I found Jonah Berger’s “Contagious” to be both interesting and insightful. The concept of virality is huge in marketing and most people assume it just the luck of the draw. I found Berger’s claim that not only can a something going viral be planned, but that there are real principals to do it very fascinating.
Berger talks about 6 principal’s throughout “Contagious.” These principal’s are:
- Social Currency
- Triggers
- Emotion
- Public
- Practical Value
- Stories
After reading Berger’s book, I was eager to try some of his principals on my own social media account. I decided to try these principals on my Instagram page for my account, Enneagram LOL Memes, because it is where my content is the most successful and has had the largest reach.
My first post followed mainly the concept of Social Currency. Berger explained social currency as something people use “to achieve desired positive impressions among their families, friends and colleagues.” Basically, it is the idea that people want to share something that will make them look good. After considering this principle and how it could work with the type of content I usually produce, I came up with a plan.
Typically my account pokes fun at each Enneagram type through a traditional meme format. For this post I decided to still create content that is humorous, but with a more positive approach regarding each Enneagram type. I chose to assign each type a fictional female character with a funny quote alongside. Each character was a well known and liked character so people would be excited to share that their type was that character. I also wrote the caption in a way that expressed how awesome each of the ladies are and how people should share with their friends. By sharing this post with their friends, people could feel better about themselves with being assigned an awesome fictional character, and at the same time they are also showing how informed they are in pop culture and on the Enneagram.
There were many examples I found interesting of Social Currency in the book, but I struggled to find one that I could easily replicate with the type of content I produce. The examples given of Delta Airlines and FourSquare’s use of exclusivity were helpful to me. While I do not technically have a product like they do, I tried to make each Enneagram type fee like it’s own exclusive thing. Assigning each type a well liked character each type could feel like they were in a club all of their own. One’s could feel proud knowing they are Hermione and no other type is. This strategy is definitely harder to truly do without a real product, but it is still helpful in understanding the basic concepts.
While this post mostly follows the social currency principal, the principal emotion comes into play here as well. Emotions such as humor and nostalgia definitely play into the share-ability of the post.
Although I trusted that Berger’s methods are well thought out and accurate, I was unsure whether they would work for me since my account is very small and usually only receives a handful of likes on posts. I was shocked to see soon after first posting, that this post was actually my most successful to date. It had the most likes, shares, reach and comments I have ever had on a post. I also gained a few new followers from this post.
For my next post I chose to use the principal Practical Value. I found this principal very interesting, but at first struggled to think of a way to fit it in with my normal content. Berger talked about practical value as the idea that people are interested in seeing and sharing content that has new information and content. With this knowledge, I decided to post an Instagram story using a new development from a trending topic on Twitter. I found a semi-viral tweet about Mcaulay Culkin and Brenda Song having a baby and put it into the context of the enneagram. By doing that I am giving my followers brand new information they can share with others, while also staying true to my account’s purpose. This post also features the principals Social Currency and Emotion. By sharing the post with friends people are not only helping keep their friends informed, but proving that they themselves are informed and that they understand pop culture, the enneagram and memes. It is also a humorous tweet so the emotion principal allows for people to enjoy the content and want to share just to give their friends a laugh.
My next two posts main principal used is emotion. Berger shared that positive posts are more likely to be shared than negative posts. Berger said that “activating emotion is the key to transmission,” and that “we need to get people excited or make them laugh.” He discussed viral videos, like “Charlie Bit My Finger,” proves that funny content is shared because amusement is a high-arousal emotion.The main focus of my social media accounts is to bring people joy. I want to make them laugh, at the memes and themselves and also give them something fun to share with their friends. Because of this, the emotion principal was the easiest for me to find what kind of content to post. For my first emotion post, I found a funny tweet and assigned Enneagram types to its caption.
I was happily surprised to see that after posting this post it became my most successful post, easily surpassing the previous post. It now has the most likes, comments, reach, shares and more of any post I have ever posted. Having a post do well really makes doing social media so much more enjoyable, so these principals are definitely working well for me so far.
I again used the principal Emotion for my next post. I decided to go along with the true nature of a meme, but in the context of the Enneagram. I found a picture from the Scott’s Tot’s episode of the office and applied to each Enneagram type. The picture by itself with no captions is already funny to anyone who has seen The Office, and the captions make it even funnier to those who understand the Enneagram. If people do not understand the enneagram they can still see the humor in the picture and concept itself and if you only understand the Enneagram, the captions are still funny. This post uses the principal of Emotion to get people interested in it and more excited to share it with their friends. The main emotion I tried to target was humor, but I also tried to throw in a little anger. The nature of my page is to poke fun at people’s enneagram types and this post does that exactly. This post also features some of the Social Currency principal. By sharing this post with friends, people are showing they understand memes, the enneagram and are fans of the office. These are all things that could make them look cooler and more well informed to those they share with.
I really enjoyed this project in every aspect. I enjoyed reading Jonah Berger’s book, “Contagious,” and learning more about the nature of things “catching on.” I also enjoyed posting on my account using the different principal’s he highlighted and I actually found the principals to be very helpful in boosting my profile as a whole. I am interested to apply his principals to future endeavors that I may have in my career that might line up in a more obvious and clear way with his six principals.
Nettie Taylor's Blog IMC 