I’ve been a fan of Dan Zarrella, the Social Media Scientist, since reading a quick post titled People Lie Data Doesn’t back in 2007. You see Dan Zarrella is one of the few marketing experts out there that actually lives outside the bubble of feel good advice and promotes the science behind marketing–letting the numbers guide decisions.
Dan’s latest brain child, Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness: The Science, Design and Engineering of Contagious Ideas is a must read for everyone. This is especially true if you’re following a bunch of marketing gurus who have never backed up their advice with data.
The basic premise behind the book is that ideas don’t just spread because they are good and most of the advice given by so-called gurus is counter productive to what actually works. Except, Dan actually backs his advice up with real, quantifiable results.
At 90 pages, this short book packs a punch that will bring ah-ha moments for many who have lived and worked through the fisheye view of guru advice. Including:
- Successful brands understand ideas are more like a box of crayons than rubber stamps.
- Marketers function in an attention economy, ideas compete for awareness.
- The three criteria that must be met before someone spreads an idea.
- How exposure to you and your idea is as important as the idea itself.
- How the brain decides which ideas are worthy of its precious time.
And much more, including real data to provide a framework and best practices to create contagious ideas.
The bottom line: Everything you do as a blogger, marketer, professional or small business is based on ideas. Your success hinges on how contagious your ideas are. Dan’s book provides an excellent framework to understand the how and why–with real, practical advice on what to do.
This book has become required reading for my company’s new clients.
