Contagious

But exclusivity isn’t just about money or celebrity. It’s also about knowledge.

Give people a way to make themselves look good while promoting their products and ideas along the way. There are three ways to do that: (1) find inner remarkability; (2) leverage game mechanics; and (3) make people feel like insiders.

People have always thought about and cared about themselves, but social media makes this easier to see because it creates a written record of our actions.

Stories carry things. A lesson or moral. Information or a take-home message

Two reasons people might share things are that they are interesting and that they are useful.

They found that sharing personal opinions activated the same brain circuits that respond to rewards like food and money.

Self-sharing” follows us throughout our lives. We tell friends about our new clothing purchases and show family members the op-ed piece we’re sending to the local newspaper. This desire to share our thoughts, opinions, and experiences is one reason social media and online social networks have become so popular. People blog about their preferences, post Facebook status updates about what they ate for lunch, and tweet about why they hate the current government. As many observers have commented, today’s social-network-addicted people can’t seem to stop sharing—what they think, like, and want—with everyone, all the time.

And we need to package our knowledge and expertise so that people can easily pass it on.

People like to help others, so if we can show them how our products or ideas will save time, improve health, or save money, they’ll spread the word

We need to design products and ideas that are frequently triggered by the environment and create new triggers by linking our products and ideas to prevalent cues in that environment. Top of mind leads to tip of tongue.