Winfluence - The Influence Marketing Podcast

There’s an argument to be made that influencers are the “IT” channel in marketing. That trusted, third-party recommendation or referral is extremely powerful and often far more effective at communicating big ideas and marketing messages to consumers.  Big brands are eating it up. The influencer marketing industry is growing by billions of dollars per year. The creator economy is booming.  One area...

Whether you are a creator or represent a company, agency or other stakeholder in the influencer marketing space, you have a brand. It may or may not be a good one. Or at least one that is well-defined, clearly communicated and the like, but you have a brand.  If you haven’t articulated what that brand is, you’re kind of leaving it up to those around you to define or even assume what it is.  The mo...

I threw out one of my Winfluence tips a few weeks back. For those who aren’t aware, I’ll record little one-minute tips and ideas from time to time and post them as Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts … sometimes on LinkedIn, too.  The one I’m referring to was inspired by a friend who asked how one would uncover the influencers online who really have true influence. Not just followers or decent engag...

Without question the last 2-3 years have lit a fire under businesses, brands, governments and individuals with regard to how to think of and interact with diversity. In fact, the acronym of the early 2020s has to be D-E-I … Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity.  While that refers to far more than just race, a good portion of the conversation around DEI circles around people of color. In the influence...

We’re going to do something a little different today. I’ve always been fascinated with the origin stories and journey to content creator or influencers of those that I meet along the way. I’ve met and interviewed dozens who sat out be social media famous and monetize their content. I've talked to many who fell into by accident.  But the constant thread in all those journeys is their stories are fa...

There’s been a shift in the trade winds across the advertising industry in the last few years and the gusts are starting to come into our shores at an alarming rate now. Tighter economies lead to tighter waistlines, at least in the budget metaphor and what was once standard operation procedure goes out with a new way of thinking. The shift I’m talking about has to do with advertising models. The e...

TikTok may be in trouble in the United States. Our Congress has no fewer than four pieces of legislation in motion right now that in some form or fashion could ban the use of the platform in America. Most constitutional law experts are skeptical such a ban could survive scrutiny of the courts because it’s a clear violation of freedom of speech, a first-amendment right in this country.  Now, I’m th...

If you haven’t been smacked in the face with a conversation about AI or artificial intelligence in the last month, and you’re in the marketing space, you’re not getting out much. The algorithms and machine learning robots have gotten awfully good and at an awfully lot of things, including written content, graphic and image generation and all sorts of other tasks.  But what does AI have to do with...

Most of you know I spent the last five years or so at Cornett, a very good advertising agency in Lexington, Kentucky. Being an influencer marketing strategist at an agency is both fun and challenging. When you’re at an agency, you get work with a variety of clients, so you don’t get lulled into the same ole, same ole if you’re just working on one brand.  But, clients need cajoling. Educating. They...

We’ve got a special episode this week. You may recall a couple of weeks ago, I shared an episode of The Rise – The Community Commerce Marketing Show in which I talked to author and marketing thought-leader Jay Baer about his Time to Win research. This week, I share another episode of The Rise for similar reasons. Mark Schaefer is another marketing industry expert and author-speaker type. He and I...

A friend of mine reached out recently and asked me if influencer marketing was possible for B2B businesses. Keep in mind this friend isn’t in the bubble of marketing and doesn’t follow along with the same type of topics you or I do. He also probably didn’t give it much thought before asking. When I explained to him that not only is B2B influencer marketing possible, but in my opinion, B2B brands h...

We’ve got a special episode today for a couple of reasons. First, my pal Jay Baer has new research out on the Time to Win. It’s a fascinating study on how responsiveness in all its variations really can be the difference between getting new business and not … and keeping business and not. Jay and I came up together as social media talking heads, if you will. His Convince and Convert blog and his a...

