Jimmy Fallon: The Secret Sauce to Make Your Business Better than Yesterday
James Thomas Fallon (born September 19, 1974) is an American comedian, actor, TV host, singer, writer, and producer. After his film career, Fallon returned to television as host of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon at NBC studios in 2009, where he became well known for his focus on music and video games.
In February 2014, Jimmy Fallon made his debut at the NBC “Tonight Show” and the show attracted some 11,3 million viewers.
As of 2021, Jimmy Fallon’s net worth is $60M.
Here are five lessons that can be learned from Jimmy Fallon’s success on NBC’s “The Tonight Show.”
- Make the audience members feel like they are in on the joke.
- Use positive humor instead of cynical sarcasm.
- Incorporate stories to which millennials can relate.
- Do not be afraid to be silly. Millennials appreciate brands that do not put themselves on a pedestal.
- Have fun. When millennials see their favorite celebrities laughing and playing with other, it makes them seem more relatable. This same concept holds true for brands aiming to create a comedic campaign geared toward millennials.
Jimmy Fallon’s Surprising Secrets to Success
We are definitely never going to accumulate the huge net worth Jimmy Fallon was able to do, but we can also draw important lessons from his journey.
Here are eight values that led Fallon to achieve enormous success as a leader and influencer, and they can benefit you as well
#1 – Know and Stay Focus on Your Goal
Since realizing that he decided to try comedy and relocate to Los Angeles, Jimmy Fallon had his sights on the prize.
He was laser-focused on his dream of making Saturday Night Live and worked tirelessly to refine his art so that when he actually got a second chance to test, he could nail it and stop the errors he made for the first time. All the weekend gigs held up and the many years of involvement in the improvisational collective he joined were worth it to play a part on Saturday Night Live.
It is incredibly important to have a target when it comes to investment or something in life. It gives you something to aim for, because else you’re more or less walking in a directionless direction.
Your dream may be a long shot, but we live in a time when almost anything is possible. Keep concentrated on what you want to do, set ambitious yet achievable goals, and meet someone that will help make your dreams come true.
#2 – Show Up Consistently
Producing some sort of material on a daily basis is hard work, even more so with an hour-long chat show five nights a week. All understands that any performance is not going to be a home run. Yet half of the fight is calm and swinging towards the fences. The sheer amount of work taken by Fallon and his team (and everyone making a regular show) is impressive.
A big part of success is simply turning up and doing a job. If you put it regularly in time, you’re going to start generating a huge body of work. This would significantly improve the odds of being more competitive.
#3 – Use All Your Talents
Although Fallon got his start as a stand-up comic, his talents go way beyond that. He can sing, play guitar, make impressions, act, and dance. Many of these talents are seen on the Tonight Show at various moments.
It’s not a clever idea to lounge around hoping you had a certain collection of skills or ability, or to be jealous of someone else. Allow the best of your talents and don’t think about what people are doing.
#4 – Follow Your Strengths
Since seeking out acting and filming, Jimmy went back to comedy and late-night TV, a profession that revealed his skills more.
While he tried movies and other entertainment locations, Fallon knew where he was, and it was late-night TV. This move led him to his most successful ventures, hosting Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show.
If it’s a different side hustle or simply a new sport, the balance of doing new stuff is to realize when it’s time to call it quits. Not to stop, just to quit, so that you can move on to the next thing!
#5 – It’s OK to Try New Things
As Jimmy Fallon quit Saturday Night Live to try an acting career, it may have seemed like a natural next step.
It was something he was looking to do, so he went ahead and did it.
And if it finally caused him to know that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, Fallon tells us that it’s cool to step out and do new stuff even though it doesn’t work out.
It’s all a learning opportunity, and it finally pointed him to his next very promising endeavor – late-night tv.
#6 – Put Your Audience First
Fallon’s first goal is to entertain his audience. In an interview with GQ, he said, “I just feel like people like a little break . . . Especially at 12:37 at night, you go like, ’I’m just tired of the snarky right now. I just want to lie down and have somebody make me laugh for an hour. Entertain me and then I’m going to sleep with a smile on my face.’ That’s my job, that’s what I do.” No matter whether you’re a writer, an entertainer, a speaker, or a businessperson, you’ve got an audience. Place their interests first, and you will grow a loyal follow-up.
#7 – Collaborate with Others
If it’s slow-paced news with the President, raping Justin Timberlake, or waging a lip-sync battle with Emma Stone, Fallon has a lot to do with teamwork. In addition to his off-kilter antics and usual interviews, he also engages celebrities in games such as the Wheel of Musical Impressions and the Beer Pong.
