Online influence and reputation - Introduction

E-Reputation
Digital influencer strategies
E-REputation
EdouardFilliasandAlexandreVilleneuve
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INTRODUCTION
INFLUENCE AND REPUTATION IN THE INTERNET ERA
A BRIEF HISTORY OF INFLUENCE
MODERN INFLUENCE
REPUTATION
E-REPUTATION: MANAGING ONLINE IDENTITIES
E-REPUTATION: INFLUENCE AND REPUTATION IN THE INTERNET ERA
E-REPUTATION: EMERGENCE AND DEFINITION
DISCOVERING DIGITAL IDENTITIES
DEVELOPING DIGITAL INFLUENCE
DÉFINITION
CONSTRUCTING A DIGITAL IDENTITY
MAINTAINING A PRESENCE
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
TELL A STORY
BRAND CONTENT - THE CORNERSTONE OF STORYTELLING
CASE STUDY 1 - FREE
CASE STUDY 2 - THE KERVIEL AFFAIR
CASE STUDY 3 - THE PIRATE PARTY

OVERVIEW

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The internet has radically altered methods of communication and, by extension,
influence. It has made it possible to construct new digital identities. As reflections
of our ‘‘offline’’ existence, these identities, almost like virtual business cards, have
become ever more instrumental in shaping our perceptions of others, whether it
be a politician seeking election, a company to be floated on the stock market, or
even our next door neighbour.
Each year the number of network users increases, along with the volume of data
available. Search engines have become increasingly precise while new forms of
social media have reshaped user habits. Before our very eyes, the internet has
becomealivingencyclopediainrealtime,accumulatingfactsandcommentaryfrom
the past and the immediate present. This shared memory has had far-reaching
implications for society, business and science, but also for communication, which
now involves continuous editing of collective digital memory in order to project
the most favourable image.
Digital influencer strategies. Introduction

Influence and reputation
in the internet era

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Influence is a complex phenomenon, whose meaning and impact have changed
over time. Generally, influence is thought of at the level of a State, a leader, or even
a culture, an idea, or a writer. Our interest here is limited to a type of arranged
influence ; one that is desired and planned. This sort of influence chooses its
arguments and its timeframe at will. For centuries, few were in a position to exert
such influence over all of society.
Under the Ancien Régime, monarchy, clergy and local lords ruled through the
power of symbols and decrees, as candidly described by Machiavelli in his treatise
on power The Prince. With the invention and adoption of the printing press came
the broader diffusion of knowledge throughout society. New figures emerged who
sought to influence the wider public : intellectuals, free thinkers and politicians
entered the public sphere, rivalling the official dogma of secular and religious
authorities. In the 18th century, influence in its modern form took shape, with the
inception of a popular press and the increasing spread of knowledge in society.
This double phenomenon led to the emergence in the West of informed public
opinion. Franklin, Voltaire and Diderot were among the first to bear witness
to it, followed by many others. As society became more complex, so power
decentralised and with it the act of influencing others.
The renowned public relations figure Edward Bernays defined influence in his
hallmark work Propaganda (1928) as the actions of a minority to shape the opinion
ofthemasses.Asanobserverofandplayerintheemergenceofmarketdemocracy,
A BRIEF HISTORY
of influence
Digital influencer strategies. Influence and reputation in the internet era
Machiavel

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Liberal democracy, which offers round-the-clock news coverage via mass media,
thereby raising levels of public awareness, makes the exercise of influence not
only possible, but indeed necessary: living together means learning to reach
consensus. Bernays wrote that ‘‘the engineering of consent is the very essence of
the democratic process, the freedom to persuade and suggest’’ (The Engineering
of Consent, 1947).
In the present day, whether it be activist groups, business, political parties or
individuals, people now have the opportunity to form groups and communicate
their positions and ideas, with public opinion ultimately considered the arbiter.
A feature of market democracies is that governments are no longer alone in
taking stock of public opinion. Businesses are also directly affected. Over recent
decades, issues around the environment, social progress, social protection and
globalisation have placed them at the heart of the debate. As participants in public
discourse, they too must earn trust. Private interests must find favour with public
opinion if they are to convince politicians.
Democratic checks and balances of course serve as a countervailing influence,
in the form of regulation (as the tobacco industry, following decades of frenzied
lobbying, have learned to their cost) but also the critical thinking of individuals.
Current affairs are now understood within a framework of competing influences:
the issues for debate, as well as the agenda of debate participants are under
constant scrutiny in a complex, global society in which myriad interests are put
forward by the various influencers.
In terms of the methods of influencing people, Lippman in his book Public Opinion
(1922) talked of the necessity to construct a particular interpretation of events
and ideas in order to persuade: ‘‘in order to construct a propaganda there must
be some barrier between the public and the event’’, he argued. How do we create
suchabarrier?Theuseofstorytelling,institutionalcommunication,publicrelations,
advertising and marketing all serve to formulate a position and persuade potential
allies. Rather than talking in terms of ‘‘barriers’’, with its negative connotations and
inapplicability in the internet era, today a perspective or narrative is presented as
a means of interpreting events.
MODERN
INFLUENCE
Bernays is one of the key creators of modern influence. Walter Lippmann has also
theorised influence. As an American journalist and public relations figure who
first coined the term "Cold War", in 1922 he devised the expression ‘‘manufacture
of consent’’ to represent the combination of the social sciences - in particular
psychology - and modern mass communication to be deployed in the persuasion
of the masses.

