Book Review - Contagious

Chance Brown·January 26, 2017·1 min read

From the archive. I first wrote this in January 2017 on my old blog. Some of the tools, names, and numbers have changed since, but most of it holds up.

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](https://www.amazon.com/Contagious-Things-Catch-Jonah-Berger/dp/1451686587/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=cb0e5d-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=3f6a18214b9ea2b4f1537d592cc8131a&creativeASIN=1451686587)

So, I'm a little behind on this review. There's probably some kind of joke with the title to be made here, but it's too late to really think that through. This was our November book and it was good. It wasn't great, but it is worth the read, I think.

There are some solid psychology take-aways in this book that I think will help you understand consumer and public behavior more than actually crafting a message to send out. I am a huge fan of consumer behavior and economics. Books like Predictably Irrational, almost all of Malcolm Gladwell's books, etc. are some of my favorites. This book, in my opinion, does a good job of taking consumer behavior and applying to what makes things in the social media and marketing universe go viral.

From a real estate perspective, I think the overall data is difficult to directly apply to your business. That doesn't mean it doesn't apply at all. You just really have to put yourself in the role of marketer and not agent to try to pull some insight that you can use. More than anything, I think you will gain some level of empathy as you craft your messages.

Hope that helps. Enjoy the book. My next review will be on this month's book, The 12 Week Year, which I already love.

Written by

Chance Brown

Broker/Owner of CB&A, Realtors, Commissioner on the Texas Real Estate Commission, and host of Top 5. He writes about the real work of building a real estate business. More about Chance → Work with Chance at CB&A →