Viral Marketing

So I wasn’t able to attend the social media summit, but I’ve been reading the book “Contagious” for my E-Marketing Strategy class. In a world of meme’s and #TheDress, it’s hard to ignore why content goes viral. The book tries to explain why some content is just more shareable. So maybe there’s no strategy behind it — there is just some accidental magic that happens and people get lucky. Jonah Berger, author of “Contagious” and consumer behavior researcher, argues that there is science behind it.

Word of mouth accounts for 20–30% of purchase decisions and it can’t be ignored by brands. Humans are social creatures and everybody wants to know the next new product or video. With that being said, why do some things go viral while others don’t?

A point Berger talks about is the emotion content makes us feel. There are four different states of emotion that he proposes: contentment, sadness, anxiety/anger, and awe/excitement. High arousal levels are anxiety/anger and awe/excitement. This level of high arousal makes people share more often. Because if you think about it, wouldn’t you rather share a nightmare customer service experience than a pleasant one?

Let’s take #TheDress for example. I think the reason it went viral was because it was frustrating. Some people saw blue and black while others saw gold and white. People began getting passionate about which color they saw, and if the world is anything like my friends and I, they engaged in a discussion, a fight even, about the color. I got 3 text messages from friends asking me what color they saw. It was both confusing and intriguing to users all over social media as well. Buzzfeed’s article about #TheDress was their most popular post in history of Buzzfeed.

So how does this relate to social media and brands? Every brand wants to create viral content to get people buzzing to their friends through social media or word of mouth. It seems that it is accidental and requires luck, but there is proof that some messages are more likely to go viral. Social media has revolutionized the way that messages are spread. In terms of our campaign with GLEFF, it can be argued that it is impossible to create viral content. However, creating content that is more likely to be shared can only benefit the cause. Creating posts that spark high arousal through feelings of awe can only help us spread the message socially and gain more supporters.