Every day brands create content with the hopes that it will "go viral". The prospect of a massive amount of earned media (i.e. free impressions) is provocative, but how realistic is it? In order to create content that people will share we must understand certain undeniable truths that are grounded in who we are as humans and how we interact with each other. This presentation will uncover why, how, and when people share using psychological, neurological, and biological truths. I will then apply these truths to a simple set of principles that will help improve the likelihood that the content you are creating is more sharable. It might not go viral, but more people will see it. See video from Austin here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twe5KL84BCY

1. James LaPorte
THE SCIENCE
OF SHARING
@jlp
• This presentation will explore the science behind why we share information and how that leads to social
phenomenon like “GOING VIRAL”
•This is something clients ask about pretty often

2. JUST GIVE US A VIRAL IDEA!
• This is our typical reaction when we hear this.
•Going viral isn’t as easy as snapping our fingers, but this presentation will explore the how and the why behind
viral ideas and establish a few principles that if we follow them our content will be more popular.

3. MEET JACK, OG
• Our first step on this journey is going back in time to our caveman days
•This is Jack. He hunted, he gathered, he started fires but most importantly he shared information
•He’d share information about Predators, food sources, and weather patterns
•He’d share it with the people around him, his tribe.
•This information was a matter of life and death.

4. YOU CAN TAKE THE PERSON OUT OF THE STONE
AGE, NOT THE STONE AGE OUT OF THE PERSON.
• Fast Forward to today there aren’t many lions running around, food sources are more stable, weather
patterns are more predictable.
• But our brains are still have this predisposed need to share.
• Some of it is more frivolous like the stuff we share on Instagram.

5. GRAY ANATOMY
Frontal
Temporal
Parietal
Occipital
TPJ
• And there’s a reason for that. It lies in our brains.
•Specifically in the bilateral TPJ a section of our brain that is dedicated to thinking about what other people think
and feel.
•This means theres actually a section of our brains dedicated to sharing information.
•We are literally hard wired to share. We always have and we always will.

6. Mass behavior arrises from the
interaction between individuals,
not as the result of powerful external
forces.
- Mark Earls
“
• So why does this matter? What is the connection?
• It’s important because mass behavior doesn’t happen from the top down, it occurs when people interact.
• Without sharing we don’t have virality.

7. THIS IS NOT HOW A VIRUS WORKS
Friend
Friend
Friend
Co-worker Co-worker Co-worker
Co-worker
Co-worker
Family
FamilyFriend
Friend
Patient Zero
• Think about viruses, we know viruses, and they do not happen from the top down.
• Think about it like the flu, there are not super contagious people roving around infecting everyone.

8. HOW VIRUSES SPREAD
Friend
Friend
Friend
Co-worker
Co-worker
Co-worker
Co-worker
Co-worker
Family
FamilyFriend
Friend
Patient Zero
• This is how the flu spreads.
• Patient 0 infects a few people, those people infect other people. And so on.
• This is also how content spreads.

9. HYPERDYADIC SPREAD
• This phenomenon is called hyperdyadic spread.
• Mass behavior comes from me telling you, you telling peter, peter telling paul.
• This is how we information really spreads. And it’s not from the top down.

10. UNDERSTANDING CONNECTIONS
• To figure out how to create this we first need to understand social connections.
• There are two basic groups: weak and strong.
• Strong ties are people you know and interact with (family, friends coworkers)
• Weak ties are the strong ties of your strong ties that do not overlap.
• If we’re going to get an idea to spread we’re going to have to understand both.

11. Strong
Strong
StrongWeak Weak
Strong
Strong
Strong Strong
Strong
Strong
THE WEAKNESS OF STRONG TIES
• Common sense says the most efficient way to get something to spread is to rely on the people who know you
best.
• Our strong ties are great at influencing people. You ask your friends where to eat, what to wear,
• But strong ties are not great at spreading information.
• The problem with strong ties is that they tend to be homophilous (birds of a feather flock together). People
tend to talk to people similar to themselves. Ideas between strong ties tend to stay between strong ties.
• Think of an office rumor, there’s very little likelihood of it to get outside of the office. That is unless a coworker
tells an ex-coworker and then it spreads to their group. That ex-coworker is a weak tie.

