Here’s some marketing vernacular for you. One I’m sure you’ve heard of – a term called “worth of mouth.” And another, you may know of but might be using it improperly – a term called “viral marketing.” Some people believe that “viral marketing” is just a new-fangled form of the term “word of mouth.” Here’s the news: these two terms are not synonyms.

Recently, Seth Godin, foremost expert on business marketing, wrote on this very topic. 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. It amplifies the marketing action and then fades, usually quickly. A lousy flight on United Airlines is word of mouth. A great meal at Momofuku is word of mouth.

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. The marketer doesn’t have to actually do anything else. (They can help by making it easier for the word to spread, but in the classic examples, the marketer is out of the loop.) The Mona Lisa is an ideavirus.

This distinction is vital… It means… viral marketing is like winning the lottery, and if you’ve got a shot at an ideavirus, you might as well over-invest and do whatever it takes to create something virus-worthy.

Most small businesses should focus on the “word of mouth” that their business creates. This can be both good and bad word of mouth. You don’t want to be the bad experience a bride has, who in turn tells six of her friends. You want to be the meeting or website that got a bride gabbing to her bridesmaids and blogged about it. You want every “touch point” with your clients and potential clients to be a positive experience that sets them in motion to tell someone else about you or your business. However, keep in mind, that word of mouth fades. In order to keep getting word of mouth, one must continually tend to it like a garden.

So, what are you doing to help give you word of mouth in the marketplace?

– This is a guest post by Branding Queen, Dallas Wedding Planner’s brand consultant.