Evangelism

A recent thread about the Google/HTC G1 had me thinking a little bit about evangelism, in terms of folk who spread the word about something very enthusiastically.

Now, we all love to defend and big up our favourite things. After all, when we like something we want it to do well, and we have a genuine desire for other people to share in our experience and, in many cases, not 'waste' their money on something we regard to be sub-standard.

There's also the element of 'sticking up' for the products and services we buy in a similar way that we'd stick up for what we believe in. If we've dumped a load of cash for a particular gismo and then somebody else comes along and tells us we made a mistake then it's human nature to be defensive. When we're attacked it's what we do.

Then there's that other kind of evangelism, whereby folk actually spend the better part of their lives pushing particular products and services, usually on the Internet and usually for financial gain. This is different to sales, as an evangelist is selling an idea, belief and/or brand rather than setting up individual transactions for items with buyers.

In all honesty, these 'professional evangelists' aren't just puppets for the companies they work for. No one can be truly enthused about something that they really don't care about. There has to be a shred of something good there to get a human being so enthused that they'll spout like a crazy Christian to anyone within earshot.

What it all boils down to is that it's very difficult to know what voices to listen to. How do you know which of the above types of evangelism are being slung at you in any given moment? The truth is that you usually don't. All you can do is take in as wide a range of opinions as you can and, where appropriate, engage in dialogue and structural debate to cut through an enthused persona and get to the information you want.