This post, The Art of Evangelism appeard on Guy Kawasaki's Blog today. The evangelism he is talking about is not the church based variety but the corporate kind.

Out of curiosity, I went to SimplyHired, a vertical search engine for jobs, and looked for openings containing the keyword “evangelist.” Amazingly, there were 611 matches--and none were for churches. It seems that “evangelist” is now a secular, mainstream job title. Indeed, the first eight matches were for evangelist jobs at Microsoft--go figure. As people hit the streets with this title, they need a foundation of the fundamental principles of evangelism.

He then goes on to talk about basic principles of product evangelism. This one is my favorite.

Look for agnostics, ignore atheists. A good evangelist can usually tell if people understand and like a product in five minutes. If they don't, cut your losses and avoid them. It is very hard to convert someone to a new religion (ie, product) when he believes in another god (ie, another product). It's much easier to convert a person who has no proof about the goodness or badness of the evangelist's product.

It is interesting that in his short search, Kawasaki did not find any church evangelist positions. Even more interesting is how he frames product loyalty in the same light as religious zeal. This may not be all that suprising as Kawasaki has roots working with Apple, one of the great cult brands, a brand that is explored in The Culting of Brands by Douglas Atkin. (Read my review of Atkin's book.) Corporations and brands are looking to be nodes of meaning and community and I belive that Kawasaki is right, evangelism has become mainstream.