Social marketing is a big part of online business today. If you can learn to take advantage of social media, your business can benefit quite nicely.

When I came across this post on viral marketing, I thought it was interesting enough to share, with some good points. The author had attended a session on viral marketing, where the 5 Cs (community, compelling, comedy, charity, and contest) were discussed.

Overall, the post is pretty good. If you aren’t aware of what the community thinks of your business, you either aren’t taking sufficient notice and could do more with it, or risk not knowing negative opinions that may have formed. Whether good or bad, you need to know these things.

I also like the point that viral marketing often happens by accident, such as the Coke and Mentos phenomenon. Neither company planned that one, but it took off beautfully, to the point where the companies cannot help but enjoy the effects.

And that’s the challenge of viral and social marketing. You don’t always know what will be a hit.