I attended my first in-real-life conference last week. Social Media Marketing World happened with actual, physical people in an actual physical place – the San Diego Convention Center – and mostly without masks, though the hugs and enthusiastic closeness is still faint compared to what they once were.

Ironically enough, the buzz was all about the Metaverse and NFTs … the fake worlds where the prognosticators are saying the future lies. Everyone was excited about being back in person only to talk about never having to do anything in person anymore. But that’s me being Mr. Crankypants, I guess.

My talk on influence marketing and the concepts we talk about here on Winfluence went over pretty well, I think. The Social Media Marketing World audience is made up more of the small to medium sized business owner and marketer who is still new to a lot of the digital and social space. Influence marketing there is probably an advanced topic. And I was the only one speaking on the subject. But the crowd was engaged, asked good questions. I got good feedback, so hopefully I helped a few folks along with their thinking.

Maybe even a few of them have joined us here on the podcast.

And that’s kind of what I want to talk to you about today. Public speaking and public speakers. I’ll break it down in a couple of ways. First, public speakers are influencers. The nature of their craft is to stand in front of a room of people to persuade them of something. That’s our core definition of an influencer – someone who can persuade an audience to take action. 

It’s important for you to know who the influential public speakers about your industry, business, topic or product category are. They are low-hanging fruit in terms of finding influential people to help you.

But I also want to talk about what makes an audience not trust a speaker.

Also, and speaking of speakers, I am speaking at the Influencer Marketing Show in New York City on April 27 and I have a discount code for you to get tickets to join me there. IMS has been held in London the last few years. I’ve been honored to be an emcee and moderator for the last two as they were virtual events. Now IMS is not only back to IRL, but it’s here in the U.S. for the first time. 

It’s a one day event in New York City, just off Broadway at the New World Stages on West 50th. It will be Wednesday, April 27, 2022 … coming up in just a few short weeks. I will be chairing one of the stages as well as moderating a panel for my friends at Tagger.

Go see the full speaker and topic lineup and get your ticket at jason.online/imsfalls. When you check out, use the code FALLS and get a 15 percent discount, just for listening to Winfluence.

This episode is sponsored by Tagger, the complete influencer marketing solution. It has recently released a new product feature called Signals, which provides creator listening for its customers. Tagger president and founder Pete Kennedy joins Jason Falls to explain more about Signals.

To see it for yourself and get a demo of Tagger, visit jason.online/tagger today.

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