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Why is the GME story so fascinating?

Why is the GME story so fascinating?

Jonah Berger, the author of Contagious, studies online virality. He demonstrated that “content that evokes high-arousal positive (awe) or negative (anger or anxiety) emotions is more viral. Content that evokes low-arousal, or deactivating, emotions (e.g., sadness) is less viral.”

This has all three A’s: awe, anger, and anxiety.

People aren’t just talking about money.

They’re talking about dreams of making money (awe).

You’ll also see so much anger geared towards traditional Wall Street. One Redditor wrote, “Millions of people suppressed by the 1% are coming out in droves to fight back.”

And, of course, there’s anxiety. People are white-knuckling this hoping to not lose their shirts.

This thing really has it all.

It’s the perfect storm of shareable content and emotions.

Brendan Gahan

Brendan Gahan is Partner & Chief Social Officer at independent creative agency Mekanism, leading the agency’s social division. Gahan has been at the forefront of social & influencer marketing since 2006, developing social campaigns for brands such as Mountain Dew, Unilever, Amazon, 20th Century Fox, and The Olympics. Brendan was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2012 and his agency was recognized as Digiday’s Digital Video Agency of the year in 2017. Gahan is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The Guardian, Ad Age, and CNBC for his expertise in social media and influencer marketing expertise.
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