Seth Godin, king of common knowledge and insights (I really like the guy but sometimes his posts have this !duh! effect to them) just posted a very good post on the benefits of actually planning out your viral marketing efforts in regards to social media.
In this post, he shows the difference between having followers that are following you because you are following them and posting a "good" idea and the passalong effect of passing a "great" idea among real people who see value in what you are passing....
Seth's Blog: Viral growth trumps lots of faux followers.
