I’ve been reading Jonah Berger’s book “Contagious: Why things catch on” and enjoyed some of his insights so much I decided to give an overview in the current podcast episode. The idea is to show how your brain processes information and illustrate the psychology of viral marketing.
Along with cat videos and people falling on their face, You Tube is known for things going viral. But let’s say you are not a cat and not walking challenged… what do you do to get your name or product out to people? Everybody talks about word of mouth being effective but the how do you get mouths to start talking. This is one area where Berger shines. He provides the scenario of what happens when you tell a friend something and ask them not to tell anyone. About an hour later everyone you know, knows. EXACTLY!
The first thing anyone wants to do when they think they have discovered something unusual is, tell a friend. You know you’ve done it. There is something about the telling that makes you feel a little important or in the know. One restaurant in the book took this even further and named itself “Please Don’t Tell”. It sounds a little funny but proved quite effective.
I’m a movie buff and I can think of a number of hit movies that have effectively used this tactic. The late 90’s movie “The Crying Game” first comes to mind. The movie was a 
thriller that had a secret and everyone who went to see the movie was asked to not give away the secret. People went to the movie in droves to first learn the secret and then tell their friends they just had to see it to also learn the secret. It became a hit with very little paid marketing because people did it for them.
The next thing that drives people a little crazy is scarcity. Mention that there is a limited supply of something and everyone, wants to run out and buy up as much as possible. The restaurant “Please Don’t Tell” paired scarcity with the need to tell by limiting the number of people admitted to the restaurant. What they saw was that everyday there was a fight to make a reservation, with people repeatedly dialing during the one hour window to make a reservation to get into the restaurant that no was supposed to know about.
You see these two tactics applied all the time in a number of areas. Berger calls it “social currency” because it gives you what could be called status points. The podcast episode provides more details about other areas where you can apply them. So if you want to generate great word of mouth, give your prospects the idea that they are getting in on something they will want to pass on to their friends and neighbors. And then, let them know that there is only a limited amount available and they and 10,000 of their best friends better move quickly.
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