Technology evangelism is the use of evangelism marketing

Evangelism marketing

Evangelism marketing is an advanced form of word of mouth marketing in which companies develop customers who believe so strongly in a particular product or service that they freely try to convince others to buy and use it...

 to promote a tool

Tool

A tool is a device that can be used to produce an item or achieve a task, but that is not consumed in the process. Informally the word is also used to describe a procedure or process with a specific purpose. Tools that are used in particular fields or activities may have different designations such...

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Job titles

A person who practices technology evangelism is a Technology Evangelist

Technology evangelist

A technical or technology evangelist is a person who attempts to build a critical mass of support for a given technology in order to establish it as a technical standard in a market that is subject to network effects...

, but different firms use different job titles for this position.

Apple: Evangelist

In the mid-1980s, Apple Inc. tasked non-technical marketing people (notably Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki is a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, bestselling author, and Apple Fellow. He was one of the Apple employees originally responsible for marketing the Macintosh in 1984. He is currently a Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, and has been involved in the rumor reporting...

) to evangelize the Macintosh computer to independent software vendor

Independent software vendor

Independent software vendor is a business term for companies specializing in making or selling software, designed for mass marketing or for niche markets...

s (ISVs), and gave them the title "Evangelist"

Apple evangelist

An Apple evangelist, also known as Mac evangelist, Mac advocate or Apple fanboy is a promoter of Apple products such as the Macintosh, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. As a group, the followers are called the Cult of Mac....

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Microsoft: Technical Evangelist and Developer Evangelist

In Microsoft's

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 simultaneous effort to evangelize its competing operating system

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

s to the same ISVs, it gave experienced software developer

Software developer

A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process. Their work includes researching, designing, developing, and testing software. A software developer may take part in design, computer programming, or software project management...

s to this task, not marketers. To distinguish them from Apple's non-technical "Evangelists," Microsoft gave them the job title "Technical Evangelist," a title still common within Microsoft and companies founded by its alumni.

More recently, Microsoft has also used the job title "Developer Evangelist."

Google: Developer Advocate

Google's technology evangelists have the job title Developer Advocate.

Platform evangelism

Platform evangelism

Platform evangelism

Platform evangelism is the application of technology evangelism to a multi-sided platform...

 is a sub-category of technology evangelism, in which:

• the technology being evangelized is a multi-sided platform, bringing st least two sides of a market together, and

• one side of the market is composed of independent (third-party) developers of complementary goods.

A computer operating system

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

 is one example of a two-sided platform, in which one side targets consumers, and the other side targets ISVs

Independent software vendor

Independent software vendor is a business term for companies specializing in making or selling software, designed for mass marketing or for niche markets...

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