The woman next to you in the coffee shop, typing madly on her laptop, just might be determining the ending to next year's block-buster film or how quickly the hottest new PDA hits store shelves. In homes, dorm rooms, waiting rooms, planes and trains around the world, millions of people are exercising enormous influence on what we buy, even though they have no official connection to those products and services. Who are they? What motivates them? Marketing experts Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell explore the ramifications of social media in Citizen Marketers. As everyday people increasingly create content on behalf of companies, brands or products, they are collaborating with others just like themselves and forming ever-growing communities of enthusiasts and evangelists. From the rough to the sophisticated, the "user-generated media" of blogs, online bulletin boards, podcasts, photos, songs, and animations are influencing companies' customer relationships, product design, and marketing campaigns, whether they participate willingly or not.

When customers are truly thrilled about their experience with a product or service, they have the potential to become one of its influential evangelists. Savvy marketing professionals know that this group of true believers can be leveraged as a potent force to build word of mouth that leads to new customers. Creating Customer Evangelists explains how to develop marketing and sales strategies that create communities of passionate customers. By cultivating a dialogue and then creating emotion-driven relationships with customers, companies can inspire grassroots support. Creating Customer Evangelists shows how to convert good customers into exceptional ones who willingly spread the word. "Lessons of customer evangelism related through real life company stories make this book an absorbing read." -- Harvard Business School "I'll admit it: at first, I was a skeptic. But halfway through this savvy and compelling book, I became a convert. And by the time I'd turned the last page, I'd become an evangelist. Say it with me, brothers and sisters: customer evangelism is the future " -- Dan Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind "An inspiring and thorough book packed with real life examples, action items and insight." -- Emanuel Rosen, author of The Anatomy of Buzz Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell, authors of Citizen Marketers, popularized the term "customer evangelism." The Seth Godin-edited New York Times bestseller The Big Moo featured them among 33 of "the world's smartest business thinkers."