12. Strong
Strong
StrongWeak Weak
Strong
Strong
Strong Strong
Strong
Strong
THE STRENGTH OF WEAK TIES
• If we really want an idea to diffuse through the network we need to make sure the concept spreads beyond
strong ties through to weak ties.
• Weak ties are the glue that hold together groups of strong ties.
• We have to figure out force that information beyond the tight groups of strong ties, and through weak ties to
other strong ties. And so on.

13. YOU
Friend’s
Friend
Friend
Friend’s
Friend’s
Friend
THREE DEGREES OF INFLUENCE
• This doesn’t stop at just one degree away research from James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis shows that
someone up to 3 degrees away, unbeknownst to you, from you can influence your weight, your happiness,
and your actions.
• We are a sum of our experiences and interactions. Every person you have met or even haven’t met has
impacted who you are and what you do.

14. YEAH, HOW DO I DO THAT?
• Now that we understand why we share and how what we share spreads to others, let’s focus on how to
make what we create more likely to spread between weak ties.
• Lets figure out how to create content, products, and behaviors that spreads like a virus.

15. Networked
Unexpected
Dumb
Exhibited
Stories
• Going viral is more of an art than a science, but there are certain principles that if you follow will lead to more
people seeing your content.
• That set of principles is called NUDES.
• This is not a formula to create viral content.
• NUDES is a set of principles that align with content that tends to be popular. The more you use the more likely
your content is to become popular.

16. NETWORKED
Internal External
NUDES
• Anything we can do to reduce the friction sharing will lead to more people seeing our content.
• There are two ways an idea can be networked

17. NETWORKED - INTERNAL
NUDES
• Internal networking is when the concept of sharing is native and baked into the content.
• The best example of internal networking was the Ice Bucket Challenge.
• At the end of each video where you challenged 3 other people to toss a bucket over their head or donate some
money.
• Every piece of content created had the potential of creating 3 other pieces of content

18. NETWORKED - INTERNAL
• Another example of this from back in the 90s was the signature that Hotmail added to every user’s sent
email.
• At the time free email was rare and unexpected, so when you saw it in an email from you friend it caught your
eye.
• Hotmail used the power of the network to spread awareness.

19. NETWORKED - EXTERNAL
NUDES
• External networking is when we can use external forces or triggers to remind people about our content
• We all remember Rebecca Black’s video Friday. Initially the views on Friday followed the typical viral curve:
meteoric rise and meteoric fall.
• Friday continued to see spikes every friday after the viral curve subsided
• People were triggered by an external event, the day of the week, and watched the video

20. NETWORKED - EXTERNALNETWORKED - EXTERNAL
• This isn’t limited to just consuming content either or signing up to free services. It could also translate to
more sales.
• In 1997 sales of Mars bars shot up. You’d think maybe they increased their media budget. Maybe there was a
package change, new recipe, et c. Nothing had changed.
• In 1997 NASA launched the MARS rover

21. UNEXPECTED
NUDES
• When something is unexpected grabs our attention. Like this snake.
• Our brains are structured to be on alert when we see something that isn’t normal. This is a survival tactic.
• These events stay in our memory longer because we had an immediate emotional response to it
• These are what psychologists call Flashbulb Memories

22. UNEXPECTED
NUDES
• Let’s talk about Super Bowl commercial expectations.
• We probably expect Clydesdales and puppies from Budweiser.
• We don’t expect an insurance company to kill a kid.
• But nationwide did it. And their commercial was the most talked about Super Bowl commercial and they claim
they saw 38% brand lift from the one commercial.

23. DUMB
Quick. Name a soft drink.
NUDES
• To catch someones attention we have to be simple, clear, and concrete
• We all know this is an ad for Coca Cola
• A lot of times in advertising we try to be to smart or clever and end up being too complex. The more complex
something it is the more difficult it is for someone to share it.

24. • A great example of this is The Shawshank Redemption.
• Shawshank Redemption is a pretty popular movie now, but a lot of people don’t know it was a box office
failure.
• Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins believe it was because the name was too hard to say.
• See video: http://bit.ly/SSNudes
• People watched the movie but they couldn’t share what they had just seen.
• If the name was “Two Guys Break out of Jail” it would have probably been more popular in the box office.

