Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

OK, as a social media maven for... well, since the word was invented, I figured Dan's read would be perfect yawn material for curing my fractured sleep cycle.

Not so. In fact, I should have known better. Anything stamped "Domino Project" is almost a sure bet. This is no exception.

Here's the intro paragraph to help align your brain to the following content:
"If you've read about social media or been to any marketing conferences, you've probably heard tons of advice like "love your customers," "engage in the conversation," "be yourself," and "make friends." I call this "unicorns-and-rainbows advice." Sure, it sounds good and it probably makes you feel all warm and fuzzy. But it's not actually based on anything more substantial than "truthiness" and guesswork."

But wait, it gets better.

In addressing the Spread of Ideas (or Viralness, the favorite meme of social media marketers everywhere), Dan developed a simple hierarchy, similar to Maslow:

1- "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.
2- 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.
3- The person must be motivated by something (generally in the content itself) in order to want to share the idea with his contacts.

Now, at this point you're going "Isn't this Seth Godin's Idea Virus all over again?"

Well yes. And no. Because quite a few years have elapsed. What worked then (Seth giving away a PDF to drive book sales at, uh, Borders...;-) could be construed as noise now. Unless you've been busy building an audience and a platform - which is the REAL focus of the book.

Oh, and metrics. METRICS. Measuring social media results is something Dan doesn't take lightly. And neither should you.

There are graphs. There are charts. And there are meaningful baselines to work from. The pie is not in the sky. It's on your (social media marketing) plate. Get your slice.

Here's one of Dan's finishing thoughts:
"Now you know better. You know how to see through the unicorns-and-rainbows myths. Don't listen to the snake-oil salesmen when they deceive you with their prescriptions for exotic tonics. You have science now. Marketing shouldn't be based on luck. You can produce results from social media that are reliable and repeatable. You have control.

For social media experts, there will be some "duh" level content. But even so, it's sprinkled liberally with plenty of new "a-HA!" insights to make even those boring old standards take on new color.

I'm giving it 5-Stars. Not because it's Seth's label. (Though I long to be on Domino... someday... someday...).
Because it's relevant. Fast-acting (read it before your next marketing meeting - and rock the house). Fun. And makes sense.

BTW: Hubspot is also a cool company. Dharmesh Shah and Mike Volpe are awesome folks in the industry, who don't compromise. And have set new standards (if you haven't used their Website Grader, do it today. It's free, and will get you started on the road to REAL online optimization - we're just pissed they give it away - we wanted to sell a similar service for $$$).

Other people in this genre' worth watching include David Meerman Scott (one of my very favorites). Start here: The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly - all of his works are excellent. You can also get a taste on his blog, WebInkNow.com.

Chris Brogan is legend: The Zen of Social Media Marketing: An Easier Way to Build Credibility, Generate Buzz, and Increase Revenue

Ann Handley rocks - Total Stat Queen: Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (New Rules Social Media Series)

To craft your own social media goodness, here's the writing tool of champions (includes social media keyword search results and other fun tools): Novel Writing Software - ThoughtOffice Muse Creative Writing Software Suite Mac OSX - Windows XP-7

If you don't know Guy Kawasaki, you're clinically dead. Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions

And nothing is sweeter than making your social media efforts into your passionate living. Nobody says it better than Hugh MacLeod: Evil Plans: Having Fun on the Road to World Domination

That's a rap, folks. Get social. Measure results. Build your platform. Engage. And have a blast on the way.

I read this last night and it's excellent. Full of insightful data that will help you understand and manage your social media activity more effectively.

Instead of the usual 'rainbows and unicorns' myths and untruths that lots of 'social media experts' talk about, Dan Zarrella (Hubspot) has condensed his many years of expertise and data analysis into this highly readable and conversational book which will make you think differently about all you've done (and been told) before.

Includes data on the best days and times to Tweet or update your Blog / Facebook status, why people share things (and what makes them shareable), the most common trigger words that can help build up your 'Followers' / 'Fans' or encourage people to share and Retweet your content. Essential reading.

