Jay Baer

Early life

Baer was born in 1969 in Lincoln, Nebraska and grew up in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. He is a Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Arizona (1991) with a major in political science and a minor in communications. Baer attended college as a Flinn Scholar, prestigious leadership and academic scholarship given to 20 Arizona high school seniors annually.

From 1998 through 2000, Baer served as the National Chairman of Ad 2, a division of the American Advertising Federation for emerging professionals aged 32 and younger with a membership of 2,000. He was the first person elected to two terms. Prior to holding this national position, Baer was president of the Phoenix chapter in 1995.

In his early career, Baer was a political campaign manager on congressional, gubernatorial and Arizona initiative campaigns. He also served as a political consultant advising campaigns on marketing including direct mail and radio strategies.

When Arizona Senator John McCain ran for president in 2000, Baer ran his email program and built his fundraising website. The interactive nature of McCain’s campaign boosted the campaign and showed how the internet could impact politics.

Baer also worked in public relations, and as a marketing manager for Waste Management, Inc.

He began his online marketing career in 1994, as Vice President at Internet Direct, Arizona's first Internet Service Provider, and a pioneering Web hosting company. Internet Direct was eventually sold to Mindspring.

After Internet Direct, Baer was the co-founder of azfamily.com, a local content website powered by KTVK 3TV, KASW-WB61, Phoenix Magazine, and KEZ Radio. A division of MAC America (a family-owned media conglomerate), azfamily.com was Arizona's second-largest content website, and a major designer and developer of corporate websites. In 1999, azfamily.com and all MAC America assets were sold to Belo Corporation.

In 2000, he spent a short period working as a Vice President at visitalk.com, a free VOIP calling and video calling service that functioned similarly to today's Skype.

Career

Later in 2000, he founded the digital agency (Mighty Interactive, providing Web strategy, search marketing, email marketing, usability, and online advertising solutions to corporate clients. Mighty Interactive was named Arizona's top digital marketing firm for five consecutive years by Ranking Arizona, and won many national and international awards for online marketing excellence. The firm was merged with marketing agency Off Madison Ave in 2005.

In 2008, Baer founded social media strategy consultancy Convince & Convert, working with corporate and agency clients nationally.

Baer now speaks at a lot of conferences and private events, mostly talking about the intersection of the web, communication, and business culture.

In September 2010, Jay moved to Bloomington, Indiana with his wife and two children.

In July 2013, he was recognized by his hometown newspaper, the Lake Havasu News Herald, for writing a bestselling book.

In June 2014, he was recognized as a Hinge Visible Expert, as a marketer who has attained high visibility and expertise.

Publications

Baer is the coauthor of The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social. (coauthored by Amber Naslund). The book discusses the impact of the social web and how businesses need to “adapt to the new era of instantaneous business.”