What He Said She Said

Book: Contagious

Author: Jonah Berger

Length: 256 pages

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Price: $12.20 at Barnes & Noble

What He Said She Said

by: Dusti Gasparovic

                                      

Jonah Berger, in his book Contagious claims it's not who is saying the message but the content of the message that creates a contagion. This is in rebuttal to Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, which theorizes that people of influence are what make simple ideas contagious. Like any disease, Contagious exemplifies the ways in which ideas ‘trend,’ or go viral.

 Berger is the Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania. His highly publicized and credible theories and research about how something goes viral have appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and more.  

http://jonahberger.com/author-bio/

            Berger writes about the, often times overlooked, powerful influence of ordinary people. Some of the best recommendations travel by word of mouth. Even Facebook, though it falls under the category of  “Social Media,” is essentially a virtual focus group that allows people to pass news to other users.  Berger suggests it’s the personalized comments from people that make a statement “trend,” adding a human element to the factual information. 

I don’t necessarily believe Berger’s theory cancels Gladwell’s; I think the two theories directly correlate. It is the content of the message and the people of power that take an idea and make it viral. Yes, the quality of the message is important. If a weak, misinformed, irrelevant or outdated message is produced it doesn’t stand much chance of going viral, unless a person of influence draws attention to it. A person of influence’s opinion on even a weak message becomes a message in and of itself.  I think when person graduates to a person of influence, their message goes viral as well. Ted Talk’s suggest it is people of influence, unexpectedness and participation that make something viral. This takes both Berger’s and Gladwell’s theories into account and suggests they both influence how and what goes viral. If the content of the message is unexpected, if people participate by spreading the message or a person influence comments on the idea, there is a good change of the idea will be contagious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpxVIwCbBK0

I would recommend this book to any aspiring entrepreneurs, business or marketing professionals. There are interesting theories supported by reliable research about how to make an idea or business a success. I would also recommend reading this book alongside The Tipping Point and using both concepts hand-in-hand to make your idea contagious.