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Shakespeare once wrote: ‘‘the purest treasure mortal times afford is spotless
reputation’’. The Spanish Jesuit philosopher Gracian taught us a basic lesson in
reputation management: when reputation exceeds merit, one must be cautious.
When merit exceeds reputation, one must enter the stage. ‘‘The world is a course
that is difficult to begin well and end well ; we lack experience for the former, but
it is that which damages us for the latter’’, he wrote.
Reputation is the projection of ourselves that others create, for an organisation
or a culture, based on the value that others attach to it and how they perceive our
actions. It is formed by the media and word-of-mouth. The absence of a reputation
makes it impossible to trade and work together : it is the basic guarantee of trust.
Recruitment processes, contracts or business deals would probably remain stuck
in their preliminary phase if the reputations of the parties involved were not
disclosed and mutually assured. It is an indispensible social image for coexistence,
much more than a mere identity card.
rEputation
Of all contemporary media formats, the internet has become the focal point for
influencers. As a medium for targeting, opinion leadership and ‘‘proof’’, its content
reaches individuals directly. It has become the principal vehicle in the narration
of ‘‘stories’’ that influencers present to us. Like the written and print press before
it, the internet has better informed public opinion and increased the capacity for
individual and collective action. It is on the internet that the battles of image and
ideas are now won and lost.
Shakespeare

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Reputation is something gained by default : all of us have a social image. Managing
a reputation is less common. What image do we want to put out? What are the
strategies to achieve this? Reputations take a long time to build and are hard
to refine, as Jean-Pierre Piotet, President of the Observatoire de la Réputation
reminded us, especially since, in the words of Montesquieu, ‘‘outstanding
reputations are the most exposed’’.
To build a reputation requires talent. Proving what one wants to be is the surest
way of becoming so. A person or business would not be content with mere empty
words when attempting to build a reputation. Time is the second most important
factor. No reputation can be built overnight, because although the internet may
have increased the tempo somewhat, a reputation can only be gauged over time.
Reputation is the cumulative effect of the many images evoked by successive
events and commentaries. Finally, conveying the message, the subject of this
piece, is the third factor, which is contingent on the previous two factors.
Reputation has become a key driver of promotion. Companies recognise that their
stock market trajectory hinges on their public image. For individuals, the ‘‘court of
public opinion’’ can be a powerful element; being recognised has helped launch
many careers. During crises or scandals, companies or individuals may call upon
their earned reputation as social capital in order to salvage their image, thereby
enabling them to reap its benefits.
Reputation and influence are the twin pillars of communication. A carefully-
managed reputation enables us to exert spontaneous influence over others:
the example and the inspiration are created, setting a standard in the process.
However, no influence can be established without a reputation to support it. We
must ensure that both are in sync so that one does not harm the other. That way,
the oil company can count on its reputation as responsible corporate citizen in
order to exert influence in debates on environmental issues. The politician will
take care to preserve his image as an honest person if he wants to have credibility
with voters on the theme of integrity in politics.

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The online image that an organisation, product, idea or individual projects on the
web is known as a digital identity. It is the often imperfect digital projection of
our reputation in the physical world. The management of this digital identity is a
concept known as E-reputation. This new term encompasses several approaches
to online communication that used to be studied and implemented in isolation,
including: interactive and digital marketing, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and
natural indexing, Online Watch, community management and SMO (Social Media
Optimisation), website construction and management of multimedia content
creation (e.g. videos, infographics).
E-reputation, also known as ‘‘Internet Policy’’ or ‘‘Internet Strategy’’, is a holistic
approach to internet media. It brings together expertise and strategic vision,
whose management had until now been fragmented, in pursuit of one objective:
to maintain a consistent presence and rapport with the internet user on all web-
enabled platforms and technologies. Presenting a consistent, well-managed
image on Facebook and Twitter while ranking highly on Google searches involves
promoting what is perceived to be our digital identity everywhere online that can
catch the user’s eye and make an impression. E-reputation refers to the entirety of
online public relations, the action of managing our digital identity.
As part of any E-reputation strategy, analysing the natural indexing of search engines
allows us to understand and respond to data rankings - itself a reflection of user
perceptions - through search activity. Interactive marketing, in particular studying
the available website traffic data, enables us to analyse the impact of a website,
sponsored link campaign, blog or YouTube channel and to assess its effectiveness.
Digital monitoring provides us with information on what is being talked about and
on the emergence of trends, allowing us to react and adapt to the debate and to
user expectations. Finally, social marketing and ‘‘community management’’ help us
to bring together and communicate better with our reference groups, supporters
and detractors alike, particularly on social media.
E-REPUTATION
managing online identities

