A Joosr Guide to… Contagious by Jonah Berger

By giving your message practical appeal, people are much more likely to want to share it with their friends. Not only because it benefits their friends, but also because it benefits them by making them look helpful or knowledgeable—which in turn benefits you and your business.

Think about how your campaign, message, or promotion can offer practical value;

The more natural public exposure your message gets, the more likely it is to “stick” and spread

Desirable emotions are the “high-arousal” kind, which are basically those that stimulate people physiologically, causing them to feel more alert. These emotions include joy, amusement, happiness, excitement, awe, shock, frustration, and anger.

Use the power of emotion to make your message much more memorable

Ensure that your message spreads by making use of both word-of-mouth and environmental triggers

Social currency—messages that stimulate word-of-mouth discussions, endorsement, recommendations, and even debates among social groups.
Triggers—environmental reminders that cause people to start talking about your message.
Emotions—your message’s ability to make people feel something. Emotions make it more impactful, memorable, and shareable.
Public—the more visible your message is, the more likely it is to catch on.
Practical value—the perceived benefits or worth of your message. People like to share information that reflects well on them by making them look useful and helpful.
Story—because they have familiar structures, stories make it much easier for people to process the information contained within your message

Those STEPPS are: social currency, triggers, emotions, public, practical value, and story.

By giving your message practical appeal, people are much more likely to want to share it with their friends. Not only because it benefits their friends, but also because it benefits them by making them look helpful or knowledgeable—which in turn benefits you and your business.

Desirable emotions are the “high-arousal” kind, which are basically those that stimulate people physiologically, causing them to feel more alert. These emotions include joy, amusement, happiness, excitement, awe, shock, frustration, and anger. It has been found that messages that provoke these feelings are much more likely to be shared across social networks. If a campaign or idea can trigger high-arousal emotions (even negative ones), then it’s more likely to go viral.

your message with the everyday lives of your audience, and use people’s ordinary environments as your own marketing tool.

Ensuring that your message has social currency, and also utilizes everyday environmental triggers, will allow it to spread more naturally and powerfully among peer groups. So think about how to associate