Why "Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content" is Helpful

I've completed the course "Viral Marketing & How to Craft Contagious Content" by Jonah Berger. And I found it really helpful, not only for a Content Writer like me, but also for anyone. I'll explain why I said so in this blog post.

Basic Information

Before listening to how I felt and what I learnt about this course, you at least need to know some basic information about it:

What The Course is About

Why are some pieces of news (e.g. mass shootings) spread faster than others?

Why do celebrities like Taylor Swift or Jenny (BlackPink) have profound influences on others while others don't?

Why are some products popular while others aren't?

Despite talking about the same topics, some content goes viral, sticks in your memory and has big impacts on your decisions. But others don't. The course will explain why and how this phenomenon occurs.

It accordingly helps you discover one secret behind this phenomenon: CONTAGIOUS CONTENT.

Also, it talks about how to use "Word Of Mouth" and Social Networks to get your ideas spread and increase your influence.

Who Taught It

Jonah Berger

He's an author of the the best-selling book “Contagious: How Things Catch On”. This book is a more detailed version of this course.

Who It Aims At

Anyone, as long as they want themselves or their content of all kinds to be better known.

Where to Study

At Coursera.

How Long It Takes

Approximately 4 hours in total.

The course comes into four smaller parts, each of which lasts around one hour and includes short videos.

How Much I Pay For It

Free of charge.

But there are some fees if you want a Certificate or have your assignments marked.

My First Impression on the Course: Extremely Useful

I knew this course through a blog post in Vietnamese. At first, I just came to it for curiosity. But I then found it very informative and useful for my main job, Content Writing.

The course mainly focuses on two important points:

• how to make things catch on

• how to use the power of social networks to spread information and influence

For me, "things" here are content.

I've struggled for many years to find the way to attract potential leads and hold their attention. The course gave me the answer for that. It's making content stick in their memory through six key principles: SUCCESs

• Simple - leads don't remember complicated ideas or too many ideas at the same time. So just use one, two or three core ideas.

• Unexpected - leads feel more curious about novel, unexpected ideas

• Concrete - use vivid words to describe your message, for example, saying "this latest model of smartphone allows your to take higher-resolution pics with AI support" instead "this latest model of smartphone offers you better experience in taking photo".

• Credible - compare my products or services with others or give them a certain background to make them more convinced

• Emotion - use content that triggers "active" emotions among leads (e.g. anger, fun or anxiety)

• Stories - tell a story that combines all those factors

Sound simple? No, it's not. And I have to practice much more to build content of all kinds in the way I want. But at least, as you see, I tried to apply what I learnt in this blog post.

"Social networks" are also important to make ideas viral.

Social networks are not just social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter or a famous rising star, Tiktok. So far, social networks are any of our connections with people around. They can be relationships with family, friends, colleagues or even acquaintances.

Whenever I want to buy something, for example, a new phone, I often spend hours on tech-review forums and read hundreds of hands-on experience. I less depend on ads as I found them less genuine. And the same also applies to people around me.

Those are "unknown" social networks that I count on when finding about something new. That's why "word-of-mouth" comes in and becomes one of the most effective - and cost-effective, of course - marketing strategies.

And this proves right for my blog post.

If you stay here, read through this blog post, or any in this blog, then it means I successfully use some of my "social networks" to spread it. And finally it comes to you.

What Else I Love About It: The Clear Structure With Hands-On Examples

I really like the structured lessons given by Jonah Berger.

He always starts with the definition, then why the topic was important before going deep further with examples.

Those examples can be successful adverts of certain companies or his personal experience. But they are all linked to core ideas.

And if you watch video lessons carefully, you can recognize how he applied what he taught in making speaks and such videos contagious.

In two courses SEO Certification and Content Marketing at Hubspot, speakers also follow that process: mention definition and importance before detailing topics with hands-on experiences.

Using that process makes my ideas and even yours better understood.

It's also the method I used to write my blog posts.

Final Words

If you think this course is only for content writers or any marketers like me, you're wrong.

The course is for those who want their ideas more popular, as I mentioned at first.

You are a business owner? A salesperson? Or even a teenager who wants to increase a number of followers on Snapchat or Instagram? This course is very helpful.

If you already took it, please share your comments and thoughts below. I'm looking forward to listening to your experiences.