Part of my gig at Karcher is evangelism for the agency. Not a bad gig for someone with an ENFp personality type, right?

Back in 2009, Chris and Julien were one of the first folks to talk about how individuals could use internet tools and content to develop online personas that could be leveraged to promote company brands. They called these new marketers Trust Agents. I've always thought of this branding dynamic as a running back (human brand), carrying a football (company brand) down the field towards the endzone.

Fast forward to 2012. Yesterday morning at Blogworld East, I learned about some Edison Research survey data that shows how social networks and social media have indeed gone mainstream among Americans. It seems that value of online personas as brand evangelists may be getting more attractive, given that only 33% of Americans have actually followed a company brand on social media.

Good Running Backs

It's been interesting to watch some of my peers evangelize their company and sponsor brands at the conference this week. Here are some examples:

• Tom Webster - I would have never know about Edison Research if I'd not met Tom at SXSW this year. His talk on the SocialHabit Survey yesterday was incredible, and I'm looking forward to seeing him introduce Brogan's keynote later today by first reading his Spam.
• Michael Hyatt - The first time I ever heard about Thomas Nelson Publishers was when I started reading Michael's blog. Michael carry's the publishers blog very well.
• Marcus Sheridan - When I talk with Marcus, I always seem to think about HubSpot at the same time. Marcus is a HubSpot Partner and one hell of a speaker.
• Jay Baer - Jay evangelizes for his sponsors Exact Target, Infusionsoft and Argyle Social through content partnerships and his speaking. Each of those companies are seeing some major upticks in business because of Jay's powerful and credible voice in the digital marketing industry

5 Elements That Make Brand Evangelism Work

So what does it take? What is it that allows humans to genuinely tie their persona to a company brand and increase awareness for the business in the market?

From watching the folks above, and my own experience at Karcher over the past few months, here's my take on what I think are five key ingredients that must be present to make human brand evangelism work in carrying a company brand down the field.

1. Culture Fit - The evangelist's personality, ethics and values need to align with the culture of the company. When I began talking with Karcher, one of the first litmus tests on my mind was finding a better sense of work-life balance so that I could have more time with my boys and Sarah. I quickly learned that the folks at Karcher all have big families and work to include them in company events. It was comforting to learn that in terms of family focus, Geoff's head and mine were in the same place.
2. Audience Fit - Is the evangelist's audience made up of people who have value to the business? Watching how sponsors have flocked to Jay amazes me. His audience is composed of folks who hire him to help fit social media tools into their marketing strategies, and so it makes sense that the tool companies themselves would be interested in reaching his readers, speaking audience and online communities.
3. History - How far back does the relationship between the evangelist and the company go? I think all of the evangelists mentioned above (including yours truly) would agree that brand evangelism is not the type of relationship where you simply take a blind leap of faith. Discovering if the culture and audience fit takes time and history. Consider that for me personally, I had known Geoff Karcher for nearly 10 years, hired Karcher Group as a partner while in past marketing roles and even had grown up around the same area. Having some history in the relationship between the evangelist and the company helps to breed a sense of mutual trust.
4. Mutual Passion for the Deliverables - Are the company's products and services something that the evangelist is willing to promote as their own? Zig Ziglar once said that in order to sell anything, you need to be willing to buy it for yourself. Looking at the folks above, you can see that each of them fully stand behind the company brands that have been weaved into their platforms. On the opposite side, the company needs to have the same sense of passion for the platform the evangelist has developed.
5. Vested Interest - What sense of ownership does the evangelist have over the company brand they are charged to promote? This one can get sticky and business is still business. Jay takes on sponsors for Convince and Convert. Michael actually chairs the board of Thomas Nelson. Marcus on the other hand, used HubSpot to build a multi-million pool business before launching his speaking and blogging career. In all cases, each of the evangelists are vested in the companies they promote.

What Did I Miss?

These are just my ideas as I try to figure out how to make this role fit in my own career. What elements of brand evangelism would you add to the list?