contagious-viral-content-berger

Overview

This skill encodes Jonah Berger's STEPPS framework from Contagious: Why Things Catch On. Based on years of scientific research at Wharton, it explains why certain content, products, and ideas spread — and provides actionable principles for engineering virality.

Core insight: Virality isn't born, it's made. The message matters more than the messenger. Any product or idea — even a boring blender — can be engineered to spread.

Key fact: 93% of word of mouth happens offline, not on social media. The platform is not the strategy; the psychology of sharing is.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill for queries that match the trigger phrases in the description and require applying the decision framework from Contagious: Why Things Catch On rather than summarizing the book.

The STEPPS Framework

S — Social Currency

People share things that make them look good.

We share content that enhances our image: makes us seem smart, funny, interesting, or in-the-know. Content that provides social currency gives people something worth talking about — a status signal they can pass on.