name: contagious

description: 'Engineer word-of-mouth and virality using the STEPPS framework (Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, Stories). Use when the user mentions "go viral", "word of mouth", "shareable content", "social currency", "why people share", "viral loop", "referral program", or "organic growth". Also trigger when designing shareable features, crafting social media campaigns, or building products that spread through peer recommendation. Covers environmental triggers and high-arousal emotional content. For sticky messaging, see made-to-stick. For persuasion tactics, see influence-psychology.'

license: MIT

metadata:

author: wondelai

version: "1.2.0"

Word-of-Mouth & Virality Framework

A framework for engineering word-of-mouth and making products, ideas, and content contagious, based on Jonah Berger's research into why things catch on. Use it to design shareability into products, campaigns, and content instead of hoping for luck.

Core Principle

Virality is not born — it is engineered. Products spread because they were designed — consciously or not — to be shared. Only 7% of word-of-mouth happens online; the other 93% happens in offline conversations, so virality is about the psychology of sharing, not social media mechanics. Those psychological patterns are predictable and can be engineered into anything using the STEPPS framework.

Scoring

Goal: 10/10. Rate any product, campaign, content, or feature 0-10 on how many STEPPS drivers it activates and how well. Report the current score and the specific improvements needed to reach 10/10.

STEPPS Overview

Not a checklist — a multiplier. Each principle independently increases sharing; the most contagious ideas activate several at once, but even one or two done well dramatically increase word-of-mouth.

The STEPPS Framework

1. Social Currency

Core concept: People share things that make them look good — smart, cool, in-the-know. Make people feel like insiders and they'll spread it to boost their own image.

Why it works: Brands and information are social signals; people don't just share what they think — they share what makes them look good for thinking it.

Key insights:

• Remarkability — surprising, novel, or extreme things make the sharer seem interesting; "Did you know...?" is a powerful sharing trigger
• Game mechanics — leaderboards, badges, and status tiers create visible accomplishments people want to display
• Exclusivity and scarcity — secret menus and invite-only access give people "insider knowledge" to share
• Inner remarkability — even mundane products have a remarkable angle; it's framing, not the product

Product applications:

Copy patterns:

• "Most people don't know that..."
• "You're one of the first to try..."
• "You've unlocked [achievement]..."

Ethical boundary: Create real insider value, not false scarcity or manufactured exclusivity that breeds toxicity.

See: references/social-currency.md for remarkability exercises and game mechanics design.

2. Triggers

Core concept: Top-of-mind means tip-of-tongue. Link your product to environmental cues — sights, sounds, times, routines — so everyday life keeps reminding people to talk about you.

Why it works: Most word-of-mouth is driven not by excitement but by whatever happens to be top-of-mind mid-conversation; a product linked to a frequent cue gets mentioned more because it's more accessible in memory.

Key insights:

• Frequency beats strength — a daily trigger (coffee) outperforms a powerful but rare one (a holiday); Kit Kat linked itself to coffee breaks
• Habitat matters — map where and when people encounter contexts related to your product
• Competitive triggers — link a competitor's moment to your own brand
• Ongoing vs. temporary — persistent environmental triggers sustain word-of-mouth; event triggers only spike it

Product applications:

| Context | Application | Example |

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