How to Write Viral Content: A Look at Contagious by Jonah Berger

Are you interested in learning how to write viral content? Do you want to learn how to spread your ideas? Me too!

For years, I’ve been struggling to substantially increase the traffic to my blog, The Invisible Mentor. And nothing seemed to work. Can you relate to that? But I found out that there is a business model you can use to get your content to go viral. To get your ideas to spread.

In a hurry? CLICK HERE to get your personal copy of Contagious by Jonah Berger from Amazon!

Below you’ll discover how to write viral content, which is based on Jonah Berger’s research, which is documented in his book, Contagious.

I wanted to learn how to get readers’ attention to my blog posts. I wanted to learn how to keep readers’ attention. I wanted to learn how to draw more attention to the Read the World Extreme Reading Challenge. What ideas are you passionate about that you want to draw attention to?

Have you read?

Review – Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas

Summary: Hooked by Nir Eyal

Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas and Predict the Future by Rohit Bhargava

How to Write Viral Content: 5 Big Ideas from Contagious by Jonah Berger

1. Virality is valuable when the brand, product or service benefits.
2. Contagious content spreads regardless of who is talking. It's the message that's important.
3. Connect your narrative to something that is bigger than you. What is very topical that your idea addresses?
4. An idea, product or service that solves a problem has practical value. Offering practical value makes things more contagious.
5. Your message is more contagious when it evokes strong positive emotions.

How to Write Viral Content? You Must First Answer, ‘What is Viral Content?’

What is Viral Content: 6 Principles of Contagiousness (STEPPS)

1. Social Currency: How do people look or come across when they talk about a product or idea? Craft the message, so they look cool, smart and so on, to get the desired impression. People want to feel like an insider.
2. Triggers: How do you remind people to talk about your products and ideas? What triggers will make people talk about your ideas and products? How can you create products that link to the environment, so they are at the tip of people’s tongue?
3. Emotion: How can you create products that push emotional buttons? Emotional things get shared, so you have to figure out the right emotions.
4. Public: To share something that goes viral, people have to be able to access it. Make products and ideas more public.
5. Practical Value: How can you craft useful content? Create products and content that solve people’s problems, people will spread the word. Find ways to highlight the incredible value you offer. Package knowledge and expertise so people can pass it on.
6. Stories: What broader narrative can you wrap your idea in? Great analogy is the story of the Trojan horse. Build a Trojan horse with your ideas as stories inside – stories that people want to retell.

What is Viral Content? Principle 1: Social Currency

There is nothing more viral than a personal recommendation. Secrets do not stay hidden very long. People shares things that will make them look cool. And look like an insider. Word-of-mouth is an excellent tool for making a good impression. Give people a way for them to look good and make a good first impression. What kind of content can you write that will make others look cool if they share it?

To Get People Talking Three Things Are Needed 

1. Find your inner remarkability.
2. Leverage game mechanics.
3. Make people feel like insider.

Inner Remarkability

• What is out of the world information? It provides social currency.
• Sharing incredible stuff makes you seem extraordinary. What are interesting or surprising articles that you can share?
• What makes something novel or surprising?
• Break a pattern that people expect.
• What makes something stand out? What is the inner remarkability of what you do? Emphasize what’s remarkable about a product or service or idea. Emphasize what's remarkable about your content.

Leverage Game Mechanic

• Use elements of game mechanics to get support.
• People publicize their achievements, which spread the word about the company, product, service, or idea. How can you apply this to your content?
• Think about something like a frequent flyer awards program. Look at at how it works, what elements can you apply to your content.

Make People Feel Like an Insider

• Membership models make people feel like insiders. Friends telling friends.
• Having insider knowledge is social currency.
• Social currency is more effective in the long run.

What is Viral Content? Principle 2: Triggers

Be interesting. What are people talking about that you can align with? Interesting products get talked about more than boring ones. Answer the following questions:

1. What makes a product interesting?
2. Novel or exciting?
3. Confound expectation?

Can your message or content be triggered by an everyday thing? Find a way to create links to prevalent triggers.

What is Viral Content? Principle 3: Emotions

Awe – experience of confronting something bigger than yourself. Awe is a state of activation and readiness for action. How do you activate emotions with your content? How do you get people excited about your product, service, idea, or content? To become viral, your content should be in the High Arousal-Positive quadrant.

What is Viral Content? Principle 4: Public

If you want your content to go viral, people have to know about it. It has to be public. The more public a product or services is, the more it triggers people to take action. To make your private content public, design ideas that advertise themselves. Reflect on the following thoughts.

• People imitate those around them.
• Observability impacts whether an idea or product catches on.
• Public visibility boosts word of mouth.

What is Viral Content? Principle 5: Practical Value

Offering practical value makes things contagious. Share valuable information to help others. Practical value is about saving people time or money, or helping them to have a good experience. It’s about helping people to do things faster, better and easier. With that in mind, how can you package valuable information?

People want to be helpful, so they share valuable information. Content that is relevant to a narrow audience may actually be more viral.

What is Viral Content? Principle 6: Stories

Everyone loves a good story. People think in terms of narratives. Narratives are more entertaining than basic facts. They have a beginning, middle and an end. Stories provide lessons or a moral. They carry information, and the best stories contain helpful information. How can you use stories to let your content spread?

Think about the story of the Trojan Horse that has stood the test of time. Build your Trojan Horse, so the story is memorable. In doing so, think about valuable virality. Make sure that what people talk about is valuable to the narrative.

Few More Points about How to Write Viral Content

If you’re looking to make your content go viral, then it’s important to follow the principles outlined in Contagious by Jonah Berger. The principles will work for content, services, products or ideas.

I read this book at the beginning of the year, along with other books that focus on virality. I will review those books in a series on virality. I am starting with Contagious by Jonah Berger. Now that I have reviewed my notes on Contagious, I realize that part of the book relates to the book, Life is a Contact Sport by Ken Kragen, that I read recently.

In Life is a Contact Sport by Ken Kragen, the characteristics that get you noticed include:

1. Special or unique.
2. Founded on real substance.
3. Capture people’s attention and imagination.

How do these stack up to the Six Principles of Contagiousness?

Next Steps

Wondering what to do next, you can do all of:

1. Buy my new book, Leadership Reading: Spilling the Tea on How Top Leaders Read

2. Subscribe to my YouTube Channel

3. Join the Art of Learning Membership Site

4. Download Unlock Your Genius Power Reading Tips Sheet

5. Buy me a cup of coffee!

If you want access to my Bookish Notes, please consider joining my membership site, the Art of Learning.

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