Social Media Science sounds like a fairy tale, but Dan Zarella proves otherwise in his new book on contagious ideas. He focuses on social media because they are a "petri dish" for ideas, but the principles that he is able to extract from social media metrics can be applied to all of your ideas. This short book will tell you the best ways to spread your ideas and make them more contagious.

The author starts off by building his framework on three points. For your ideas to be more contagious, you must:

1. Increase the number of people exposed to your content.

2. Create more attention-grabbing content.

3. Include powerful calls to action.

Following this, the author provides relevant data to prove his claims. This information is invaluable, and very helpful to anyone who uses social media at all. For instance:

Do you know if it helps or hurts to call yourself a guru (or author, speaker, founder)?

Do larger groups or more active small groups spread ideas faster?

Are negative or positive ideas more contagious?

Should you talk about yourself?

How often should you share content?

What is the best day and time to attract "retweeters"?

What is the best time to blog for your click rate? For comments?

All of the answers to these questions, and many more, are in this book. Each section is short and to the point, no more than four paragraphs and a visual graph of the data that backs it up. This is a book that will pay for itself easily, and the information contained in it is valuable to every business, author, and marketer. Highly Recommended.

Zarrella begins his book with the big idea that "Ideas Don't Spread Just Because They're Good." What Zarrella has done is to try and provide a theory for how ideas are propagated, a theory which, it turns out, is very useful for anyone who wants his ideas to be shared in the new world of social media. While there are many (too many) works out there on how to take advantage of the social media to get people to read your content, Zarrella's is relatively unique because it rests upon solid science, rather than anecdote or myth. In spite of the scientific framework, "Zarrella's Hierarchy of Contagiousness" is an eminently readable book!

As an author and book reviewer who is trying to provide good quality content to as many people as possible, "Zarrella's Hierarchy of Contagiousness" is a very helpful work. I look forward to continuing to refer to it as a way to help me better connect with potential readers. Having said this, I would have appreciated more content: the book is only about 80 pages long. For example, the explanation of each principle is very brief, and more application and convincing explanation would have been helpful to me.

Though short, this is a powerful book with powerful ideas. Remember these 3 words in this order, for they represent the key to producing contagious content, and they form the basis for the structure of Zarrella's book: "Exposure, Attention, Motivation." A person must first be exposed to the content you're trying to share (for example, by following you on Twitter). Then the person must become aware of your content by actually reading it (say on Twitter). Finally, the person must be motivated by something (usually your content itself) to want to share it with others.

At each stage, you can do something to change the numbers in your favor. You can get more people to follow you on Twitter or receive your e-mails. You can create attention-grabbing content. Or you can include powerful calls to action.

Zarrella offers a few ways to gain more exposure. He begins by showing that the "big seed" theory is superior to the "little seed" theory often espoused. What this means is that it's better to expose your content to a lot of people at the beginning, rather than waiting for the statistically improbably viral tweet that starts small and then miraculously goes viral. Also, you should not be afraid to identify yourself authoritatively with words such as "guru" "expert" or "official". Zarrella offers several other useful strategies for gaining more exposure.

He then provides ways to gain more attention from readers. These include personalizing your messages (or at least appearing to!), priming the reader for the content they'll be exposed to, and some very useful information about the best times for tweeting, posting to Facebook, and blogging. Still under the category, Zarrella provides proof for the reasons why people share content. This is a very valuable section filled with tips and a lot of relevant research. In fact, this whole section was very useful, but again, I would have liked a more in-depth discussion and a little more "how to".

Finally, Zarrella concludes by using the scientific method as a framework for understanding how to create contagious ideas. This was an excellent way to end the book, but once again it left me wanting to read more.

There is no fluff to be had here. Social media books can sometimes be a mixed bag of hard facts and, as Dan Zarrella points out, rainbows and unicorns advice. Sadly, most lean towards the latter telling the reader that by being yourself and providing useful content, readers and followers will come. That might work well in the long run, but it will most likely require quite a bit of luck along with it.

