The all-consuming popularity of mobile platforms like Instagram and Snapchat among teens hints that the World Wide Web may be in fast decline. In an effort to connect with these app-happy Gen Zers, media brand Obsessee is ditching the dot-com and publishing directly to social channels.

People are reluctant to trust a brand’s glossy, photoshopped images of products, but the opinions of strangers on social media hold a lot of sway. With peer influence driving the bulk of purchases, the approval of a social network is outdoing desire stirred up by the ad world.

In 2011, Murad Osmann posted an Instagram shot of his girlfriend leading his hand through a door in Barcelona. That photo led to a project that has brought them millions of followers, a book deal, and a TV show. But how exactly did a few holiday pics launch such an influential travel brand?

What makes content shareable? Why would someone share a video campaign on Facebook? Or tweet about a brand? Marketing professor Dr. Zoey Chen, who co-authored a paper with Jonah Berger, sat down with Canvas8 to explain how the way we discover content online affects the way we share it.