DESIGNING SOCIAL MEDIA

CONTENT

brought to you by:Based on the work by

Jonah BergerTitle: CONTAGIOUS WHY THINGS CATCH ON

1 YOUR BIG IDEAYou’ve got an idea. Whether you’re trying to get people to assume a specific behaviour, persuade them to do something, inform your audience about something or mobilize your audience around a particular issue, one thing is cer-tain—you want it to catch on.

To help you make your idea contagious, we’ll start with some analysis. The follow-ing questions will help you think through what exactly your idea is and the main elements that comprise it.

If you’re working on this idea in a team, feel free to bring in others for this exer-cise. Talking through the various questions will help clarify your objectives and achieve more effective results.

Section 1 will help you define your idea, determine your goal, and evaluate where you stand based on the six key STEPPS. If you think you have that down already, feel free to skip ahead to Section 2, where you’ll start applying the framework.

DEFINING THE IDEALet’s start with the basics: What is your idea as you see it?

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Now that we have the idea, what is the message you want to spread?

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Now take two minutes (keep it short) to explain your idea to someone, perhaps a friend or a coworker. Then ask them to repeat it back to you. What did they say?

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Does what you wrote above match the way you envision your idea and message? If not, where did the communication break down?

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DETERMINING THE GOALWhy do you want to get people to talk? What is the ultimate objective of people spreading this message?

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Take a moment to consider the impact of word-of-mouth on your product or idea. What happens if people talk about it as much as possible? What happens if people don’t talk at all?

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EVALUATING THE IDEANow comes the hard part: Objectively evaluating your idea. What does your idea do well? Where is your idea lacking? The more honest and objective you are now, the better off you will be later.

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Grade how your current idea stands on each of the six key STEPPS, using scores of 1 through 10. Be honest—not everything is a 10, let alone on every element of the framework. Truly understanding where you can improve will help you get there.

Given these grades, which STEPPS do you want to focus on? You should still work through each element in the next section, but deciding what to hone in on now will help you dig deeper in the right places.

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THE STEEPS FRAMEWORK

2 THE STEEPS FRAMEWORK

SOCIAL CURRENCYStatus by association. People like to look smart, funny, and in-the-know, so they talk about things that help them portray a positive image. People want things that make them look good rather than bad.

TRIGGERSPeople talk about things that are top-of-mind. Using subtle reminders to help them think about your idea will make them more likely to share.

EMOTIONWhen we care, we share. High arousal emotions—like excitement, anger, and awe fire people up. This activation, in turn, drives them to share.

PUBLICBuilt to show, built to grow. People often imitate others. But you can’t imitate what you can’t observe. Making behavior more public enables social influence.

PRACTICAL VALUENews you can use. People share things to help others, whether it is advice onsaving time, saving money, or making them healthier.

STORIESStories are like Trojan Horses: Information travels under the guise of idle chatter.People are more likely to share a memorable story than a list of technical facts and features about a product.

PEOPLE SHARE THINGS

THAT MAKE THEM LOOK

GOOD

When people talk about our message they will feel:

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If that’s what you want, how can you cement that? If not, how can you change it?

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How can you unleash your message’s inner remarkability? Is there something surprising or amazing that people might not realize? What is your element that will surprise people?

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What is remarkable about your idea? How does this idea stand out from other messages?

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Given your analysis above, list three ways you could harness social currency to drive people to talk about your product or idea.

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3 SOCIALCURRENCY

TOP OF MINDTIP OF TONGUE

4 TRIGGERS.…………………………………………will remind or make people think about my message.

How does your message use triggers to remind repople of the issue you would like them to mobilize around?

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Can you use any environmental triggers that makes people think of your message (think about the Friday Song)?

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Can you design your message in a way that links it to a specific time or place that your audience thinks about or visit often? This can be a virtual place too.

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Is there a way that you can use something in the design of your message that makes people think about it in regular intervals?

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List three ways to could use existing or new triggers to get people talking about your message/ issue/ cause/ ideas.

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WHEN WE CAREWE

SHARE

I will design my message so that it evokes the following emotions:

Does your content/ message evoke a lot of emotion? If not, how can you change its design so that it will focus on feelings rather than function (e.g. Google’s Pari-sioan Love Video)? How will you make people care about your message/ issue/ idea?

