First you could get Slashdotted. Then came the Digg Effect. In fact, getting a link from several sites these days can bring servers down. Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch can have the same impact as swarms of readers click on over to take a look.

Now we can add Facebook to the list. The difference is, nobody should be surprised when a Facebook app drives so much traffic to your site that you end up nursing comatose servers back to consciousness, since you have to create the app and make it available in the first place.

I suppose some companies just weren’t prepared for the volume of traffic the apps they created would drive to their servers. Marc Andreessen points to an email from ILike that outlines the tale of woe from the first third-party app to get serious traction via exposure on Facebook. (Seriously, you gotta read this.)

Marketers, be careful what you wish for. Or, better yet. Be prepared for it.