“Evangelism is the practice of attempting to convert people to religion” Evangelism Wiki
One of the greatest assets a company or entrepreneur can have in their attempts to market, sell, gain exposure, and broadcast positive information is an evangelist. Social media evangelists are people who support their favorite brands
, products, services, and companies by initiating discussions and placing positive messages on social media networks. Evangelists are the equivalent of unpaid lobbyists for your company who help legitimize your messages.
One of the most important social media strategies a company can incorporate in their social media marketing is to build a strong core group of evangelists for their products and services.
10 Reasons Why You Need Evangelists
- Early Adoption: they are often early adopters of your products and services
- Legitimize: they often legitimize new products and services by using them first
- Broadcasting: they often lead the charge to popularize a new product or service by messaging across all social networks
- Reviews: they always provide positive reviews of your product or service
- Crowdsourcing: they often can provide valuable feedback that can lead to improvements in your products or services
- Opinion Makers: they can often sway public opinion in your favor
- Reputation Management: evangelists will often defend your company’s reputation when under attack by other consumers
- Eyes and Ears: evangelists will often learn about important opportunities for your brand before you will. When they find something that needs to be addressed by their “favorite” company they inform them of where to look, show up, and provide answers
- Barometer: evangelists will often be the first people to tell you when you have done something wrong. They will often message you privately, if you have engaged with them correctly, in order to help you gauge your products and services
- Niche: according to David Armano unlike mass media “the web drives the niche” and in so doing it is perfect for evangelists who can effect a brand on many different fronts and at many different levels
