Zarrella's Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design, and Engineering of Contagious Ideas

Some of the most contagious brands serve as boxes of crayons, not rubber stamps. Brands that provide their users with a vocabulary and tools that allow them to play with and remix their own ideas succeed because these brands step back and let evolution do what it does best.

OODA is an initialism in which the letters stand for the four stages in the combat decision-making process: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. In every situation, an individual first observes his surroundings and gathers information, then orients this data with his previous experiences. He then decides the best path of action, and finally, he acts.

But we need to decide if we are going to leave the future of social media to magical tonics, or if we are going to use science and data to discover what really works to motivate people.

1 The kinds of information the group is eager for 5. 2 What information the group already has and what it lacks 6. 3 The fears, hopes, and hostilities the group already has 7. 4 Customary and traditional ways in which the group deals with those fears, hopes, and hostilities

The person must be exposed to your content. This means that the person has to be following you on Twitter, be a fan of your page on Facebook, subscribe to your email list, and so on. The person must become aware of your specific piece of content (the idea you want to spread). He has to read your tweet or open your email message. The person must be

Structure ideas to both arouse attention and stick to memory. Take old content and put it in a new format, or put new content into an old format.

Evolution is how contagious ideas are created in the wild. Where there are lots of different ideas, and there is competition for mind space, only the most effective ideas will win. Social media platforms are the most powerful memetic petri dishes in history, nurturing the growth and spread of virulent ideas, because of the plethora of ideas, the si

Some of the most contagious brands serve as boxes of crayons, not rubber stamps. Brands that provide their users with a vocabulary and tools that allow them to play with and remix their own ideas succeed because these brands step back and let evolution do what it does best. Examples include campaigns like “South Park Yourself,” which lets users cus

When I asked people why they share ideas with their friends, they consistently told me that they wanted to build a reputation as a thought leader. This would ensure that people would share valuable scarce information reciprocally with them. It’s not about altruism, then; it’s about reciprocity.