If you want to be a communicator of ideas that spread widely and quickly, there's no better book that I can think of to help you package your ideas for sharing than the aptly titled CONTAGIOUS by Jonah Berger. Berger is a marketing professor at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Using a lot of research about the spread of ideas, Berger uncovers six characteristics that are likely to contribute to an idea's spreadability. They are:
Social Currency
Triggers
Emotion
Public
Practical Value
Stories
Berger shares stories throughout the book that serve to validate the ideas he presents for contagious content. An idea or product doesn't have to have all the characteristics to be contagious, but the more it has, the more contagious it is likely to be.
Some of the stories in the beginning were really surprising about the decisions people make and why. You'll likely run into many concepts that seem counterintuitive, but the book definitely helps to understand how to tap into human nature to make ideas more contagious.
I think CONTAGIOUS could be a very contagious resource for communicators and marketers. It was definitely a book I learned much from and enjoyed reading as well.
Review copy provided by Simon and Schuster
Photo Credit: Simon and Schuster
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