Jay Baer is the founder of Convince & Convert, providing social media consulting and training to leading companies and public relations firms world-wide.

Jay has provided Internet marketing and strategy consulting since the inception of the medium in 1994. He has worked with more than 700 companies and organizations, including Nike, Fujitsu, U.S. Senator John McCain and 25 of the Fortune 1000.

He is a frequent conference speaker, and writes the popular Convince & Convert social media strategy blog. He is also the founder and editor of the Twitter 20 series of live interviews on Twitter.

Clients say: "Our firm hired Jason to bring us up to speed in B2B digital marketing and PR strategies. He was phenomenal - not only did he teach us, but he inspired us. I would recommend him highly as a balanced right/left brain thinker!"

The Convince & Convert blog is recognized as one of the best marketing blogs in the world by AdAge, Junta42, Alltop, Social Media Today, Scribnia and a host of other arbiters of that sort of thing. Jay's writings have an emphasis on sound, practical social media advice that both makes you think, and makes you think you can do it, too.

Conference planners say: "Not only does Jay Baer command extraordinary knowledge and expertise on social media and deep understanding about the implications for PR and marketing across multiple industries, but his ability to capture an audience's attention and imagination for an entire day is unique. Jay's energy and enthusiasm for the subject matter is infectious and he converts ordinary folk to believers in a very short amount of time."

He has started six companies, including Mighty Interactive, a leading Internet marketing company he sold to Off Madison Ave in 2005. Mighty Interactive has been named Arizona's best Web Design and Internet Marketing Firm for the past five years by readers of Arizona Business Magazine.

He is a co-chair of the consumer education committee of the Email Experience Council, the leading trade association for email marketing, and is a member of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. He is on the board of the Northern Arizona Center for Emerging Technologies, and mentors start-up technology businesses across the country. He is a past board member of the American Advertising Federation (the nation's largest advertising association).

Jay was the co-founder of azfamily.com, one of the country's largest local Web sites, and was a Vice President in the world's first virtual Web hosting company. Before getting involved with the Internet, he was a public relations and political consultant.

• Social Media: What It Really Means and How to Use It - Hype-free, understandable advice about how social media is changing the relationship between companies and customers, and how you can harness this transformation to your advantage.
  
  
• 7 Ways to Use Social Media to Build Stunning Business & Personal Brands - "Social media" is becoming a colossus that's now used as a catch-all, scapegoat, and savior. Learn the 7 specific ways that social media can be used to transform brands and turn strangers into advocates.
  
  
• Why Before How: 7 Steps to Creating a Social Media Strategic Plan - Social media is here to stay. Having a logical, comprehensive, defensible strategy for social media involvement and how it integrates with your traditional marketing is a critical component of modern communications. Learn the strategic planning methodology being used by hundreds of companies to help conceptualize and activate sustained social media success well beyond "flavor of the day" tactical executions.
  
  
• A Social Media Gun to the Head: Are Consumers Brandjacking You Using Social Media? - In a world where every customer is a reporter, is any company safe? Today could be the day that your brand is held hostage via Twitter, YouTube or Facebook. Is the customer always right? How you can listen to the conversation, plan a response, and use social media to solve crises.
  
  
• The Social Media Train: Catch It If You Can - If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth largest in the world. 13 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. Learn 6 simple truths about social media that will help your company leverage the breathtaking world of social media, instead of being overwhelmed by it.