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In the past few years, internet and its social network platforms have been totally taking over people’s lives. Companies had to go with this growing trend and work with the influent people who rose from the internet. A blogger is the author of a blog. A blog is basically a website where the author posts content day after day in line with current news. A blogger uses the internet as a means of communication to express and spread information on different topics in which she/he is an expert. With words, photography, videos, the blogger publishes new posts regularly and uses sources from traditional media, online communities, other blogs. Inspiration is everywhere. The power of people on social media is not only limited to bloggers. It can be everyone who shares content and gets the attention of the public. A more general word for all those individuals who have an influential voice through social media is « digital influencer ».


The origins of the blogosphere

The first blogs were very different from what we are now used to see on the internet. They were some kind of websites where short posts were broadcast in reverse chronological order. The first blog Links.net was created by a student in 1994. Five years later, Weblog was founded by John Barger: it was a website where authors could comment on links that they found interesting. Since then, the concept of « blog » was introduced in the internet world. In 1999 Blogger and Live Journal were launched. In 2000 the world counts 100,000 blogs. In 2003 WordPress was launched and Blogger was bought out by Google. In 2004 the term « blog » was elected as « the world of the year ». In 2005 YouTube became the main platform for video blogs that are actually named « vlogs ». The latter are basically people filming their everyday life. The second main platform for vlogs is Dailymotion which was created in 2005 by Benjamin Bejbaum and Olivier Poitrey. In 2007 was created Tumblr and so the micro blogging started to become a growing trend. In 2010, a total of 152 millions of blogs can be listed. In 2011 Google+ arrived in the social network marketplace. 1 million of daily new articles were counted then. Since then, about 3 millions of blogs are created each month.

Within one minute are published:

- 60,000 notes on Tumblr - a « note » is a Tumblr blog post (90 millions of blogs on Tumblr).

- 350 blog posts and 275 comments on WordPress (42 millions of WordPress blog)

The evolution of the blog content is directly linked to the technological evolution and diversification. Indeed today a blogger cans mix different elements in a post:

- texts

- links

- pictures, videos, sound records from the web

- pictures, videos, sound records from the his/her personal documents

A blog is different from a regular website. A blog is an interactive website where viewers can:

- leave comments

- subscribe to be noticed of a new article or of another user’s comment

- promote the article through social networks thanks to widgets

Today most blogs are mobile friendly; it means that blogs can be easily viewed on different screen types such as smartphones and tablets. Web users in mobile environments can thus read, comment and share posts on social media platforms all day regardless where they are.

Bloggers have a lot of influence and their impact is considerable:

- 1 web user out of 3 buys products according to information found on a specialized blog

- 1 web user out of 4 recommend new products via blog comments

Thus blogs are supposed to be more effective than Twitter or Facebook to convert web users into buyers. We can say that both the number of blogs and the number of blog viewers are having a significant growth everyday.


A famous blogger in the reality tv world is Steve Carbone. He has been spoiling the television show 'The Bachelor', 'The Bachelorette', 'Bachelor Pad', and 'Bachelor In Paradise' for countless seasons. A site that initiated from a mass email has grown in traffic by the thousands. His readers get his take on his slanted, sophomoric, and skewed views on Reality Television while finding out what will happen on their favorite TV show months before it airs on television. He has also been sued by the television show's creators and their network, ABC. However, his impact is not of high substance to completely shut him down. 'The Bachelor' has millions of viewers and Steve's website has traffic well into the thousands.Thus, it is not enough for ABC to harp on. However, they are still not happy with him. Yet, Steve does make a comfortable three figure income from his fun job and his readers love him!

Check him out at www.realitysteve.com

An example: Chiara Ferragni the most famous blogger

« Love fiercely (and don’t forget to stop along the way to take photos », she says on her mini biography on Instagram. Indeed we can see her little square pictures characteristic of the fashion industry’s favorite social media platform. Each of one them can make her earn $5,000 depending on the contract with brands and the number of likes the picture gets. With 6 posts a day on average, we now understand why Chiara Ferragni takes photos for a living.

