Contagious

Two of the ideas you’ll keep

The Clif summary of Contagious pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first two.

1. Virality is engineered, not lucky, and it lives in the message, not the messenger. Berger's research shows only about 7% of word of mouth happens online and that ordinary people, not a rare class of 'influentials,' drive most sharing, so the question isn't who to reach but what makes content contagious. His answer is the STEPPS framework: Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories.
2. Social Currency: people share things that make them look good. Just as we buy cars and clothes that signal status, we pass along remarkable, insider, or scarce information to seem sharp and in-the-know, which is why a secret bar hidden behind a phone booth (Please Don't Tell) generates more buzz than one that advertises, and why game mechanics like airline status tiers make people want to show off their standing.

The other 5 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.

What’s inside: 8 chapters

The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.

1. Why Things Catch On: Message Over Messenger
2. Social Currency: Sharing Makes Us Look Good
3. Triggers: Top of Mind, Tip of Tongue
4. Emotion: When We Care, We Share
5. Public: Built to Show, Built to Grow
6. Practical Value: News You Can Use
7. Stories: Information in a Trojan Horse
8. Putting STEPPS to Work