You could argue that one communications discipline that has changed more than others as a result of the world of social media is public relations. is a PR pro who came to the profession at the dawn of the digital area. He is a digital strategist for Golin, one of the larger public relations firms in the U.S. He and I chatted about the media landscape, why some public relations professionals are still not hip to the whole social media or influencer marketing game, what the mainstream media’s problem is with influencers and a lot more.

But then Jim shared a case study and his philosophy on hyper-local influence. Now this is really fascinating stuff because it takes influence marketing down to the street level, beyond the nano-influencer, even. Jim actually got super granular to tap into people whose primary influence is over their family and friends … and he did it in such a way that it was successful and even scaled, at least within a local market.

And listen closely to how he triangulated the influencers he used. It’s kind of amazing.

Jim’s work goes to another point I underline in the book—everyone has influence. When we’re building strategies to influence, not just those that involve influencers, the offline is as important than the online.

He also dives into his definition of an Alpha consumer, which is kind of the holy grail of influencers to partner with.  

This episode of Winfluence, the podcast, is sponsored by Winfluence, the book! Get a special discount by clicking the button below, buying on the Entrepreneur Press bookstore and using the discount code FALLS20. That earns you 20% off the retail price, just for being a Winfluence (the podcast) listener. Read and learn why we’ve been backed into a corner to think influencer marketing means Instagram and YouTube and how reframing it to be “influence” marketing makes us smarter marketers.

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