HIERARCHY OF CONTAGEOUSNESS

Today, I am pleased to welcome back one of my favorite writers and people, Molly Campbell.  Molly writes at two fabulous websites-

http://mollydcampbell.com

http://charactersinsearchofanovel.com

Here’s Molly’s review of a new book- I’ve already ordered it based on this review.

ZARRELLA’S HIERARCHY OF CONTAGEOUSNESS: THE SCIENCE, DESIGN, AND ENGINEERING OF CONTAGEOUS IDEAS

I use Social Media. Lots of us do. We follow the advice of the Social Media Pundits, who advise us to “engage, interact, and be conversational.” Does this really work?

This book debunks the “be yourself,” “make friends,” and “if it’s good, it will go viral” perceptions that abound out there in the world of social media promotion. Using solid science to test out common theories of social media marketing, Zarella makes us realize that ideas don’t spread because they are good. Instead, those of us who want to spread our ideas around must use social media to gain exposure, grab attention, and motivate people to want to view our content.

Zarrella tells us how to create authority for ourselves, which words are the most powerful to use in tweets and on Facebook. He discusses the best times to tweet for maximum readership, when we are most likely to receive retweets, how to get readers to “like” or “RT” our content, and how supporting others is one of the best ways to gain support for our own efforts.

I was relieved to find that most of the recommendations that Zarella gives are intuitively logical, and that many of us are on the right track just by using social media. But Zarella’s research is sound, and many of his recommendations are easy to implement. An easy and fast read, this book was a free download via Amazon. If you are a blogger, a tweeter, or have a Facebook Fan Page, you can learn a lot from this book.

What are you reading and where are you going?