Book · Book, about 256 pages

Contagious: Why Things Catch On

Jonah Berger · Jonah Berger (Wharton) Paid Beginner

If you want word of mouth to be intentional, start with why people share at all. Berger's research pins it down to six repeatable drivers (social currency, triggers, emotion, public visibility, practical value, stories), so you stop guessing and start building sharing into the product itself. It is the honest antidote to thinking a discount code alone makes something spread.

• Sharing is not luck, it follows six drivers you can design for (the STEPPS framework).
• Triggers matter more than most founders think: link your product to something people already encounter daily and it stays top of mind.
• Incentives rarely create real word of mouth on their own, the emotion and usefulness of what you built do the heavy lifting.