A little basic math will show us that seeding our idea to a small number of people and expecting it to take over the world is not realistic. If we have an idea with an R0 of 0.1—which is higher than any idea I’ve ever studied—and we seed it to ten people, those ten will infect only a single new person, and in the next generation the outbreak will

When I started working alongside a professional sales team, I was exposed to the AIDA concept. It represents the steps in a purchasing decision: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. The attention of the customer must be attracted, interest must be raised, desire must be established, and finally, the act of purchasing must be completed.

The warnings are far more contagious than the actual viruses. Just like virus warnings, any information that can protect readers from harm, like a great deals website preventing people from paying too much for a product, will get shared as a form of self-defense.

By blending these two seemingly discrete interests, I had created what I call “combined relevance.” When someone who was into both of those things, or knew someone who was, saw my absinthe spoon gadget, he knew it was right up his alley and he had to have one. And he had to tell all of his likeminded friends about it.

you should not be afraid to identify yourself authoritatively. Tell people why they should listen to you. In that same study, I found that Twitter users with the confidence to use words like “official,” “founder,” “author,” and “expert” to describe themselves also had more followers than the average. Don’t feel limited to using the term “guru.”

Structure ideas to both arouse attention and stick to memory. Take old content and put it in a new format, or put new content into an old format.

1 The kinds of information the group is eager for 5. 2 What information the group already has and what it lacks 6. 3 The fears, hopes, and hostilities the group already has 7. 4 Customary and traditional ways in which the group deals with those fears, hopes, and hostilities

If your ideas reinforce my reputation, I’ll share them.

But we need to decide if we are going to leave the future of social media to magical tonics, or if we are going to use science and data to discover what really works to motivate people.