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.