Teamwork is a secret to success both in industry and in life. You’ve got a bigger network than you thought you do. How do you work with someone to build something larger than you will achieve individually?
“As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people’s ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” – Amy Poehler
#8 – Harness the Power of Social Media
Fallon is a smart and active social media user with almost 27 million Twitter followers and more than 7 million YouTube viewers. He doesn’t think about social media as a sideline of on-air programming, but as a crucial aspect to communicating with his viewers. The bite-sized portions of The Tonight Show were perfectly crafted for social media sharing. His expertise in the use of social media is so well known that it has been called the “Fallon Effect.”
You don’t need to be a star to take advantage of the influence of social media. You just need to see it as a critical way to engage and entertain others.
Fallon Social Media Strategy: #GetJimmyWitIt
With over 40 million Twitter subscribers, we know the guy’s doing the right thing. Jimmy Fallon’s robust, multi-platform presence in social media can be summed up in a three-pronged approach to social media policy. The following strategies are vital to brands looking to succeed in the social sphere.
#1 – Tailor Content to Each Platform
The bulk of Fallon’s Facebook and Twitter posts consist of the new expose material wrapped in shareable video clips and GIFs – a tactical maneuver given that most network algorithms prefer graphics, resulting in a much higher audience experience than content that does not contain visual elements.
The Tonight Show Instagram account captures backstage and onstage experiences with Fallon’s guests in addition to the new show content GIFs. The show has an additional media presence on Snapchat, where staff offer tasks that inspire viewers to send snaps back for a chance to be featured. Fallon’s celebrity guests are also taking part in Snapchat’s takeovers as a show tease that night.
This casual and uncut content behind-the-scenes is just what Snapchat fans expect from Snapchat personalities and organizations. There’s no one channel the same. Followers want to see different forms of content on each website, and Fallon delivers just that.
#2 – Opt for Dialogue Over Monologue
For a reason, it’s called social media. Social platforms have not been built to act as podiums for PSAs and advertising – and should not be viewed as one-way content dispensers. They have been developed to allow for larger discussions, exchanges and sharing. Fallon doesn’t simply put out his own material and fall quiet until a dialogue begins. He interacts. He likes, replies, retweets, favorites, comments back. Not only is Fallon connecting in this room, he’s also folding social engagement into his show. Tonight’s “hashtag game” show is a routine example of this. Fallon introduces a special hashtag/topic and encourages people to respond to their own encounters by using this hashtag for a chance to be included on The Tonight Show (sore subject – I have yet to be featured. #whereistheloveJimmy). These Fallon-designed hashtags get such a high-volume pick-up that they’re always trending on Twitter.
#3 – Entrust Experts with (some) Content Creation and Platform Management
This is perhaps the most powerful tactic of all. Just as one consults a doctor for their health, a brand should consult professionals for social media counsel. It’s clear that Fallon doesn’t cut and package all of these video clips and GIFs himself. Just as Santa has elves (and reindeer, for that matter), Fallon certainly has a social team doing most of the legwork and behind-the-scenes tinkering. It’s hard to predict how big a crew Fallon has recruited to handle his social media, but if points one and two tell us something, it’s that they know what they’re doing.
If you pay attention to their show, you can see the perfect social media cocktail requires honesty and performance – shaken, not stirred. The complete 9 yards will go to the noble social crew (for the right price). This includes creating content, arranging, and publishing those content, engaging with social audiences as necessary, handling social advertising, and tracking online interactions for ways to be constructive and participate in – or circumstances that involve a reactive response. But making Fallon send an occasional tweet on his own keeps the social tone of voice of the record, and reaffirms the credibility of his social viewers. After all, people join Fallon on social media because they want to hear what Fallon has to say, not what his social experts’ roundtable has to say.
What Brands Can Learn about Viral Marketing from Jimmy Fallon
The Tonight Show has gone absolutely viral with Jimmy Fallon at the helm. Bits like “Lip Sync Battle with Emma Stone” and “Slow Jam The News with Barack Obama” each got over 28 million and 10 million YouTube views. It’s certainly no coincidence that ratings were still on the rise, with spring figures showing the Tonight Show about 30% higher than the previous year in the 18-49 age brackets.
What are Fallon and his staff doing right? It’s everything. Of course, their material is beyond amusing. But there are tactics and lessons that all content marketers should borrow from the show to achieve viral success.
