The FORMULA to make Your Content Go Viral?

If you're like most people, you probably wonder why some things go viral and others don't. It was that curiousity that led me to read Jonah Berger's book Contagious: Why Things Catch On.

In this book, Johan claims to have figured out what it takes to make something go viral. Before we get into what Jonah found through his research, though, let's consider why we should even care about this. So, why is it important?

Well, regardless of what position you hold in any organization, you probably recognize that having the products/services of that organization go viral would be a good thing in many different ways (there are exceptions of course, like, illegal street drugs, as well as other technically legal ones, but we won't get into that here).

And for those of you who are in a sales or marketing role in these organizations, then you definitely want to know HOW to make things catch on, because when that happens, it makes your job a whole lot easier doesn't it?

Ok, so what does it take to make something go viral? According to Jonah, there are 6 principles of contagiousness. These are:

1. Social Currency - this is the whole idea that people would be much more likely to share something that makes them look smart rather than dumb.  It's true that what we share says something about who we are, and what values we have.
2. Triggers - the concept here is that for an idea or message to be shared more, there should be something in the environment that triggers people to think about it because if they don't think about it, they are unlikely to share it. 
3. Emotion - how are your messages and ideas making people feel? Jonah finds that certain emotions have more of an impact than others. Specifically, on the positive side, you want to evoke awe, or excitement, or amusement (how many times have people shared that really funny video with you?). On the negative side, content that makes people feel anxious or angry can also drive them to share the content.
4. Public - this is essentially the idea of social proof. If people see that others are sharing the content or using the product/service, they are more likey to use it themselves and even shar it with others.
5. Practical Value - is your content useful? How does it help people save time, money, improve their health or keep them safe? If your message/content can do one or ore of these things then chances are it will be shared.
6. Stories - humans are wired for story. That's how information was shared amongst our species millenia ago and it's still the best way to share ideas and messages today. So, do you have a good narrative that embeds your ideas?

​Jonah calls these the STEPPS principles and gives some great examples of how this worked for companies in the B2C (Business to Consumer) space, like for instance Blendtec, with the blender that can blend virtually anything from glass marbles to iphones. But, can this apply in B2B (Business to Business) environments too?  

Well, with all the focus on content these days, and an increasing number of people involved in the buying process, the more your content gets shared within an organization the better. At the end of the day you are selling and marketing your products/services to real human beings even in a B2B environment. So, from that perspective, I don't see why any of this wouldn't apply there.

While I think the STEPPS idea itself makes a lot of sense, I do still have a niggling feeling that there's a bit more to it than that. Perhaps luck plays a larger role than most people, including Jonah think. One way Jonah could have proved that STEPPS is all you need is to have himself or his team create content according to these principles, and put it out there to see if it really did go viral.

How about you? If you get to try this out, I'd love to hear from you about how it goes. You can send me an email at h_adam at hfactorsolutions.com with your story.