If you haven’t been thinking about user-generated content and how your brand can leverage it lately, well, you’re late to the party. UGC has become one of those three-letter abbreviations that everyone instantly understands. At least in the marketing world.  Why is that? Well, content from users … the normal, regular social media user who posts content about a product or service is, by definition,...

I want to know more about you. Actually, I need to know more about you. The more I know about you, the better I can make this show. The better the show, the happier you are being a listener. Of course, in full transparency, the more I know about you, the audience, collectively, the better I can select sponsors or advertisers to bring to you. I don’t want a podcast ad to turn you off, so knowing yo...

I’ve been using and reviewing social technology software for almost 20 years now. One of the most frequent categories of software I’m either pitched or someone recommends I try is in the social media management category. These are platforms like HootSuite or Sprout Social where you’re able to plug in all your social media channels, manage your comments and message from each in one place, publish a...

I want to talk to you about leveraging podcasts for your marketing. No, this isn’t a pitch to get you to start a podcast, though I can certainly spell out dozens of reasons you should. I’m not here today to wax poetic about Winfluence, the podcast, nor the Marketing Podcast Network which I run. I’m secure in the knowledge you understand that I’m deeply invested in podcasts. I think they’re a great...

Before we get into the show today a reminder for those of you listening on the podcast that Winfluence is now available in amazing technicolor. If you’d like to see the magic as well as hear it, just pop over to the YouTube channel and subscribe. The easy way to get there is jasonfalls.co/youtube. Of course, you can also search for Jason Falls Winfluence or just Winfluence on YouTube and find it....

In a now exclusive audio commentary episode, Jason Falls takes on the sudden irrational reaction to the trend of #deinfluencing on TikTok and other channels. It has inspired many a creator to poke fun at the influencer marketing space. Some of them are poking fun at creators who do a lot of sponsored content. Others are making fun of brands who pay those creators.  It’s causing a stir in industry...

Before we jump into this episode, a note for the listeners: Winfluence is now available as a video show. If you’d like to see the magic as well as hear it, just pop over to the YouTube channel and subscribe. The easy way to get there is jasonfalls.co/youtube. Of course, you can also search for Jason Falls Winfluence or just Winfluence on YouTube and find it. The new episodes will also be offered u...

Live streaming is becoming more and more popular for both creators and brands today. The ability to not only deploy video content to engage an audience, but do it live, in real-time, tears down almost all the barriers social networks present to get to and engage an audience.  The social network sites prioritize live video content over anything else in their algorithms. They even force feed pop-up...

Those of us on the agency or services side of the influence marketing industry covet one thing really: Insights from brand-side marketers, particularly those who are the decision-makers in the business. I would imagine talent managers and some creators also covet that since the brand’s investments in any of us is what makes the industry tick. In that broad category of brand decision makers, there...

We all like killing to birds with one stone, right? Metaphorically, of course. I don’t actually kill birds. Neither do you, I hope.  But when you can learn amazing insights from someone who leads influence marketing for a big brand, but that person also happens to be a content creator themselves, well now we can double our takeaways and smarts without having to go two different directions. Zeena K...

If you don’t know the importance of acquiring and leveraging first party data in marketing yet, let me give you a quick recap. Consumers generally do not want companies like ours capturing and using their data without their explicit permission. Regulatory guidance like GDPR in Europe, and consumer-focused policy trends like not allowing 3rd party cookies to scrape data from website users are respo...

I want to be painfully honest with you today, gang. What we do in the influence marketing space, or the marketing space overall, often seems to me to be superfluous. Will the world survive if marketing died? Sure it would. Heck, some people would even say it might be a better place.  Sometimes, I’m not sure those voices are wrong. Don’t get me wrong! I love what we do. And I do think that connecti...

We can talk about influence marketing or even influencers … or for that matter just social media marketing all day and it still doesn’t necessarily mean the C-level folks in your business are going to understand and approve what we want to do. Some of us talk to the C-level. Some of us are at the C-level in our organizations. But the hard truth of the matter for marketers, even the CMO, is that th...