Use Cultural Touchstones to Reach Larger Audiences
Parodies became some of the most virally popular pieces of art on the Internet. The heart of the spoof is a reference to another cultural trope, and Fallon frequently nods in the direction of pop culture trends. One example is Fallon’s spot-on impersonation of Frank Underwood, the star of House of Cards, complemented by Underwood’s trademark direct addresses to the viewer and loaded with subtly changed variations of the classic lines: “I love that woman,” Fallon says, “I love her more than people love Netflix passwords of their friends.” The lesson? Treat a loved one with just the right mix between attention to detail and irreverence, and fans won’t be able to resist sharing. The House of Cards spoof, for example, earned 933,000 YouTube views in just four days.
Align Your Content with Trending Topics and News to Win on Social
Jimmy Fallon has the potential to launch trends, of course. Yet it also has the opportunity to capitalize on existing developments. This was the case, for example, in both the ALS ice bucket challenge—which Justin Timberlake had engaged in—and his on-air salute to Robin Williams. Although the latter was undeniably heartfelt, genuine, and moving, it underscored the strength of emotional and authentic material. The ALS piece got 1,300 retweets, while Fallon’s “O Captain, My Captain” anchored desk-stand earned nearly 10 million views in its first 4 days.
Utilize Your Industry’s Celebrities and Influencers
Although the latter was undeniably heartfelt, genuine, and moving, it underscored the strength of emotional and authentic material. The ALS piece got 1,300 retweets, while Fallon’s “O Captain, My Captain” anchored desk-stand earned nearly 10 million views in its first 4 days. Brands have long relied on celebrities to raise their market cache, and at the end of the day Tonight Show audiences are buyers not only of content, but of advertising that keep it on the air. Celebrities performing on the program, then, are simply adding first-and second-degree endorsements to all forms of content, whether they eventually hit an audience member live on TV or later on Facebook that night. Take-away: Even a guest blogger in the specialty product genre may have a similar viral effect.
Make Sharing Easy
The Social Team Tonight Show bundles content in a manner that makes it quite easy for people to share it. Instagram, for example, has also featured images of amusing text in the frame. This is an essential differentiation, say, from a picture with a text next to it. By holding text and picture together, The Tonight Show makes it a two-click method for an audience member to regram while keeping the original, humorous post intact. Being entertaining doesn’t matter, but if there isn’t anyone to see it, what’s the point of being entertaining in the first place? The above tactics are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s going right at The Tonight Show, so take a watch or two of yourself, and you’re bound to pick up some viral gems.
4 Things Virtual Event Producers Can Learn from Jimmy Fallon
#1 – Don’t Just Shoehorn a Live Event into a Virtual Space
There are countless aspects about live shows, from the manner in which sunshine fills the room to the clink of glasses and china, which draw our interest. Without this seamless interaction, interactive experiences need to find ways to amplify their experience. “You need more presence and more charm online.”
Perhaps the most important thing that Fallon does is actually get out of behind a desk—he delivered his monolog perched in the limbs of a tree in his yard, out of a cramped nook under the stairs of his home, and in his store, in front of a collection of screwdrivers. With many event organizers hoping to deliver virtual event choices even after travel constraints have been removed, could you broadcast from the rooftop or the garden at your meeting destination to make your experience more attractive? How do you blend live and pre-recorded segments together to bring more visual and auditory surprises?
#2 – Have Some Fun
Fallon’s pretty much about having fun all the time, calling comedian Tina Fey to play Alexa’s game, and drawing and sharing portraits with singer and actress Demi Lovato. Digital market experiences will also give fans a break by injecting a soft touch here and there.
#3 – Perfection is Boring
Fallon is a father, and his young daughters, Franny and Winnie, are at home, like millions of children across the globe. They became part of the stage, kicking off their rain boots at the entrance, and then pushing the slides to Fallon, or running the sound effects. They just do what Fallon demands of them occasionally. That tends to inject a “live” aspect into the show—obvious it’s that Fallon never really knows what to expect from his daughters, and neither do the viewers.
#4 – Engage Sponsors in Meaningful Way
Every day, Fallon uses his show as a vehicle to collect funds for another foundation that directly supports those afflicted by the pandemic. Charities are also proposed by his popular guests; his daughter writes URLs where people can give contributions in crayon, and the sponsor matches donations up to $200,000 a week.
Bottom Lines
As a leader and an influencer, Jimmy Fallon has pointed out countless of lesson which can benefit the people specializing in the same industry as well as the human in the society. Believing in yourself to understand your utmost desire and potential, then, always keeps an eye on changing and challenging yourself to strive for the better you than yesterday. Moreover, as for someone who work in the media industry, social media can be the most powerful and available marketing tool; if it is used tactfully, it can be a great CTA (Call to Action) helping to gain the engagement from the audience.
