Book excerpt: "The ultimate guidebook to brand advocacy." PORTER GALE, former VP of Marketing, Virgin America Brand Advocates are your most loyal, passionate, and engaged customers, and your best marketers. They don't just buy your products they sell your products for you. Brand Advocates tweet, blog, and Yelp about you; they praise you with five-star reviews on Amazon and TripAdvisor; they talk you up in social networks, online communities, and over coffee; and they defend you from detractors. Do you know who your Brand Advocates are? Are you systematically leveraging them to get more brand and product recommendations as well as drive sales? If you're not, you're missing the most powerful opportunity to turn likes into leads and social media into sales. Brand Advocates teaches you how to turn your enthusiastic customers into a powerful and sustainable marketing force. Through a step-by-step playbook and real-world examples, you'll learn exactly what it takes to build and activate your Advocate Army, from identifying your Advocates to energizing them and tracking results. By following this strategic and sustainable approach, you'll soon be able to: Discover who your Brand Advocates are and what makes these influential customers tick Create and grow your Advocate Army by continuously identifying Advocates on digital, social, and mobile channels Energize and mobilize your Advocate Army to recommend your brand and products, boost sales, and defend you from social media ambushes Reward your Advocates by giving them what they crave most Measure results and ROI from advocacy programs Every company in the world including yours! has Brand Advocates. Get more value from your social media marketing and transform your company by unleashing the most powerful marketing force you have. Your Advocate Army is ready and waiting to build your brand and business.