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If finding the emotional core is tricky, you can try asking the Three Whys. First, why do people use your product or idea?

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Why does your audience want or need to pay attention to what you have to say?

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Will it be easy for people to empathise with your content/ message when it is being explained to them? If not, how can you simplify the message and design it in a way that people can make other people curious? ……………………………………………………………………………………...............................................

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Give three examples of how you can use new or existing emotions to drive people to talk about your content/ message/ idea.

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5 EMOTION

EXCITEMENT

AWESADNESS

ANGER

FEARSURPRISE

CONTENTMENT

HAPPINESSDISGUST

BUILT TO SHOW

BUILT TO GROW

6 PUBLICHow will people show that they liked your content or aligned their opinion with your message outside Social Media?

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Is the message addressing issues that may be hard to talk about in public? If so which aspect of your content can you accentuate to make the message easier to share?

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List three ways you could make your content/ idea/ message more publicly accessible. ……………………………………………………………………………………...............................................

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Would you like the public media to report your message for you? If yes, what do you think will make the media be interested in your story? ……………………………………………………………………………………...............................................

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List three ways to could make your message/ issue/ cause/ idea more public.

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NEWS YOU

CAN USE

When people talk about your content/ message are they spreading information others may find useful?

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Of what value is the information you intend to communicate to your audience?

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How will you package your knowledge and information and expertise into useful information that others will want to disseminate? What area do you know a lot about that others don’t?

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How will you design your content that other people will share it because it is useful for them or their friends (i.e saves them time?)

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Think about three ways you can infuse more practical value into your content/ message/ idea?

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7 PRACTICAL VALUE

INFORMATION TRAVELS BETTER IF

DISGUISED AS A

STORY

8 STORIESAre there currently any stories or narratives that people like to tell about your organization? If you’re not sure, search blogs, customer service calls, and any other sources that might be useful.

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If there is not already a captivating story relating to your cause/ message/ ideas, how can you weave your message into a story that is firmly linked to your organi-zation/ message? Try shaping your information into a story. Be imaginative.

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What are the key elements of your message that have to be represented in the story?

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Is your message/ organization an integral detail of the story? Will people be able to tell the story without ever mentioning your organization? How will you design your story to ensure that your organization/ idea will always be part of the story? ……………………………………………………………………………………...............................................

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Think about three different stories you could use as a vessel to disseminate your information in.1...………………………………………………………………………………...............................................

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YOUR BIG IDEA

REVISITED

Now that you’ve analyzed your content idea based on the STEPPS framework, it’s time to consider implementation. Here’s a hint: Think back to those implementa-tion ideas you wrote down at the end of every previous section. This should help you on the way.

Recall your goal and your STEPPS analysis: Which elements of the framework do you think make the most sense given your audience? Why do they make sense?

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Do you think all of these elements need to be avtive in your content at the same time or will you use different elements to create different versions of your content?To illustrate what we mean, here an example: You could use a video to tell anemotional story, but also provide useful infromation in the form of infographics.Try to come up with your own ideas on how you can implement your STEEPS elements in different media and content formats:

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9 IMPLEMENTATION

Of all the ways you identified to integrate the different STEEPS into your content idea, what are the 3-5 top priorities you want to implement?

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Now that you have thought about your content, does it still communicate the mes-sage you had in mind before you started this process? Does it still fulfill its initial purpose? Try to think of how it could better contribute to your strategy and your organizational objectives:

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Now that you know your priorities, where will you:

Get the money from to implement them? ………………………………………………................

Who will do what (avoid bearing one person bear all the weight)? ..............................

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What is the first date you intend your team to reconvene and present their results?

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RE-EVALUATINGYOUR CONTENT

IDEA

10 BE BLUNT WITH YOURSELF

Try to be honest with yourself, what does your new content idea do well and what is it not so good at? How likely is it that people feel it worthwhile to share it with their friends and peers? Is there a potential for it to become viral?

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Take some time to understand how your reformulated content idea stands on each of the STEEPS elements. Understanding what is strong or weak will help you decide if it has improved.

Before you start working on your content, is there a way you can pilot your idea to test whether people talk about it and pass it on?

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