A few big companies have started using viral marketing. Production costs are minimal and reach is exponential. Here are a few examples that I really like:

1. When MBNA merged with Bank of America merged two employees sang a song at a company meeting. Someone posted the video on YouTube.

2. The Indiana Pacers basketball team created a unique viral video to generate excitement for their opening game of the 2007-2008 season.

If you’ve never heard of GrandCentral.com, just remember that you first heard about it from us. GrandCentral is a young company that was started by two guys: Craig Walker and Vincent Pacquet, both from Yahoo!. The company was recently purchased by Google for an undisclosed sum and is currently in BETA.

I was lucky enough to receive an invite to participate in the BETA and I must say that there are some really great things coming. In the span of a few hours I have moved all of my contacts from Facebook, Outlook and my cell phone to my new online address book on GrandCentral. I have setup my new voicemail and configured GrandCentral to work with my cell phone, home phone, work phone and Skype softphone.

Intrigued? Here is a how GrandCentral.com works: www.grandcentral.com/support/howitworks

On its own I have yet to find a more comprehensive online phone system. But pair it with Skype and you can achieve phone successes that have yet to be found online. Here is what I mean:

• I setup a free GrandCentral account
• I setup a SkypeIn number: $60/year (US dollars)
• I added all of my contacts into my GrandCentral address book
• Whenever I need to make a call: I click on the person’s name in my GrandCentral address book and it calls my SkypeIn number, then it calls them.
• No long distance. No fees.
• And the best part: my GrandCentral number shows up on the other person’s CallerID (a problem that Skype has yet to solve)

More info about GrandCentral
More info about SkypeIn

The Harvard Business School recently posted a working paper outlining how customers that receive emailed grocery coupons will actually spend more money on groceries that they didn’t intend to buy. They go with a budget and then buy items that they normally wouldn’t buy otherwise.

Read it here: Mental Accounting and Small Windfalls: Evidence from an Online Grocer

We’ve seen this same play on human psychology work for homebuilders. ‘Buy today and get $20,000 in free options.’

How effective would this type of campaign be if paired with a personal referral? What if you received an email from your friend, John Smith, that said:

Sally,
I absolutely loved my homebuilding experience with Portman Homes. I know that you and Jim have talked about building a new home and I think you should consider them. If you are interested see the note below.

—
As a valued friend of John Smith you are entitled to $20,000 in free options on your next Portman Home. Simply bring in this referral code: #JSMITH02 and begin building your dream home today!
—

Sincerely,
John

Seth Godin has posted some interesting remarks comparing Viral Marketing and Word of Mouth.

Viral marketing [does not equal] word of mouth. Here’s why:

Word of mouth is a decaying function. A marketer does something and a consumer tells five or ten friends. And that’s it.

Viral marketing is a compounding function. A marketer does something and then a consumer tells five or ten people. Then then they tell five or ten people. And it repeats. And grows and grows. Like a virus spreading through a population.

Read Seth’s Blog: Is viral marketing the same as word of mouth?

The power of the Internet makes viral marketing easier than ever. Have you ever seen the Evolution of Dance video? Were you randomly googling a ‘man dancing’ or did someone send you a link or tell you to check it out? The video has been viewed roughly 100,000,000 times and has become a social pop-culture phenomenon.

Wouldn’t it be nice if growing your business was this easy?

We stumbled across a free alternative to GoToMeeting or Webex called Yugma. True to Web 2.0 form they offer a free ‘limited’ account and then charge for advanced features.

Yugma is compatible with Windows, OS X, and Linux. It only took a few seconds to set up an account and I successfully had my mom on the other end of a web demo in less than 5 minutes (which speaks to the simple nature of the software). If you have any intent to demo a software product or need an online collaboration tool that allows you to remotely control a desktop you should try Yugma.

Free Account: Signup Here

You’ll here us mention this time and time again but we truly admire the guys at 37signals. They’ve created some fantastic small business software that manages to-do lists, projects, writeboards, and real-time conversations. We use both their Backpack and Campfire programs. I would also highly recommend frequenting their blog: Signal vs. Noise. They try to sift through a lot of the clutter of the web to bring unique insights.

The most recent posting at the time of this post is about using photos in online real estate listings, which conveniently caters directly to the vision of URBaCS. Read it here: Real estate photos worth more than a thousand words

Matt cites a recent NY Times article as well. Read it here: Making Every Pixel Count