Many people view viral content as pure luck, as if someone accidentally created the right video or post and it spread across the entire internet on its own. In reality, very concrete psychological and social laws sit behind the phenomenon of spreading. Wharton business school professor Jonah Berger spent more than a decade conducting research and developed a model that explains why some ideas, products and messages spread rapidly while others go unnoticed. Understanding this model gives any entrepreneur involved in marketing a genuine competitive advantage, because organic spreading turns out to be a far cheaper and more trustworthy channel than paid advertising.
The STEPPS Model: Six Pillars of Spreading
In his book Contagious, Jonah Berger found that most shareable content relies on six core principles. These principles are easy to remember through the acronym STEPPS: social currency, triggers, emotion, public visibility, practical value and stories. What matters is that these principles do not exclude one another โ the most powerful viral campaigns combine several of them at once and thereby multiply the likelihood of spreading. Below we examine each pillar separately and learn how to apply it in real business practice rather than treating it as abstract theory.
The principle of social currency is based on people's tendency to share things that make them look good. When we share something, we are really talking about ourselves โ "look at this interesting thing I found" or "this is the kind of knowledge I possess." That is why unique, surprising or insider content spreads well: the person who shares it appears more informed and interesting in the eyes of others. When brands use this principle, they must give customers material that is worth sharing and that boosts the reputation of whoever shares it.
The Power of Triggers and Emotion
Triggers are the mechanism by which objects in our everyday environment awaken a particular brand or idea in our memory. Berger offers the principle that "top of mind means tip of tongue": if a product is associated with a frequently encountered situation or object, people remember and discuss it more often. For example, a brand linked to morning coffee gets mentioned every morning because the natural trigger of that moment is always present. When building a marketing strategy, it is worth thinking about which everyday triggers your product can be tied to in order to secure long-term word-of-mouth spreading.
Emotion, meanwhile, is one of the most powerful engines of spreading, yet there is an important nuance here. Berger's research shows that not just any strong feeling drives spreading, but only those that produce high arousal. Awe, excitement, laughter and even anger push people to act because they bring them into a physiologically aroused state. By contrast, low-arousal feelings such as contentment or sadness leave a person passive and provide no impulse to share. Therefore, when creating viral content, the key criterion should be the question: "does this stir the person from within?"
Public Visibility, Practical Value and Story
The principle of public visibility relies on people's tendency to repeat what others are doing. If an action is visible, meaning open to the public, it spreads naturally โ people copy what they see. The white color of Apple earphones or the eye-catching logo of a famous brand are practical expressions of this very principle. For a business, this means designing a product so that its use or purchase is visible to others and turns into an advertising instrument on its own. Practical value, in turn, is the simplest but most durable source of spreading: people love sharing useful advice and information that saves time or money with the people they care about.
The sixth and most subtle principle is stories. People remember and retell not dry facts or advertising slogans but engaging narratives. That is why the most effective brand messages are wrapped inside a story: as the listener retells the narrative, they unwittingly pass along information about the brand as well. The key skill here is to build the story so that the brand or product becomes an inseparable part of it, otherwise people will remember the interesting narrative but forget the brand behind it. Marketers call this the Trojan horse effect: a useful message is carried inside an engaging story.
Why So Many Viral Attempts Fail
Most deliberate attempts by brands to "go viral" fail, and the reasons for this also follow patterns. The most common mistake is focusing on the entertainment element instead of the product itself. As a result, a video may gather millions of views, yet no one remembers which brand created it, which means it brings no value to the business. Berger describes this as "interesting but useless": if there is no natural connection between content and brand, attention does not convert into sales.
Another important mistake is trying to force spreading. A genuine viral effect is born from authenticity and emotional resonance, while artificially constructed "we're viral" campaigns usually look fake and manipulative. Audiences today recognize such attempts very quickly and respond to them negatively. It should also not be forgotten that viral spreading is never a guaranteed result โ even when all the principles are applied correctly, the role of luck and timing remains. Therefore a sensible strategy aims not to "go viral every time" but to consistently increase the probability of spreading.
How to Measure Spreading
When evaluating the effectiveness of a viral campaign, surface metrics such as views or likes are usually misleading. The key metric showing real value is the viral coefficient, namely the average number of new users that each existing user attracts; if this figure exceeds one, it means the content is genuinely spreading on its own. The share rate (the ratio of shares to views) indicates how well the content aligns with the STEPPS principles. Most importantly, however, one should track whether this attention converts into real business outcomes such as site visits, registrations or sales.
As you develop your own online project, embedding viral marketing principles into your site and content strategy can become one of the most economical paths to long-term growth. Yet ultimately the foundation of any spreading is a stable, fast and reliable web platform, because a site unable to handle thousands of new visitors simply wastes a viral opportunity. By registering your domain and hosting through sayt.uz, you create a solid base ready to receive your content the moment it spreads. In the end, viral marketing is not magic but a combination of psychology, preparation and patience.