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Behind the trends and management methods, it is clear that the internet has
permeated into our daily lives as the standard tool for accessing information and
that this technological revolution requires the formulation of a new approach
to communicating influence. Online services continue to proliferate : video,
online enyclopedias, telephone, high-quality social networks, each day gradually
assimilatingmore‘‘offline’’data,pastandpresent.Theinternethasnotonlybecome
a mirror accurately reflecting reality, but also a lever for action, congregation and
persuasion, where one must be equipped with a coherent battle plan to exist and
defend one’s interests. The network is the terrain on which the battle for influence
is fought; a battle which has only just begun.
In recent years, public debate has spilled on to the web. In particular, since the
emergence of a mass audience, civil society (NGOs, political parties, associations,
lobby groups) has used the internet to seize major issues and propel them to
the top of news agendas, examples of which include the environment (mobile
antennas, GMO) and privacy (Hadopi - the Creation and Internet Law in France,
CCTV). Furthermore, the internet is a formidable ‘‘lever’’ by which challengers can
communicate: it costs little to use, is at the centre of the debate and is influential.
It makes it possible to rapidly convey a position with the support of a like-minded,
readily-mobilised community. The web has therefore become the leading media
platform for ‘‘social debate’’ and thus for poltical influence: it plays the same role
E-REPUTATION
influence and reputation in the internet era
Anonymous Flag

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in shaping public opinion as did television in the 1960s.
However, the internet has not supplanted the older media formats; it has instead
partly incorporated them, subsequently overtaking them in terms of their capacity
to influence before becoming the media platform where one has instant access
to information, all while being able to compare it and if necessary verify it, but
above all to comment on it with third parties. The web is at the forefront of news
media, to the point where a section of the conventional news media agenda is
now devoted to commenting on what is happening on the internet. Has Twitter
become the new universal newswire, surpassing the traditional news agencies?
If influencing is the art of winning an argument without constraint and internet is
the media of choice for influence, then it follows that the art of managing one’s
online image and message, or E-reputation, has become the most natural tool
with which to exercise influence. It is vital therefore not only to study it in its
own right, but to avail onself of practical and conceptual tools that facilitate the
exercise of influence over the internet. How do we present ourselves in the best
possible light to internet users? How do we deal with criticism and attacks? How
do we transmit our message quickly and with precision to our target audience?
How can we engage profitably in online public debate? We will attempt to respond
to these questions in this piece.
On the subject of influence, Susan Helstab, Marketing Vice-President of Four
Seasons Hotel & Resorts, offered this insight (Stratégie No. 1662 (2012)): ‘‘For a
long time I thought that talking and persuading formed the basis of marketing.
Now, I believe it is above all about influencing. We have become producers of
content, providers of information. We encourage customer engagement with our
brand, while making the booking process easier. We give control back to the
consumer.’’
The observation made by this seasoned professional evokes many of the key
elements introduced in this piece: influence as the priority area of marketing,
along with conversation and interaction with customers (Social CRM). In summary,
it is a radical shift away from the traditional, top-down form of communication.

E-reputation
emergence and definition

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Finding one’s digital identity involves one simple action: to ‘‘google yourself’’. Many
often check what is being said about them and their relatives on the internet
throughout the year. 57% of Americans are reported to have already ‘‘googled
themselves’’ (Pew Internet Research Center), of whom 65% were aged between
18 and 25. 63% of internet users who have ‘‘googled themselves’’ report finding
‘‘pertinent’’ results on themselves. This represents an underlying trend, to the
point where some intellectuals have cited the emergence of a ‘‘society of the
query’’ (Geert Lovink, The Society of the Query and the Googlisation of our Lives,
2008).
For individuals, the issue of digital identity often affects well-known personalities.
Somecelebritieshavebeenrockedbyscandals,andintheprocesshavediscovered
the influence of the internet over personal image. In France, it was the affair
surrounding Estelle Hallyday, in which the model sued over photos published on
a site hosted by Altern.org. This affair was soon followed by a number of other test
cases (Vincent Pérez, Laure Manaudou). Abroad, prominent actress and model
Kate Moss has had an online reputation management team in place for several
years. Hollywood agents now offer their clients a whole range of services in this
area, something which is also growing in France.
Evidently, the issues for the individual go far beyond simple narcissistic concerns:
the image that one presents may be used to convince potential employers,
investors, or in the negative sense to prevent the emergence of damaging results
likely to compromise one’s professional or private life, such as court decisions or
images from one’s past. To manage one’s ‘‘digital identity’’ has become a matter of
increasing concern, particularly in the liberal professions where practitioners can
have a high profile, such as doctors or lawyers.
The Kerviel affair in France has also led people to be more aware of the power of
the internet in shaping how others perceive us.
DISCOVERING
digital identities
Digital influencer strategies. E-Reputation : emergence and définition