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Chiara Ferragni found in 2009 « The Blond Salad » teaming up with her ex- boyfriend Riccardo Pozzoli, co-founder and CEO. Her first blog post stated: « Here we are at the first independent blog driven by needs of communication and personalization. After years spent on Flickr and other different web communities I felt like I had to move on and create a space for my own. The name is “The Blonde Salad” because this blog is gonna be a salad of myself. The ingredients will be those which have always characterized me: fashion, photography, travel and lifestyle.» She managed to stick to her initial plan... except if we consider the sponsored posts and product placements that have become one of her main sources of her 8-digit revenue in addition to the traditional advertisements on her website.

Her company is a major success so far. It has pocketed $6 millions dollars in profit in 2014, reached $9 million in 2015 and is expected to earned $17 million in 2016. According to Business of Fashion (leading business source in the industry), her shoe brand « Chiara Ferragni Collection » is available in 300 selective stores (such as Saks Fifth Ave) and will generated $15 million by itself and her website will realize a profit of $2 million. The Blond Salad phenomenon has been recently a study case at Harvard: the university studied the company’s successful and unique business plan and release a complete study now sold $14. In 2015, Chiara Ferragni became member of the LVMH Prize Committee. She has come a long way since the days of a regular hobby for this law student at Bocconi University (Milan). The Cremona born now LA based 29 year old attracts more than 500,000 unique visitors monthly on her blog that actually no longer has anything to do with a blog. She counts now 20 employees to manage her image on social media and her website that has been relaunched in September 2016 and now includes an e-shop section. In addiction to her shoe brand, other brands wanted to be a little part of The Blond Salad experience: Iro, MSGM or even Levi’s that has now a capsule collection in which the pairs of jeans have her slogan «never stop » on the back pocket. The e-shop also promotes young designers than the total fashionista Ferragni considers to be worthy of giving a shot.

Her online platform is both a lifestyle magazine and an e-shop - a « social wall technology ». In editorial stories posted on the blog, Chiara models the clothes sold on the e-shop and she also wears them in her daily life while posting pictures of them thanks to the hashtag #LiveTBS. TheBlondSalad.com proposes the perfect mix between luxury clothing and more accessible brands on the e-shop, beauty and fashion articles, and trip tips. On every side, Chiara masters the accessibly. The doll faced blogger plays with her versatile style and advocates that fashion should be fun. She deliberately never tags the brand she is wearing on Instagram to seem more genuine in the eyes of her followers. However she never forgets to judiciously to put into light some products that brands want to present to her 7 million Instagram followers. Compared to this, Balmain’s creative director and most followed designer Oliver Rousteing seems commun with his 4 millions of followers.

Way ahead the pioneers such as Garance Doré (641.000 follower), Chiara Ferragni is a total business woman who embodies the social media era and the post-distal fashion. All this is made by a super tight team: the « TBS Crew » having its own Instagram account. Her employees are also put in the spotlight. Her 24-year-old little sister (1 million Instagram followers by herself) also brings a younger audience. Every member of the team (mainly based in Milan) has been specially casted to attract a specific kind of followers and thus to connect brands. The powerful team also includes his ex-boyfriend Riccardo Pozzoli, co-founder and talent manager. Andrew Arthur, one of the new fashion generation’s top photographers and Chiara’s ex-friend, was also part of the TBS Crew. She is now dating Italian rapper Fedez (2,6 million Instagram follower). She knows what she is doing and shows her private life to please the curiosity of her fans who feel like they are part of the family. Above all she only posts the perfect side of everything. She is a self-made business woman who has build an empire over the year and is the perfect example of the cohort of people who started from scratch and were brought to the celebrity status thanks to new media. She proves that social networks never stop to be more connected and faster but they can online create careers in a long run.


