Contagious: How Things Go Viral

Contagious: How Things Go Viral

It May Be Stupid, But It's Viral

By Katie Smith

Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger is a good read if you don’t understand how things become popular. The six principles he bases his book on are social currency, triggers, emotion, public, practical value and stories. Each principle is described in great detail. They are commonly reduced to the acronym STEPPS.

Social currency – this refers to something you get when you look cool or interesting by discussing something cool or interesting.

Triggers – this refers to something you see, smell or hear that reminds you of a certain product.

Emotion – this refers to the emotion a product or brand evokes.

Public – this refers to how many people know about it.

Practical value – this refers to how easily shared it is.

Stories – this refers to a product or cause that can have a story spun around it.

There is enough information in the book to be a good read, but at times the information felt like common sense. There are some fantastic examples of viral campaigns and each is analyzed. His example about Rebecca Black’s song “Friday” and how a spike in views on YouTube was predictable. You could relate that example to a newer video that went viral in hours. Miley Cyrus’s video for “Wrecking Ball” has racked up an impressive 391,406,147 views and it only came out in September of this year. In fact, it is reportedly the most popular music video of 2013. Not to mention, it is one of the most spoofed videos and covered songs on YouTube.

If you’re planning on working in social media, the book could be informative and beneficial. As I said before though, most of the information seems like it should be common sense.