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Digital identity is the aggregate of results collected by an internet user when
performing an internet search. From search engine results for websites and blogs
through to photo galleries, casually or carefully the internet user treads this digital
path guided by curiosity, as a result of which he will have forged a mental image
of the brand that was the subject of his search. All information gathered this
way forms a digital identity. As named entities, celebrities, anonymous individuals,
consumer products or films all have their own digital identity.
This virtual identity has come to complement its consitituent elements in the
physical world. For people, learning about someone’s identity used to take the
form of a recommendation, a meeting between people or reading Who’s Who. For
brands, our opinion was usually forged through advertising, the opinions of other
customers within our circle of acquaintances or by tests carried out ourselves.
The perception provided by the internet of others or of a given item was only
complementary. There we would find additional, often piecemeal information
that we already possessed about those characteristics.
As mentioned in the introductory chapter, the internet has become an influential
form of mass media, boosted by the success of social networks. This development
has altered the secondary nature of digital identity. Once complementary, it is
now the principal reference point. Identity and quality are now verified on the
internet in the first instance, for people and brands. The largest knowledge base
for other people, organisations and products can now be found there. Now, it is
the internet where we go first to find out about an election candidate or to decide
what product to buy.
DEfinition
Digital influencer strategies. Developing digital influence

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We can identify four main channels that convey digital identity and shape user
perception: social networks (e.g. internal search engines, quantity and quality of
social connections), media (e.g. citations in blogs, articles, media extracts listed on
news aggregators and indexed by Google), search engines (mainly Google, based on
strategic keywords, beginning with the name), specific content indexed by Google and
available on file-sharing platforms, in particular videos (e.g. video clips, Powerpoint
documents or PDFs, web pages, texts, comments).
Digital identity therefore is no longer a source of supplementary information,
but our first point of reference. It can be defined as the intersection of social
networks (public and professional), search engines (results from Google searches),
publications (user reviews, articles in blogs or other online media) and content
that we have published ourselves (own websites, blogs, video archives).
Figure 1. The channels of digital identity
Social networks
Search engines
Media-blogs-websites
Reference content – sharing
D I G I T A L
I D E N T I T Y

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CONSTRUCTING
a digital identity
Digital identity applies to everyone. Now ‘‘caught in the web’’, we must ask ourselves
the question: do we, or do we not, want to try to control this digital identity? Exerting
influence is impossible without control over digital identity. Where it exists but has
escaped our control, we must reinvent it; where it remains in an embryonic state, we
must develop it.
Creating a digital identity with a view to gaining influence on the internet is the essence
of a successful E-reputation strategy. Yet to achieve this, we must learn to control our
digital identity and define how it will be used in order to wield influence, and to what
end.
A well-managed digital identity can be identified by the presence of four key properties:
consistency, proof, connection and history.
Consistency : all search results correspond to a coherent identity, with no
discrepancies or contradictions. Comments added by internet users, in official
discourse, or in items of content that can be found on Google or Facebook must
all be congruous, serving a single message and image.
Proof : a digital identity is more than mere words - it can be authenticated.
Photo albums, press articles, testimonies, Wikipedia contributions: even if what
is genuine is no longer the identity’s main location, it remains the proven source.
As far as is possible, one will aim to connect defining properties to supporting
evidence found on the web, in order to corroborate the official line.
Connection : a well-managed digital identity is by necessity integrated. It finds its
place within a context of reference, whether it be an industry, a political context
or a fan group. It is cited in «blogrolls» (lists of links to blogs addressing related
themes) and its content is shared by trendsetters in the same domain. A digital
identity can even extend into multiple related «spheres», all linked and mutually
consistent.
History : time is the key ally of digital credibility. A digital identity is built over
a period of time, through web-generated content, established connections and
published documents. When performing a web search, the internet user will not
only find the present but also the past for a given identity. The internet forgets
nothing. It offers us the opportunity to write our history - and with it to forge our
identity.
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Figure 2. The four strengths of a digital identity
PROOF
CONSISTENCYCONNECTION
HISTORY
D I G I T A L
I D E N T I T Y
Proof, connection, consistency and history are the four defining strengths of a
credible digital identity. The more these four properties are evident, the more
trustworthy a digital identity is for the internet user.
Establishing an influencing strategy via the internet merges with the objective
of controlling and defining a digital identity, with a view to becoming a leader
or strengthening an online presence. Indeed, any communicative action (e.g.
maintaining a blog, website, indexing, content production) impacts on a digital
identity: we must engage in forward planning to attain all of our objectives.
Deployingadigitalidentityrequiresthreesuccessivesteps:maintainingapresence,
building relationships and developing a history or engaging in «storytelling» for
this identity. Certain strategies stop midway; maintaining an online presence is
in effect the minimum requirement for a digital identity. However, to develop
influence and create an E-reputation strategy at the height of our ambitions, in
other words capable of mobilising our digital identity in pursuit of our objectives,
we must go further.

