So there’s a place in Philly called Barclay Prime and their cheesesteak costs a $100.
Now the average cheesesteak costs about $5 but Barclay Prime has been really successful.
And of course there are many factors as to why, but one of the factors is social currency.
And the idea with social currency is that people share whatever makes them look good.
So if anything makes you look good, or smart, or cool, you’re much more likely to share
it.
So let’s say you’re in Philly and you get a regular $5 cheesesteak…
That’s probably not something that you’re gonna want to tell everyone about.
But imagine if you go out for dinner and get the $100 cheesesteak…
That’s probably something that you’re going to tell all your friends about.
And if you’re like most people and can’t enjoy good things without posting a picture
of it on Facebook or Instagram, you’re probably going to share a picture of the cheesesteak
as well just to show us that you’re still really cool and you eat really expensive things.
So the first principle is social currency, and the idea here is…
If sharing your idea or product makes someone look good, they’re much more likely to share
it.
And there are also five other principles that Jonah Berger has identified for why things
catch on and why they go viral.
And he has a PhD from Stanford, he teaches at Wharton, and he’s basically an expert
on viral marketing.
And after all his research, he’s identified these six factors that he calls STEPPS.
So moving on to factor number two…
Triggers…
How are you reminded of the idea or the product?
So you’ve probably seen the song Friday by Rebecca Black which has millions of views
on YouTube.
And again there are many reasons for why it got so many views, but one reason is that
it has a really good trigger.
So if you actually take a look at the stats on YouTube for how people watch that video,
you’ll see a spike in views every Friday.
Now imagine if the song was about the first day of school or something like that…
Same amazing lyrics, same amazing vocals, same everything.
A lot of people might still watch it on the first day of school, but people probably aren’t
going to watch it two weeks after the first day of school, or a month, or three months
after.
So Friday is actually a really good trigger because it happens every week…
And Kit Kat did the same thing in 2007.
Their sales were declining every year and they needed an effective marketing campaign.
And what they did was they decided to link Kit Kat to coffee.
So in all of their advertisements, Kit Kat was always presented with coffee.
Now to someone who doesn’t understand the power of triggers, the coffee might not mean
anything.
It’s just part of the advertisement; they had to put something in there so they just
put coffee in there.
In fact, why don’t we advertise it with hot chocolate?
It might taste even better with hot chocolate…
But that’s not the point!
The point is that we want to link Kit Kat to something that gets consumed all the time
like coffee, so every time a person thinks of coffee, he also thinks of Kit Kat.
And yes, it might taste even better with hot chocolate, but again that’s not the point,
people don’t drink as much hot chocolate as coffee.
And Kit Kat’s sales had been declining 5 percent every year, but in the next twelve
months after the campaign, its sales actually were up by a third.
So the second principle is triggers, and the idea here is…
People need to be reminded of your idea or product, and you can help them by providing
a strong trigger.
The third principle is Emotion.
When people feel strong emotions, they want to share.
So think of Susan Boyle’s performance on Britain’s Got Talent.
Strong emotions like awe or happiness get people to share.
Even strong emotions that aren’t positive like anger and anxiety get people to share.
And this is really what the media relies on now.
The angrier and more anxious they make us, the more we share.
So strong emotions are good, but the emotion you want to stay away from is sadness.
People don’t really like to share something if it makes them sad.
The fourth principle is public, or what’s usually known as social proof.
And the idea here is that our decisions are affected by what everyone else around us is
doing.
So if you actually take a look at car buying behavior, one of the factors that affects
whether someone will buy a new car or not is whether his neighbors and community are
buying new cars.
And if they’re all buying a new car, he’s much more likely to buy a new car as well.
And Apple had this dilemma with their laptops.
The apple logo actually used to face the owner of the laptop when it was closed.
And that was a convenience for the user because it was easier to orient the computer once
you got it out of your bag.
But the problem is that once the laptop was opened, the logo was upside down to everyone
else in the coffee shop or wherever you were.
So a decision had to be made whether the owner’s convenience was more important than everyone
else looking at the laptop.
And they actually decided that the public image was more important.
So the fourth principle is public, and the idea here is…
Can people see when others are using our product?
The fifth principle is practical value.
If you can actually offer someone something that really helps them, they’re gonna want
to share it with the people they know.
So one of the shortest, easiest videos I’ve ever made was a two minute video about my
new favorite way to read.
And there were so many people who liked that video.
And it’s been shared so many times.
And the reason for that is because if you use that method, you could actually read this
book in only three hours.
Now a lot of people take weeks to read one book, so if someone shares with you a way
where you can read a book in three hours instead of three weeks, there’s practical value
in it.
And if you know someone who wants to read more and has been struggling with it, of course
you’d share it with him.
So the fifth principle is practical value.
Anytime you can actually help people and make their life better, they’re gonna want to
share it and help their friends and family as well.
And finally the sixth principle…
Stories…
So in 2004 in the Olympics, this guy snuck into the diving area and belly flopped into
the pool.
And he also had a name of a casino written across his chest.
Now that’s a great story and it got covered and people talked about it but the story has
nothing to do with the casino.
You can tell that story without saying anything about the casino, so it wasn’t really the
most effective advertisement.
On the other hand, some companies do this much better.
So Blendtec is a blender company that makes a video series called Will It Blend?
And they make videos where they’ll put weird things like a brand new iPhone into their
blender and blend it into powder.
Now that’s a cool story.
If you saw that, you might want to share it with your friends, but notice how the product
is an integral part of that story.
You can’t tell that story without the blender.
And especially technically-oriented people have a really hard time understanding that
most people don’t talk about weird specs and details, they share stories.
When you hang out with your friends, you’re probably not going to tell them about how
there’s a new blender with improved revolutions per minute on its blades, but you might share
the story of how you saw the new iPhone got blended into powder.
So the sixth principle is stories.
Most people don’t care about specs and details, they share stories.
What you have to figure out is how your product or idea can be a relevant part of a cool story.
And your product or idea doesn’t have to have all of these six principles.
Some of these might not even be very applicable to certain products and ideas.
So obviously the more the better, but there are plenty of products or ideas that have
a couple of these factors that are very strong and they do really well.
So to recap the STEPPS again…
Social currency: does sharing the product or idea make you look good?
Triggers: how are you reminded of the idea or the product?
Is there a good trigger?
Emotion: when people feel strong emotions, they want to share.
Public: can people see when others are using our product?
Practical value: is your idea or product actually useful or helpful?
And finally…
Stories: people communicate through stories.
What you have to figure out is how your product or idea can be a relevant part of a cool story.