Contagious: Why Things Catch On

One way to generate surprise is by breaking a pattern people have come to expect.

Online conversations could reach a much larger audience, but given that offline conversations may be more in-depth, it’s unclear that social media is the better way to go.

BUILD A TROJAN HORSE

WHY CHEERIOS GETS MORE WORD OF MOUTH THAN DISNEY WORLD

3. Emotion

More recently, however, psychologists have argued that emotions can also be classified based on a second dimension. That of activation, or physiological arousal.

Research by the Keller Fay Group finds that only 7 percent of word of mouth happens online.

Epilogue

Going to a membership-only model also made the site’s members feel like insiders. Just as with the velvet rope that prevents regular partygoers from just walking into an exclusive nightclub, people assumed that if you had to be a member, the site must be really desirable.