After only four years in existence, Zynga is already earning over a billion dollars a year in revenue. No gaming company has grown so big in so little time before.

Part of the reason for this growth was an incredible change in the way games are consumed. Games like Farmville have moved beyond being only for young men and have found wide acceptance across all age groups. In addition, the Facebook platform has allowed games to quickly spread through players’ personal networks.

Though the changing landscape has been a tremendous help, Zynga’s success is no coincidence. They have a solid marketing plan that has been executed as well as any, and it’s Zynga’s understanding of behavioral psychology and viral marketing that has allowed them to dominate the social gaming environment so quickly.

The success of Zynga has a lot to teach us about marketing in the digital age. Below are seven outstanding marketing lessons we can all take away from Zynga’s success.

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We’re told to be polite, earnest, and respectful. However, as we’ve learned from Reality TV, face slaps and unfiltered emotions are often more engaging than polite interaction. Micro-blogger Chad Johnson attracted a lot of praise for the influence he earned with raw unfiltered messaging; Twitalyzer in 2011 called Chad Ochocinco the most influential American on Twitter.

Recently, we’ve seen an epic “brawl” on Twitter centered around Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his book, Antifragile-Things That Gain From Disorder. Dr Taleb has attracted a lot of attention with his challenging, brash, and often bombastic tweets. His persona is more Ochocinco then Emily Post. Even more interesting is that his topic is Macroeconomics and Econometrics rather than cheating spouses, baller theatrics, and celebutantes. He is making economics interesting.

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