usage? Is it packaged nicely so someone could easily share it with someone else? 6. Stories: Does our content fit in a broader narrative? People don't just share practical information they share stories. ## Triggers The context an idea is triggered in profoundly alters the psychological and behavioral response to that idea. This reminds me of [[The Extended Mind]] which explores how our cognition differs depending on the environment we are in. Ideally we want our triggers to: - Occur in the same environment as where we want the action to take place - Occur more consistently throughout the year rather than only a few times - To be linked to something that doesn't have a massive amount of other associations so it doesn't get clouded by other stuff