25. EXHIBITED
NUDES
• In order for something to spread it must be seen.
• The more we build our ideas to be shown off the easier it is for them to spread.
• They key is making actions that are typically private as public as possible.
• In 2001 Apple created the iPod, there were other mp3 players in market at the time
• The problem with an mp3 player is it spends most of its n pocket, nobody can see it and copy you
• At the time most mp3 players had black headphones
• Apple made their headphones white
• Apple took a private behavior (mp3 player in your pocket) and made it public (white headphones)

26. EXHIBITED
• One industry that is very public is fashion, we literally wear brands on out back.
• This explains why the industry is so trend driven.
• This concept has also changed the spirits industry.
• Drinking used to be a very private ritual, nobody knew what was in your glass, it was some brown or clear
liquid.
• The rise in bottle service in the late 90s we made this very public.

27. EXHIBITED
• The same goes for Movember.
• Every November men stop shaving their facial hair to raise money for prostate cancer.
• Growing a mustache takes a private behavior, donating money, and makes it public.
• Every time someone grows a mustache it spreads the word.

28. STORIES
NUDES
We don’t think in terms of
information. We think in terms
of narrative.
- Paul Adams
“
• Our brain is much better at comprehending information when it’s part of a story than if it is just a list of
information.
• This comes from thousands of years of passing down information through stories around a campfire and
drawing on the walls of caves, we didn’t just spout off facts, we told stories.
• The concept of selling via facts and figures is only something that Madison Avenue pioneered less than 100
years ago.

29. STORIES
NUDES
• This is actually backed up by the chemistry of our brains
• Our brains produce a chemical, oxytocin, known as the love chemical.
• This chemical is released when we feel connected to people.
• When we hear a compelling story more oxytocin is released than if we just heard a list of facts
• This means if we construct our content around narratives people will comprehend more and feel more
connected to the people around them meaning that they'll share it more.
• The more something gets shared, the further it goes.

30. NAPAND
STORIES
• In a 2006 study Two groups were given identical wine, one group was told it was from ND wine and one was
told it was from Napa. The group that thought it was from Napa scored the wine higher.
• The unconscious parts of our brain are sold on the idea, the story, the narrative, that wines from Napa Valley
are better.
• This is why end up paying more or preferring one item over another even though they’re similar or even
identical.
• We might rationalize it - in the conscious parts of our brain - by saying they are higher quality, or they are
better designed, but this is not always the case.

31. STORIES
The reason the story sells is is because it is grounded in neuroscience.
Our brains are divided into three basic systems:
• Neocortex - Responsible for language, thinking, and rational thought
• Limbic - Feelings, emotion, behavior, trust, loyalty. No capacity for language
• Brain Stem - Fight or flight, breathing, instinctual survival
Most of our decisions are decided in our limbic brain, we then rationalize it post hoc in our neocortex. That
means almost all of the decisions we make happen unconsciously.

32. Networked
Unexpected
Dumb
Exhibited
Stories
• Networked - Build sharing into your idea and use triggers to remind people about your content
• Unexpected - Put people at attention by creating unexpected content
• Dumb - Make your ideas as simple and concrete as possible
• Exhibited - Build your ideas to be shown off
• Stories - Create stories, not just information
• Questions? Tweet me @jlp on Twitter.

33. References
• Slide 5: Creating Buzz: The Neural Correlates of Effective Message Propagation, Falk, Morelli, Welborn, Dambacher,
Lieberman 2013
• Slide 13: “Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks” James Fowler, Nicholas Christakis, 2011
• Slide 19: Why Rebecca Black Might Be Around Longer Than Other Viral Stars, YouTube Trends, 2011
• Slide 21: Brown, R.; Kulik, J. (1977). "Flashbulb Memories". Cognition
• Slide 20: Companies Cashing In On Mars From Mars Bars To Hot Wheels, Nasa’s Pathfinder Is Providing A Huge
Boost For Sales, The Spokseman, 1997
• Slide 29: How Stories Change the Brain Paul Zak, 2103
• Slide 30: “Fine as North Dakota wine: Sensory expectations and the intake of companion foods”, Wansink, Payne,
North