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MAINTAINING
a presence
All digital identities need a base. We must be present in spaces deemed to be
‘‘reputable’’, in order to present ourselves and make our identity known. Google
and Facebook spring immediately to mind as indispensible online locations. Two
major approaches coexist in maintaining a ‘‘natural’’ online presence (in other
words, not including the paid advertising approach): the SEO (Search Engine
Optimisation) approach and the «social» or SMO (Social Media Optimisation)
approach.
The SEO approach was for a long time universally adopted in maintaining an online
presence. Forums thus became the champions for visibility on Google, offering a
large amount of well-referenced content. CommentCaMarche, the former ‘‘high-
tech’’ turned ‘‘life skills’’ discussion forum, has been in existence since 1996 and
still ranks among the most visited French websites. Generating large amounts of
well-connected, popular content guaranteed a high ranking for visibility on Google
and often a large audience.
Digital identity therefore almost exclusively meant a high listing for content on
Google.
Facebook gained a dominant position as the leading media platform for
connecting with the customer: now, communities have been formed and brands
communicate directly with their public on Facebook. Social media, in which Twitter
and Facebook are key players, has become the new arena for digital identities.
In order to avail themselves of a base, digital identities need not only an effective
Google listing for all of its key content (e.g. websites, blogs, photo galleries,
reputable press articles), but also a community presence (e.g. Facebook page,
connections to groups and a profile of our target audience as well as of opinion
leaders). Once, it was Google’s algorithm that verified our existence on the web.
Now, our presence is also validated by the integration into one or more reputable
networks. «The medium is the message», as McLuhan told us. On the internet,
choosing which social locations to frequent is also to define one’s online identity.

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The key to a successful influencing strategy that aims to make us a leading,
reputable entity is the rare capacity to think like our target audience. One must
demonstrate empathy and quick-wittedness to plant oneself on the couch and
adopt the life or the mindset of someone whom one seeks to persuade on the
internet. What are the most frequented media sites on the web? What sort of
language do they use? What issues concern them? What lifestyle do they enjoy?
By responding to these questions as a priority, one can develop an effective digital
identity, as it is focused on the expectations of the population that it seeks to
influence.
Understanding our target audience must enable us to create a lasting relationship
between the digital identity put forward and its target audience. To achieve this,
we must follow current events and trends relating to our reference area (digital
monitoring enables us to follow the views of opinion formers and pertinent forum
conversations) in order to put in place effective ‘‘Community Management’’ tools.
Community management involves communicating with opinion leaders on the
web: customers, target voters, journalists and colleagues. Many editorial positions
can be developed: staying up-to-date with industry news, asking questions (in the
form of polls), asking for opinions on products or making the process of decision
making more participative.
Such conversations generate loyalty and help the community to grow. It increases
the volume of pertinent content, along with the links that enhance visibility on
social networks and on Google. In a word, it gives our digital identity ‘‘credibility’’ ;
in other words, being adaptable and capable of engagement.
This step is a challenge for many brands. It involves making the transition from a
top-down advertising culture (brand to consumer), to a dynamic engagement in
which the consumer not only evaluates the product, but also potentially promotes
it. Gaining the confidence of the consumer is essential so that he in turn may
persuade others (see Chapter 1, the mechanism of recommendation). To this day,
few brands have managed to achieve success by becoming truly ‘‘conversant’’ on
social media.
It is much easier for an individual to define a digital identity on social networks.
These types of media were in fact designed with this in mind: bringing together
friends and professional contacts while broadening acquaintances. It is in the
interest of business leaders, those in the liberal professions, political candidates,
but also individuals wishing to optimise their digital identity to regularly post
messages in line with the expectations of their target audiences on their Facebook
«wall» or via Twitter.
BUILDING
relationships

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TELL
a story
The third step in creating a digital identity is to place our story, or ‘‘legend’’ on a
timeline. A legend is not fictitious; it is a scripted and recounted story. A carefully-
managed history is what a well-honed digital identity can offer, in order to gain
access to the broadest possible lever of influence. Did the visionary poet Paul
Valéry not once write: ‘‘the historian does for the past what the fortune teller does
for the future’’? Here we can play the role of historian for our own legend. To do
this, we should look closer at the techniques of storytelling.
Following the opulent era of ‘‘branding’’ dating back to the 1980s, consumers
began to search for a different brand relationship. They demanded closer
proximity, more sincerity. ‘‘Logo is King’’ no longer resonated, while traditional
forms of advertising became contested. Sergio Zyman, ex-Director of Marketing
at Coca-Cola, described it thus: «marketing as we know it is dead. It no longer
works. It is a colossal waste of money and if you don’t take heed of this, it will end
up destroying your company and your brand» (The End of Advertising as We Know
It, First Editions, 2003).
Paradoxically, Naomi Klein, Canadian journalist and author of the bestselling
critique of marketing and globalisation No Logo: Brands, Globalisation and Resistance
(2000), saw this refrain echoed by the very same forces of capitalism. As is often
the case, marketing techniques adapted themselves to a new environment.
Branding in its erstwhile form may no longer have resonated, but as author and
researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) Christian
Salmon argues in his book Storytelling (2007), it was the invention of narratives
that was now capturing audiences.

