This story revolves around a small web 2.0 company that dared to dream BIG, (ahh..how cliched) and how it all played out. What may seem to be a “Mission Impossible” for some marketers — to have ONE GAZILLION (nah, 1 million) signups IN 2 DAYs — and how it turned into reality, is a fascinating case study & a must-read for all entrepreneurs and marketers alike.

Company: Riya

What they do?: Photo Search (this is much cooler than you think). Read and learn – via Tech Crunch.

Claim to web 2.0 fame: 1 Million photos in 2 days

Enough said, here are Tara’s 5 steps to be a good marketer

In summary, a good marketer —

1. drinks their own kool-aid
2. is an expert at what they market
3. plans in advance BUT is flexible
4. builds relationships with the user-community
5. is an advocate of the community

By the time I read the entire blog post (tad long, but TOTALLY worth reading for any marketer) and its genesis here, I realized that Tara’s the kind of marketer, we call a customer evangelist and that this post will actually be a part of my trilogy of posts on customer evangelists — the other two of which you can find here (on Kawasaki), and here (my definition).

Feel free to check out the Riya Story in both dimensions – via Munjal’s blog (entrepreneur) or via Tara’s blog (marketer). Tara, feel free to let me know if I’ve missed anything in translation, but kudos on bringing the magic back into web 2.0 evangelism – MI style!