Different platforms

Instagramers can be considered as a sort of bloggers. Each post (a picture with a caption is a post blog post). Instagram is becoming more popular than Facebook everyday. It is a platform where pictures are more meaningful than words and attracts marketers. Founded in 2010, Instagram was redeemed by Facebook in 2012 for $747 million. Back then only 80 people used Instagram. Today Instagram counts more users than Twitter. Companies are very active on Instagram with a commitment rate 60 times higher than Facebook. Indeed with pictures there is no language barrier, posts target feelings. Another advantage of Instagram is that a smartphone can be the only tool an Instagramer needs to work with. Even thought sponsorships with blogger has been around for a while now, partnerships with Instagramers is pretty new. To be considered as a proper Instagramer, a minimum of 50,000 followers is needed. Marketers are interest in

Instagramers that both gather a big audience and have a visual signature. They are seeking Instagramers with a social experience, namely influencers than can entertain their communities. The key factor is to present the products without being too pushy. The main goal is to create a beautiful picture. In this way Instagramers have to stage and catch the perfect shot to create dreamy pictures. It is all about lifestyle. The recurring themes are food, travels, fashion. That is why Instagram is not real life.

Another social media platform that is easy to get started with and only a smartphone is Snapchat. It is multimedia messaging mobile application released in 2011. A picture posted stays online only for a 24 hour duration. Influencers basically share moments of their day on it. Lately a lot of Snapchat account take over have happened. It is when an influence take over a company’s account to share their day with the company’s audience. This happens generally for a day. For instance, during le latest New York Fashion Week, the SnapChat account of Vogue Magazine was taken over by several celebrities. It creates content, entertainment and communication.

In brief, companies can team up with bloggers through three main ways: sponsored social media posts, giveaway and product reviews. A sponsored social media post is for example when a Instragramer will post a picture of him/her wearing a piece of clothing he/she has been asked from a certain brand. Giveaways happen when an influencer does some kind of lottery within his/her social media community and offer items for a certain company. A product review implies a blogger recommending products while being paid for doing so by the company in question.


Companies and bloggers to promote their brand

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Nowadays working with influencers is way more effective than doing classical advertisement in magazines. I will take two examples of companies that are well know by everyone: L’Oréal Paris and Airbnb. L’Oréal used to name actresses like Jane Fonda and Eva Longoria; top models like Doutzen Kroes and Karlie Kloss; or singers like Jennifer Lopez. L’Oréal muses have in comma outstanding careers and embody different kind of beauty. Lately, the French company seems to explore other ways and to choose a brand new public figure: a blogger. Indeed the 21 year old Swiss blogger Kristina Bazan, founder of the fashion and lifestyle blog « Kayture » is the first e-ambassador. L’Oréal President Cyril Chapuis says that she is the perfect intermediary between the classic muse and the consumer. He adds that she creates her own idea of beauty and possesses the amazing ability to share with and inspire women from all over the world. This is a message that L’Oréal Paris has always stated. In 2016, Thylane Blondeau (15 years old) appeared as a new face of the L’Oréal Paris. This girl embodies the power of social media in her generation, the millennials. She will actually appear in the upcoming advertisement campaign of the Italian luxury brand Dolce&Gabbana featuring other millennials that became famous through social, like her, media at a very young age. Thylane Blondeau is a total professional in terms of social media. All day everyday she posts pictures and short videos of her in her daily life on her different platforms: from her lunch at the high school cafeteria to her red carpet moment at Cannes Film Festival. She shares everything with her fan that are mainly teenagers. L’Oréal Paris was naturally interested in working with the teenager to attract a younger audience. Choosing an influencer is finding the right person with the right community, the right personality and the right style. He/her should fit the brand identity but as the same time propose something new to expand to company’s audience and reinforce its diversity.

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Now let's take an example in another industry: the travel industry. Airbnb is homestay network website/application founded in 2008 and based in San Francisco, California. I have seen recently on social media that they have implemented a new marketing plan involving digital influencers. The company lends house to influent people on social media platforms such as Kendall Jenner or Karlie Kloss. The only rent is to post a picture on the dream house they are staying in thanks to the company on Instagram while tagging Airbnb (@airbnb) and that is all.