#42 Exploring Social Influence with Jonah Berger
On this episode of Getting Goosebumps: The Power of Storytelling, we chat to Jonah Berger. Jonah is a professor at the University of Pennyslvania and an expert on word of mouth, viral marketing and social influence and trends. Jonah is also the author of new book Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behaviour.
Social influence
Social influences are around us all the time. Jonah’s research focuses on helping us to develop an understanding of word of mouth communication with the aim of ensuring that products offer audiences value and consequently become popular.
Attention span vs tolerance
Jonah shares why quality of content matters more than audience attention span. As companies we are often too product focused, rather than customer focused. Jonah explains the power of thinking less about ourselves and more about understanding our audiences.
Empathy
The more we can understand what people want, the more value we can give them. Humans have a tendency to be ego centric. Jonah covers why it's hard for us to get out of our heads and empathise with others.
Check out the next episode of Getting Goosebumps, "The Simplicity of Storytelling" with TV writer and producer John Yorke.