scienceofsocialmedia
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Dan ZarellaTRANSCRIPT
The Science of Social Media How to engineer contagious ideas.
Dan Zarrella
Social Media Scientist
Unicorns and
Rainbows
Unicorns & Rainbows Myth:
Don’t call yourself a
guru.
`
Science:
Ideas do not
spread because
they are “good.”
Meme:
A unit of cultural
inheritance.
Our world
is made of
memes.
Memetics:
The study of
cultural transfer.
Variation
+ Competition
Evolution
Takeaway:
Try lots of campaigns
and iterate on what
works.
R0 Reproduction Rate (The average number of new infections a
single infection case will cause)
Selection
pressure: a factor that
reduces R0.
The variation
best suited to
pressures wins.
Longevity
Fecundity
Elephants
Fruit Flies
Longevity
Fecundity
Religions
ReTweets
Epidemic
Endemic
Die out
R0 >1
R0 =1
R0 <1
Myth:
All “viral” ideas spread
exponentially.
Seed
Spread
Reality:
Most ideas have an
R0 under 1.
If I’m going to spread
your idea 3 things have
to happen…
Exposure
Awareness
Motivation
As marketers we can
optimize for each step…
Reach Exposure
Awareness
Motivation
Seeds
•If seed = 10
•Generation 2 = 1
•Generation 3 < 1
•If seed = 100,000
•Generation 2 = 10,000
•Generation 3 = 1,000
•Generation 4 = 100
•Generation 5 = 10
•Generation 6 = 1
Let R0 = .1
Big Seeds
Takeaway:
Audience size does
matter.
Influencers
`
`
Takeaway:
Find and target your
influencers.
Attention
Exposure
Awareness
Motivation
Breaking through
the noise
`
Takeaway:
Bigger & louder
works – to a point.
Selective attention:
hearing your name across
a crowded,
noisy room.
Takeaway:
Personalize: talk to
your audience.
Avoiding crowds
`
`
`
Takeaway:
Avoid link fatigue.
Sharing
Exposure
Awareness
Motivation
Why do people share?
Performance: Social media users are always
performing in front of a crowd
of their friends.
Reputation: People share content to increase
their reputations.
Takeaway:
Help your audience
look cool.
Social exchange
“… the more valuable the sentiment or
activity the members exchange with
one another, the greater the average
frequency of interaction of the
members.”
Social Behavior as Exchange
George C. Homans
Novelty
Scarcity
Warnings
Information
voids
Takeaway:
Don’t let information
voids form.
Imitation
Social Proof
“We view a behavior as more correct…
to the degree that we see others
performing it” -Robert Cialdini
Information
cascades
A
B
? ? ? ? ?
Which restaurant would
you pick?
A
B
The goliath
effect
The villain
is wronging
the victim.
Communal
Recreation
Zombies Marketing
Me
Anytime my friends see an article
about “marketing to zombies”
they send it to me.
Takeaway:
Use combined
relevance.
What do people
share?
Gossip is just news
running ahead of itself in a
red satin dress. -Liz Smith
“…advertisements that were
both original and familiar
attracted the largest amount of
attention…” Breaking Through the Clutter: Benefits of Advertisement Originality and
Familiarity for Brand Attention and Memory
Rik Pieters, Luk Warlop and Michel Wedel 2002
New/Old
Most ReTweetable Words & Phrases
1. you
2. twitter
3. please
4. retweet
5. post
6. blog
7. social
8. free
9. media
10. help
11. please retweet
12. great
13. social media
14. 10
15. follow
16. how to
17. top
18. blog post
19. check out
20. new blog post
Takeaway:
Don’t forget calls-to-
action.
Least ReTweetable Words & Phrases
1. game
2. going
3. haha
4. lol
5. but
6. watching
7. work
8. home
9. night
10. bed
11. well
12. sleep
13. gonna
14. hey
15. tomorrow
16. tired
17. some
18. back
19. bored
20. listening
Takeaway:
Don’t talk about
yourself so much.
Dan Zarrella
@DanZarrella