Part of operating a website is looking at the analytics, knowing which keywords are driving traffic to your site, what time of day is best to post new material, and providing what people are looking for. Studying those analytics can be the difference between a good website and a great one. Plenty has been written on optimizing websites, but what about social media? When is the best time to Tweet? What keywords get the most retweets? When should you post to Facebook? What post get "Liked" in Facebook? Do emails get opened more often during the week or on the weekend, how about in the morning or in the evening? Dan Zarrella decided to look at the analytics, test a number of theories, and answer these along with a host of other possible questions around social media, blogging, email marketing, and the creation of a contagious idea.

Lists, graphs, timelines, everything is laid out and straightforward in this short book that is chalk full of useful information.

Most times, content gets thrown out to the internet masses with hopes of getting noticed and, with a little bit of luck, going viral. Instead of working harder, Zarrella argues it's time to work smarter. Put yourself in the best position to succeed and the likelihood of success increases.

What is the book about?
Optimizing the way you use social media. It's packed with ideas, analysis, and thoughts for what works, what doesn't, and why you should do something about it.

What do I think about it?
I read this book on my Kindle App and was anticipating the flash to the next page to read on. I'd never heard of Zarrella (got a free download on the Kindle App) and I was certainly impressed with this book.

What got me pumped up?
The measurements of social media results were incredible. The entire book is packed with graphs, charts, and advice to run with.

What was deflating?
Nothing. But if you don't tweet or blog then this book would be a flat tire for you.

"So, would you recommend it?"
Yes! At this point, anything that is linked to The Domino Project is worth reading.

Good book on how to use "science" to track the ROI of you efforts. However, its a be somewhat of a snoozer.

This short book primes readers on scientific marketing. Dan infuses the book with insights gleamed from years of data mining. He pulls from sources such as a database of Twitter retweets and academic journal articles.

Dan argues that ideas spread through a three-step process (hierarchy). First, you expose. Second, you gain attention. Third, you motivate to share. For each stage, Dan teaches you how to engage others and move people toward your end goal.

The final chapter provides the reader with the basic framework to do their own experiments. Dan believes that marketing is like medicine. Big, academic research discovers general priniciples. But each practitioner (marketer) has to figure what solution works best for their patient (marketing goals).

The book is short, but full. Dan teaches you the theory and equips you to start practicing. There were some glaring typos, and I felt like the book could have been better organized. However this is a great ready for anyone to get serious with marketing.

Social Media advice tends to be centered mostly around "common wisdom." But without data based evidential decision making, perhaps we are all heading as a herd over the common wisdom cliff of irrelevancy. As a huge fan of Sutton and Pfeffer'sHard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-based Management, I have longed for a similar work on social media. Zarrella has access to large quantities of data most of us could only dream of.

The result? Prescriptions for social media usage that are evidence based. Goodbye smoke. Goodbye unicorns. I shan't ride you over the cliff of "common wisdom."

(Disclaimer: I am the guy who is often mocked for having a color coded spreadsheet on everything and I do mean everything.)

I think the author did an excellent job of taking Social Media Marketing from unable to be measured to scientific and quantifiable, but The cover is a rather unfortunate choice for a fairly serious book. It is all about 'breeding' like rabbits to get your idea out there, and a nod to Mark Joyner's book The Irresistible Offer, which discusses the propagation rate of ideas. A more useful cover with title, his name and so on might help people take this more seriously.

For it is indeed a serious topic, since many people believe the myth that just being on a social media site can help them go viral. Not true. It takes WORK. And planning and effort and above all, tracking and testing scientifically. He proved his points well, but wish he had included more practical hands-on advice.

People interested in the how-tos of what he discusses might be interested in:

How to Use Twitter For Viral Marketing
Mastering Google's Zero Moment Of Truth In Your Online Marketing
How to Track and Test Your Online Business Success