Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jason Falls. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Jason thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

While my specific area of expertise is very niche, I do think my approach can help others find ways to differentiate themselves. My main focus is on influencer marketing. For most agencies and businesses, that means finding people with lots of followers on social media and compensating them to post about your business or brand. But if you really think about what the intent of the activity is (to influence) then someone posting a picture of your product may or may not accomplish that.

So I’ve put a strategic spin on what I do and focus on the what (influence) not the who (influencer). That subtle shift means I’m focused on developing strategies that persuade an audience to take action, not put a product in front of as many people as possible. When you drill into what you’re actually trying to accomplish and ignore the assumptions and standards those around you follow as if they’re instructions, you can see things very differently.

A great example of this in action is a case study I’ve written about before with UBS, the financial services company. They were looking to increase leads for their business in Great Britain a few years ago and identified a trustworthy podcaster for those looking for financial advice in Martin Bamford. His podcast had a healthy amount of listeners, but was very niche, so not big by media standards. UBS pitched one of their vice-presidents as a guest on his show and drove four times as many leads from that single episode’s airing than any other marketing channel for the same period.

This worked because instead of finding the biggest money-focused podcast in the world and throwing ad dollars at it, they looked for someone who genuinely and truly influenced his audience, worked with him to have a useful guest from the company to build trust in UBS, and didn’t try to sell anything. It was focused on influence, not the influencer himself. And it worked.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a public relations professional by trade, but that often means a lot of things. My background is in sports PR and I worked in college and university athletic departments for 15 years. Because most of the schools I worked at were small to medium in size compared to big universities with mega budgets, I often had to be resourceful and do a lot of tasks in marketing and PR myself.

So, I learned how to build websites and design publications and run radio broadcasts and produce television shows, etc. It created a bit of jack of all trades, master of none, formula to what I brought to the table. But it also forced me to look to technology and the Internet to make my job more effective whenever I could. That put me in the driver’s seat to know and understand social media tools and content marketing efforts before most businesses were using them.

When I transitioned into mainstream advertising and marketing life, my clients were astounded that I knew this emerging world of social technology and could do a lot of the hands-on work myself. I was well positioned to teach others how to use blogs, forums, early social networks and the like. So I became a bit of a thought leader in my niche.

Fast forward another 15 years and I combine the discipline of public and media relations with the world of social media content creators and develop bespoke influence marketing strategies for businesses. I focus on programs that influence a given audience to take action and steer clear of the typical industry approach of sponsoring content with big audience creators. The more strategic you can be with influence (rather than influencers) the more effective the programs tend to be.

Whether it’s launching a new product, establishing client or brand thought leadership in a category, or building relationships with key influencers within a given industry, the strategies that I’ve developed over the years have won awards and recognition, but most importantly, driven the right KPIs for clients.

I also have a pedigree in social listening which is the process of monitoring social media conversations for a business or brand to do everything from get ahead of product issues to inspire trending content to improve a business’s overall marketing. I think I’m most proud this research-type function has matured into a need for many brands.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

When my son was born (2005) I decided the world of sports was no longer one I could afford to be a PR professional within. It was lots of travel and I needed to not only be home to be a father, but also earn more than the pittance pay college athletics staff members are afforded. So I left that world to find a job in mainstream advertising and marketing.

I was quite afraid my skills weren’t transferrable, that there was some knowledge or trick to being a good marketing I didn’t know, etc. The bias that sports professionals are “watching ballgames for a living” had gotten in my head and without day-to-day exposure to the non-sports world, I thought it was more complicated and bigger than I’d experienced.

Fortunately, I had a career coach at the time who assured me that writing is writing, working with media wasn’t different in non-sports environments and I had a polished set of skills for a marketing professional. I just needed to focus on the marketing skills rather than the sports experience.

I made that career pivot quite successfully and quickly. A year and a half after I left college athletics, I was making three times my last salary, had been promoted twice and had set myself up to leave the agency I worked for and go out on my own as a consultant.

The lesson learned is never doubt yourself and know that what you don’t know doesn’t have to hold you back. You’re smart. You can learn something new. Or even realize that you did know it, you just didn’t realize it yet.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

When I came to the social media marketing world, it was still evolving. This was 2005-2006 and only a handful of brands were experimenting with blogs and social networks. So the thing that helped put me in a strong position in terms of reputation is that I have a knack for distilling complex concepts down to simple terms. My “marketing” approach for myself or my agency was more focused on helping the client understand the environment rather than selling them on it. After all, I don’t know their business. If I can help them understand this new method of engaging consumers, they’ll be the best people to execute that.

I love the concept of just being useful. Let me help, rather than sell. That’s not only a great way to build your own professional reputation, but it’s a great correlative philosophy to being successful as a business on social media. The more useful you can be to the audience there, the more successful you’ll become.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jasonfalls.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/jasonfalls
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/jasonfalls
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/jasonfalls
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jasonfalls
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/jasonfallswinfluence

Image Credits
Jess Amburgey