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Of late, I have been thinking a lot about the difference between an enthusiast,an expert and an evangelist.

I describe myself as a social media enthusiast and a mobile for change evangelist, but I’m increasingly being referred to as a “social media expert”, in news articles and elsewhere. 

Every time I am called an “expert”, I crack up. First, there seem to be more social media experts than any other type of experts and it doesn’t mean much to be called one. Second, the word “expert” presumes a certain gravitas that I don’t possess and refuse to assume. Third, I prefer not to be seen as an “expert”, because experts belong to the pre-internet era of newspapers quotes and television sound bytes and the future belongs to enthusiasts and evangelists. (By the way, even journalists want to be activists now.)

I asked my Twitter friends what they think about enthusiasts, experts and evangelists –

Gauravonomics: I’m writing a post about the differences between an enthusiast, an expert, and an evangelist. Any thoughts?

– and received lots of insightful responses –

@twitteratti: Enthusiast is interested. Expert is interested and knowledgeable. Evangelist is interested, knowledgeable, and shares.

@t_mansi: Degree of involvement is different. Enthusiast will try you. Expert will know you & others. Evangelist will know you & be loyal.

@p2173: Differences b/w enthusiasts, experts & evangelists have to do with access to & analysis of information & with whom they share it.

@LokeshAwasthy: On Twitter, sum(followers,following): Evangelist > expert > enthusiast.

@iamsb: Expert rich + knowledge, evangelists only knowledge, enthusiasts neither.

@thecomicproject: Enthusiast: Crazy+Curious, Expert: Serious+Questioning, Evangelist: Religious+Obsessed.

@prashantsachdev: Enthusiasts are driven by their interest. Experts are driven by their skills. Evangelists are driven by their results.

Here’s my own take on the difference between an enthusiast, and expert and an evangelist –

Gauravonomics: An enthusiast is curious. An expert is knowledgeable but unbiased/detached. An evangelist is an activist who uses knowledge to drive change.

More than once, I have been criticized for being too enthusiastic about the power of social media and mobile, for evangelizing tools and applications too much, for not having enough perspective about the tiny role technology plays in the grand scheme of things.

I’m always amused by such criticism, and sometimes saddened by it, because I have never said I’ll do anything else. As a self-described enthusiast/ evangelist, that’s the role I have defined for myself: someone who gets people to engage with social media and mobile technologies by highlighting the powerful ways in which these technologies are changing media, business, development and government.

It’s not that I don’t see that Twitter is “an obsession shared by a few thousand others in the social media echo chamber” and Twitterville is at least a couple of years ahead of its time. I do, but I still choose to highlight how Twitter or other mobile social networking tools can potentially change, let’s say, politics and micro-payments.

It doesn’t mean that I don’t see that the first prerequisite for social media outsourcing is the evolution of a shared understanding of how customer engagement on social media works. I do, but I still choose to highlight case studies of how some smart people are already exploring it.

Please don’t think that I don’t see that in a country, which doesn’t even know if 4% or 8% of its citizens have internet access, citizen journalism will hardly change the course of elections. I do, but still choose to predict that 2009 will see the first baby steps in the use of social media and mobile technologies in citizen activism in India.

The opening slide of my graduate course on social media in business, development and government at Georgetown University reads —

The future has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.

Enthusiasts want to know what the future is. Experts tend to focus on how it’s not evenly distributed yet. Evangelists highlight the instances in which the future has already arrived to help make it more evenly distributed.

I write this blog, and I’ll teach my course, as an enthusiast and an evangelist, not as an expert.

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