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Storytelling involves placing stories or ‘‘legends’’ at the heart of communication.
A fictional narrative, incorporating elements of both truth and imagination,
has become the new intermediary for political, institutional or commercial
communication. On an individual level, everyone is now encouraged to craft their
own legend, a story to tell the public that is written with the aim of being co-opted,
elected, hired or promoted, for example.
Salmon quotes viral marketing expert Seth Godin’s assessment that ‘‘the goal of
new marketing is to recount stories, not to create advertisements’’. The Whiskey
brand Chivas became fashionable at the beginning of the 21st century after
completely reinventing itself by recounting the legend of its origins (being awarded
a Royal Warrant by the Queen on a visit to Balmoral) and its expansion (from
the Highlands to the New World, where the brand first took off in the 1950s).
Chivas has thus become not just a brand, but a legend, as underlined by its newly-
adopted placement of ‘‘The Chivas Legend’’.
To influence minds, one must employ symbols and narratives. As Roland Barthes
wrote in Introduction to the structural analysis of narratives: ‘‘in this infinite variety of
forms, it is present at all times, in all places, in all societies; indeed narrative starts
with the very history of mankind; there is not, there never has been anywhere,
any people without narrative; all classes all human groups have their stories,
and very often these stories are enjoyed by men of different and even opposite
cultural backgrounds.’’ It is the very discourse of power. A power that we saw in
Ronald Reagan, the great ‘‘narrator’’ who coined the term ‘‘Star Wars’’ in reference
to seeking supremacy over the USSR, or who conjured the image of the ‘‘Welfare
Queen’’ who lived above her means like a lady of leisure. This clever rhetoric
served to wrap political discourse in Hollywood-style packaging. Reagan himself
was accustomed to the type of ‘‘historical’’ anecdotes often found in westerns.
When George Bush refers to an axis of evil in support of instigating the War on
Terror, or when Michael Moore evokes the shooting at Columbine High School
in Bowling for Columbine, both of these political adversaries adopt the same
method, namely to place their opinion within the context of a movie script to
more effectively engage their audience.
Stories direct people, as demonstrated by the careful attention paid to the writing
of history by political (particularly totalitarian) regimes. History reassures people
because it provides a framework for understanding the world. This framework
seem reasonable: it serves to offer proof, while in reality it suffers from a degree
of emotional bias. Whoever designs the framework controls its present and future
image.

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BRAND CONTENT
thecornerstoneofStorytelling
As Jeanne Bordeau rightly points out in Storytelling et contenu de marque La
puissance du langage à l’ère numérique (Storytelling and Brand Content: The Power
of Language in the Digital Age; Ellipses, 2012), brand content is the cornerstone
of any digital strategy that seeks to adopt a narrative. This brand content can be
«service-based» to the extent that it fulfils a service function vis-à-vis the end user
(e.g. to inform, direct, or respond to questions) or it can be recreational (e.g. a
game or a quiz). In all cases it must correspond to the brand’s DNA.
It also addressed ‘‘Surf Telling’’; namely how to build coherence in the brand’s
image from link to link, based on the user’s ‘‘surfing’’ activity. It is a concept that
has been adopted by ‘‘The Chase’’, an Intel advertising campaign for the Core i5
processor, used subsequently by Sure/Mennen in its promotion on Dailymotion,
and by Magnum with the online game ‘‘Pleasure Hunt’’. In the Sure/Mennen surf
telling initiative, the internet user is invited, on the video site, in different languages
and on different forms of social media, to follow the wanderings of the ‘‘deodorant
stick’’ It is recreational and what follows invites a form of narration.
Xavier Niel, founder of Free, whose background was in erotic messaging and as
a shareholder in several sex shops, did not have the ideal track record to bring
together a user community. However, Free now boasts a vibrant web community.
As a small-scale internet service provider (ISP), Free learned quickly that it would
need to differentiate itself from larger competitors such as France Telecom and
SFR, as it could never match their advertising or commercial prowess.
It quickly sought to target technology lovers, so-called ‘‘techies’’ or ‘‘tech-geeks’’
who, prior to 2000 were the main thought leaders for establishing homemade
internet connections, indeed more so than today. This was made all the easier
by the fact that Xavier Niel was himself a technophile. Among his most notable
exploits was software that he designed to copy (illegally) the France Telecom
directory and to offer his own inverted Minitel 36 17 directory service, which was
still achieving turnover of €1 million in 2009.
Since its creation, instead of offering installation or assistance services, Free
launched its «low cost» strategy while still offering the increased bandwith and
advanced functionality so valued by ‘‘techies’’. On its launch in 1999, Free was the
first operator to offer internet access without subscription nationwide. Two years
Cas Study 1. Free
Finding and transforming a community into opinion leaders

