Why Things Catch On: The Science of Why People Share

Do you want to understand the science behind why people share?

During this fascinating interview I explore these very concepts.

To learn the reasons why people widely share content, I interview Jonah Berger for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Jonah Berger, author of The New York Times bestseller, Contagious: Why Things Catch On. He's also a marketing professor at the Wharton School and columnist for BusinessWeek.

Jonah shares the reasons behind why people engage with word of mouth and why marketers should pay attention to this.

You'll learn about the 6 principles that drive people to share.

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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Why People Share
How Jonah become fascinated by the reasons people engage in word of mouth

As a scientist, Jonah thought it would be interesting to study why things go viral or why certain stories circulate around the water cooler.

He grew up studying math, chemistry, computer science and material science and thought it would be interesting to apply these hard science tools to social science problems.

It was after reading the book The Tipping Point that he was inspired to think about these things and soon realized there hadn't been a lot of research done on the subject.

Listen to the show to find out why he spent his academic career trying to study these things and bottle the phenomena.

Why social media marketers should pay attention

Jonah starts with how a lot can be done with social media and that there are tons of content out there already from many brands and organizations. Some content does better, but it's not about luck and it's not random.

Jonah and his team spent a decade doing research to try to understand why people share word of mouth. With the 6 principles they discovered, you can make it more likely for your own posts to be contagious. People will share them and pass them onto others.

You'll find out what the research entailed and how it led to the discovery of the psychological drivers behind sharing.

Word of mouth can be over 10 times as effective as traditional advertising. People trust word of mouth more. It's also more targeted than traditional advertising. Plus it's cost-effective, if you can get it to work.

It doesn't cost you anything to get people to talk about your brand. However, it requires you to understand why they are talking about some things rather than others.

Following the rigorous academic research, Jonah decided to write the book Contagious to help people apply the insights, so their products and ideas could take off.

Jonah explains how when the science was applied to a number of different companies to increase word of mouth in a given campaign, there was an increase of 20-50%. You can definitely guarantee more views and more shares when you follow the 6 principles.

Listen to the show to find out what you need to do to help activate your existing customers and get them to spread that message to more potential new customers.

The 6 principles in Contagious

Jonah gives the high-level of each principle, which is called the STEPPS framework. These 6 principles drive people to talk and share.

Social currency
Triggers
Emotion
Public
Practical value
Stories

These steps are based on psychology. It's about being able to understand the motivation or the drivers that cause us to pass things on.

Some people wonder if you need all 6 principles for it to work.