Contagious

Core Concept

Only 7% of word of mouth happens online. Most influential sharing happens offline. Contagious content spreads regardless of who is doing the talking—it’s inherently viral and doesn’t depend on having persuasive messengers or thousands of followers.

The Six STEPPS Principles

1. Social Currency

“How does it make people look to talk about a product or idea?”

Make people an offer so good they would feel stupid saying no. People share things that make them look smart, cool, and in the know.

Three Ways to Mint Social Currency:

• Find inner remarkability: Make something unusual, extraordinary, or worthy of notice
• Leverage game mechanics: Use elements like points, levels, and leaderboards to keep people engaged
• Make people feel like insiders: Use scarcity and exclusivity to make people feel special

“Black toilet paper? No one had ever seen black toilet paper before. And that remarkability provoked discussion.”

Paying people for referrals crowds out intrinsic motivation. Social incentives are more effective long-term than financial incentives.

2. Triggers

“Top of mind leads to tip of tongue.”

People talk about Cheerios more than Disney World. Why? Triggers.

Triggers are stimuli that prompt people to think about related things. Design products and ideas that are frequently triggered by the environment.

Key Insights:

• More frequently triggered products got 15% more word of mouth
• Coffee is a better trigger than hot chocolate because it’s encountered more frequently
• Rebecca Black’s “Friday” spiked in mentions every Friday
• Kit Kat linked to coffee created a frequent daily trigger

“Triggers are the foundation of word of mouth. Social Currency is the front man—exciting and fun. Triggers are the drummer—not as sexy but gets the job done.”

3. Emotion

“When we care, we share.”

Not all emotions drive sharing equally. The key is physiological arousal.

High-Arousal Emotions (Increase Sharing):

• Awe (30% more likely to be shared)
• Anger
• Anxiety
• Excitement

Low-Arousal Emotions (Decrease Sharing):

• Sadness (16% less likely to be shared)
• Contentment

“Awe-inspiring articles were 30% more likely to make the Most E-Mailed list.”

Finding the Emotional Core: Use the “Three Whys” method:

1. Write down why people are doing something
2. Ask “Why is this important?” three times
3. Each time, drill down further to uncover the emotion

Example: Search engines → Find information quickly → Get answers → Connect with people, achieve goals, fulfill dreams

Physical arousal also increases sharing. Students who jogged before reading an article were 75% more likely to share it—more than twice as many as those who remained relaxed.

4. Public

“Built to show, built to grow.”

Making things observable makes them easier to imitate and more likely to become popular.

Observability has huge impact:

• Shirts vs. socks: Shirts are public, socks are private
• Hotmail’s email signature drove growth by making usage observable
• Yellow Livestrong wristbands were striking and easy to see
• “I Voted” stickers made private voting public

Behavioral Residue: Create things that stick around after people use them:

• Stickers and badges
• Branded giveaways that are used publicly (gym bags, coffee mugs)
• Social media posts and reviews

“The wristband lives on. The bike ride doesn’t. It lives on as a reminder every day.”

Warning: Making bad behavior public can backfire. Anti-drug ads that showed lots of teens using marijuana actually increased usage by making it seem normal.

5. Practical Value

“News you can use.”

People share useful information that helps others save time, money, or have good experiences.

Sharing is caring: At its core, sharing practical value is about helping others.

Prospect Theory Insights:

• People evaluate things relative to a reference point, not absolute terms
• Diminishing sensitivity: Same change has smaller impact farther from reference point
• People are more willing to drive to save $10 on a $35 clock radio than on a $500 TV

The Rule of 100:

• For prices under $100, use percentage discounts
• For prices over $100, use dollar amount discounts

Packaging matters:

• Keep it short and focused (5-10 tips, not 25)
• Make it obviously relevant to a specific audience
• Highlight incredible value clearly

“Vanguard nicely packages its expertise into short, tight bundles of useful information, and the practical value made me pass it along.”

6. Stories

“Information travels under the guise of idle chatter.”

People tell stories because stories are:

• Entertaining
• Easier to remember
• Packed with useful information

The Trojan Horse: Virality is most valuable when the brand or product benefit is integral to the story—woven so deeply that people can’t tell the story without mentioning it.

“People don’t talk about Jared because they want to help Subway, but Subway still benefits because it is part of the narrative.”

Key Principles:

• Stories carry more information than ads
• Embed your product in narratives people want to tell
• Make the brand essential to the story
• Don’t just make it viral, make it valuable

Failed Example: The “fool in the pool” at 2003 Olympics—remarkable story but had nothing to do with the casino it was promoting.

Application Framework

Social Currency: Does talking about it make people look good? Find inner remarkability, leverage game mechanics, make people feel like insiders.

Triggers: What cues make people think about it? How can you grow the habitat and increase frequency?

Emotion: Does it generate emotion? How can you kindle the fire with high-arousal emotions?

Public: Does it advertise itself? Can people see when others use it? How can you create behavioral residue?

Practical Value: Does it help people help others? How can you package knowledge into useful information?

Stories: What’s your Trojan Horse? Is your product embedded in a narrative people want to share? Is it viral AND valuable?

Key Statistics

• 40% of what people talk about is their personal experiences or relationships
• 7% of word of mouth happens online, 93% happens offline
• 15% more word of mouth for frequently triggered products
• 30% increase in sharing for awe-inspiring content
• 16% decrease in sharing for sad content
• 75% of students who exercised shared an article vs. 33% who remained sedentary
• 85 million Livestrong wristbands sold

Notable Examples

• $100 Cheesesteak: Barclay Prime created remarkability through price
• Blendtec “Will It Blend?”: Remarkable demonstrations went viral
• Kit Kat + Coffee: Created frequent daily trigger
• Google “Parisian Love”: Emotional search engine story
• Livestrong Wristbands: Made support observable and created behavioral residue
• Hotmail: Email signature drove growth through observability
• Please Don’t Tell: Phone booth entrance created social currency