25
later, it launched the first ADSL ‘‘box’’ and ‘‘triple play’’ packages (ADSL, phone, TV)
at a fixed price of €29.90 per month.
Free also sought to develop contacts with user associations and groups close to
the brand. It was the first ISP to open up to the community of developers, offering
them the chance to contribute to FreePlayer, software that enabled the watching
of videos stored on a computer hard drive on a TV screen.
By offering regular contact with company figures and even Xavier Niels himself,
Free maintained a strong presence with FreeNews (Free’s news site) user groups
and the ADUF (Free Users Association). This close proximity with Free also posed
a credibility problem for ADUF, because although it emphasised its independent
status, some internet users noted that its address was the same as that of Free
and that the ‘‘Honorary President and staff member designated by the company
FREE S.A.S.’’ was in fact Angélique Berge, Free’s Director for Customer Relations.
What is clear is that the approach taken by Free pushed its involvement with
this customer group to the limit (see Chapter 5, Astroturfing). Nevertheless, the
community maintains a strong presence on the web and other sites regularly
spring up, such as Univers Freebox, Freebox News and Freebox Forum.
The first advertising campaigns launched by Free were also very ‘‘techie-oriented’’.
In 2006, Free launched an advertising campaign with a fake ISP site, ‘‘cretin.fr’’,
which boasted the JMMPP (Je Me Mets Plus Près, or ‘‘I’ll Sit Closer’’) facility as a
viable substitute for HDTV (Free was the only operator to offer HD services at the
time).
Founder of Free
Xavier Niel

26
In France, the Kerviel affair has highlighted the central role of image management
on the internet, in two ways. On one hand, Jérôme Kerviel, an anonymous member
of the public, was transformed by the network into a well-known public figure within
48 hours of his name first being cited. On the other hand, Société Générale had
not reckoned on the wave of protest and discussion emerging online. According
to a statement from Denis Marquet, Director of Communications for Société
Générale, it was probably the main failing of the image contingency plan put in
place at the time.
Cas Study 2. The Kerviel Affair
From anonymity into the spotlight: Internet and E-reputation
Former employee of la Société Générale
Jérôme Kerviel
Later, in 2009, Free underlined its ‘‘Geekitude’’ by creating its own emblematic
techie character Rodolphe, who ‘‘understood everything’’ and who in different
episodes would take advantage of the various services and low prices offered by
Free. Popular with the public, Rodolphe’s unofficial Facebook page had more than
100,000 likes.
But while Free’s winning commercial strategy was based on ‘‘techie’’ thought
leaders, it appears that, having been awarded France’s fourth mobile phone
licence, the company now seeks to broaden its reach with the wider public. In a
piece in Strategies magazine, Maxime Lombardini, Director General of Iliad/Free,
said of the planned withdrawal of the Rodolphe series that Xavier Niel asked him
‘‘to do things less offbeat’’. Is this the hour of the company’s institutionalisation?

27
At a press conference on the morning of 24 January 2008, Société Générale
announced a loss of €4.82 billion on the markets, caused by the recklessness
of one trader, Jérôme Kerviel. His name only circulated that afternoon, having
been leaked by the Financial Times. Having vilified the culprit from the beginning,
Société Générale and its CEO Daniel Bouton prepared to incur the wrath of public
opinion and political leaders, already on edge with respect to the financial sector
in the difficult economic climate.
From the start of the affair, numerous specific attacks were aimed at Kerviel (Daniel
Bouton said to journalists of Kerviel: ‘‘this con artist, this fraudster, this terrorist...
I don’t know’’). The sheer scale of the spectacular losses, coupled with curiosity,
caused a flurry of interest and activity on the individual’s Facebook page. The race
for a story, a sort of ‘‘online manhunt’’, was made all the more straightforward
given that, as a young professional, Kerviel had an online presence. LinkedIn,
alumni group pages from business school he attended and above all Facebook
were the sites that figured in this frantic search. His Facebook page was quickly
inundated with ‘‘Friend Requests’’, while a number of groups in support of Jérôme
Kerviel were formed. Before his face had even appeared in the press, he already
had 100,000 likes on Facebook. Now a web icon, a number of fan sites emerged
in the days following the press conference. T-shirts with the slogan ‘‘I am Jérôme
Kerviel’s girlfriend’’ went on sale; there were video parodies as well as sites and
blogs in support of traders.
With Kerviel creating a buzz and becoming an ‘‘internet superhero’’ (L’Express,
29 January 2008, five days after the story broke), he saw his online image turned
upside down within hours. A Google search for ‘‘Jérôme Kerviel’’ in June 2010
yielded more than 250,000 results, almost all of which related to the affair. This
number is comparable to that for an established national celebrity who had made
a series of media appearances over several years. Almost half of all search results
returned for Kerviel were created over the period 24-29 January 2008, creating
a digital memory so vast that it would take more than a lifetime to get through.
An interesting aside to the story was that the photo of Jérôme Kerviel on his
Facebook profile was used on 25 January by all international media outlets for
articles covering the affair!
Thereweremanyreasonsforthesurgeininterest:curiosity,humour,astonishment,
generating support for someone who appeared to have been scapegoated;
above all we will recall that this affair marked the collective, brutal discovery of
‘‘digital identity’’ as a concept. The Kerviel affair raised issues for all internet users:
could people, in the event and unbeknownst to us, be as ‘‘probing’’ about our
digital identity? Will we one day be the object of such an abrupt and unhinged 15
minutes of fame?
As well as neglecting the impact of the internet on the image of its former
employee, Société Générale had not anticipated the wave of misuses of its logo,
the countless blogs and opposition forums all of which, page after page, kept
public support firmly on the side of Kerviel. Denis Marquet, successor to Hugues

