Realtor - July/August 2013

Last Word
How to Go Viral
University of Pennsylvania marketing professor Jonah Berger says you can become the talk
of the town—provided you have a compelling enough story to tell.

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For more tips on creating
contagious content, visit
http://jonahberger.com/
member-content/.
In your book Contagious:
Why Things Catch On
(Simon & Schuster, 2013),
you write about why
ideas and things go viral.
Does anything catch on
by accident anymore? I
don’t think it’s all driven
by marketing. A lot of
what goes viral is truly
authentic, and a
lot of what drives
word-of-mouth
is authentic.
When you
think about viral,
you tend to think
about [online
video clips with millions
of hits.] But if you’re a
real estate agent, you
really just care about
getting a few more cli-
ents. You don’t need
10 million people to
view your ad. You just
want to sell the houses
you’ve got and get more
clients in the future. It’s
really about turning cus-
tomers into advocates—
generating authentic
word-of-mouth buzz
and getting the people
who like you and like
your service to pass it on
to others.

You describe the way
to create viral impact
through STEPPS (social
currency, triggers, emo-
tion, public, practical
value, stories). How would
an agent use STEPPS to
create buzz around a new
listing or a group of new
properties? With new
units, for example, they
often say, “Be the first
to get access to this
new thing.” It makes
people feel like an
insider. It gives them
social currency because
they have something
not everyone else has.
Send out some feelers
and allow some people
to register for early
access to the property
before anyone else has
access to it. It will make
people feel special, like
they have something not
everyone else has, and
it’s going to make them
want that thing a lot and
make them talk about
it and share it. You also
see the same thing with
“going fast” [signs].
Making people feel as
if something is scarce is
an aspect of social cur-
rency. “Only two units
left” suggests that many
other people want this
thing.

Part of STEPPS is telling
a compelling story about
your product. How would
a real estate practitioner
generate this? The key
is to build a story that
carries your underlying
message. Whether it’s
about the property or
the agent, the customer
must take away an
amazing [narrative] they
just have to tell everyone
else. When I found that
my house had a master
bedroom on the third
floor, that feeling of awe
made me want to talk
about it. I also couldn’t
stop talking about my
agent because he was
fantastic. He helped me
with everything from
buying the place to re-
ferring repair people to
painting the house. This
is not about me trying to
bring him new business;
I’m just so amazed that
he did these things, I
have to tell others.

Over the ages, people
have simultaneously
grown fond of specific
accoutrements—from
avocado green appliances
in the ’60s to today’s bam-
boo floors. What drives
this obsession with certain
styles? Is it viral market-
ing, pure and simple? Peo-
ple are always looking to
others for signals about
the right thing to do. If
you walk into enough
places with avocado
green appliances, you
go, “Wow, people must
think that’s pretty good,
and maybe I should try
that.” If a place sells for
more than you thought
it would, then you would
naturally begin to think
about why—and you
may attribute it to the
bamboo floors or appli-
ances. Then suddenly
those catch on. It’s
about people looking to
others to inform their
own behavior. By Kristin
Kloberdanz W