28
While youth abstention is a common theme in politics across Europe, one party
in Sweden managed to achieve a 19% share of the vote among 18-30 year-olds
at the 2009 European Elections - it is known as the Pirate Party (Piratpartiet). This
‘‘UFO’’ of the Swedish political scene put forward the youngest MEP (22 years
old) to be elected to the European Parliament in its history, running on one main
platform: internet freedom.
Its founder Rickard Falkvinge outlines the discontent of a generation for whom
liberty resides primarily on the internet: ‘‘The war is being waged on the rights of
citizens, which is the major issue. More important than health care, education,
nuclear, defence and all the other crap we’ve been debating about for forty
years.’’ The three main pillars of party policy are: 1) reform to copyright legislation
(including legalisation of not-for-profit, peer-to-peer sharing) ; 2) abolition of
patents; and 3) respect for privacy and basic rights on the internet.
Cas Study 3. The Pirate Party
The political party for the internet generation
Le Bret as Director of Communications at the bank, stated in the review journal
Communication de crise & Sensible with respect to arrangements put in place:
‘‘The main failing was taking insufficient account of internet media and we should
have put a stop to rumours that began to circulate and which characterised
Jérôme Kerviel as some sort of Robin Hood figure with his bands of supporters’’.
In this lay a powerful lesson in image crisis management.

29
Founded in 2006, the party made its breakthrough in 2009 following the enactment
of anti-piracy legislation in Sweden. But it was the one year prison sentence handed
out to the founders of The Pirate Bay, the search engine for peer-to-peer file
sharing, which created an explosion of interest in the party. Within a few weeks,
the Piratpartiet saw its membership increase from 15,000 to 50,000 (Sweden
has a population of 9 million, which is the equivalent of 300,000 members for a
country such as France, and more than all other active political parties). Among
its members, more than half are involved in its youth wing, ‘‘Ung Pirat’’. The party
gained a 7% share of the vote and two MEPs in the 2009 European elections.
The internet-based party has always favoured virtual forms of communication. As
its founder describes: ‘‘We could never have done this without the infrastructure
of dialogue that the internet offers us. Older media formats have lost control over
discourse.’’ The Pirate Party benefits from all the community-based tools. It first of
all organised a large 15,000-strong forum, followed by a webchat tool on its site
allowing new arrivals to converse with leaders of the party. The party also took
full advantage of social media. With 18,000 likes, its Facebook page is updated
several times a day by community managers. Unlike many politicians who only use
Twitter as a ‘‘downward’’ communication tool, the party uses the tool to engage in
dialogue with its 3,100 followers; its admin attempts to answer all questions and
to retweet those messages deemed to be of interest. On its YouTube account, the
Piratpartiet has 900 subscribers to its political videos, which have received more
than 220,000 views. Before becoming available for free, membership could be
arranged by SMS.
In its fight for liberty on the internet, the party now hosts The Pirate Bay, as well
as a section of Wikileaks. The party has also launched (paid) internet services for
the protection of privacy. The first service launched in 2006 enabled encryption
of internet user connections to guarantee anonymity on the internet. In 2010,
the party even launched an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to guarantee complete
anonymity for its subscribers.
There have been many offshoots of this Swedish model: between 2006 and 2010,
40 pirate parties were founded worldwide. They together form the cooperation
group Pirate Parties International, officially established in 2010. The Pirate Party
did not achieve the same success in the Swedish general election of 2010 as they
did the previous year, pointing to the threat of tactical voting brandished by the
more mainstream parties. One could however argue that the societal phenomena
that the party’s emergence has brought up may remain, or even develop further.
The Pirate Party’s demands now go far beyond its initial programme and extend
to other parties (in particular the Greens and Liberals).

30
Some have criticised the aggressive nature of the system, as if Obama was
simultaneously both judge of and party to all pertinent information. Its site has also
been targeted by opponents on numerous occasions. It has however prevailed
thanks to the professionalism of its team, conscientious in removing potential
hackers but also very reactive, capable of picking up on the smallest sign, through
a high-performance monitoring tool that is both human and software-based. The
reaction time on the site for major cases never execeeds half a day.
In the 2012 US Presidential election, Obama replicated this approach with the
sites ‘‘Attack Watch’’ and ‘‘Obama Truth Team’’.

These pages provided by Jin are excerpts from the book
E-Reputation written by Edouard Fillias, CEO & Co-founder Jin
and Alexandre Villeneuve, CPO & Co-founder de Jin, published
by Ellipses in 2012.
If you wish to read on to know more about click on E-REPUTATION
DIGITAL INFLUENCER STRATEGIES

Online influence and reputation - Introduction

Online influence and reputation - Introduction

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