Influence: reputation with a human voice.
Influence encompasses all the voices and public contributions that help shape an organisation’s reputation.
Influence: the other voice of the company
A company communicates information, announces its strategy or presents an innovation. But it is always people who explain, discuss, defend and amplify these messages.
Influence gives your company’s ideas a face, a voice and a sense of public accountability.
That is why, alongside PR and GEO, influence is one of the three pillars of our approach to reputation.
Companies communicate.
People make others want to listen.
Corporate communication remains essential. It presents the company, its products, its results, its commitments and its strategy. But it cannot address every expectation.
Markets also expect explanations, analysis, first-hand insights and informed perspectives. They want to understand the view of the market that underpins a company’s activities, how it innovates and how it anticipates changes within its industry.
Whether they are executives, experts, engineers, consultants, researchers, partners, content creators or even customers, these voices are carried by people.
Today, reputation is shaped as much by these individual voices as by a company’s corporate messaging.
Two forms of influence. One goal.
At StoriesOut, we distinguish between two complementary dimensions of human-led communication. They serve different purposes, but both contribute to building your organisation’s reputation.
Internal voices
The first are the people who speak on behalf of your company.
- Executives.
- Industry experts.
- Researchers.
- Consultants.
- Engineers.
- Employees.
Their role is not to become influencers, but to provide insight and understanding. They articulate the company’s vision, explain a technology, analyse market developments, speak to journalists or contribute bylined articles.
They speak at conferences and share their expertise on LinkedIn or through podcasts.
This form of human-led communication, often referred to as personal branding, progressively strengthens your company’s credibility.
It also supports PR by giving journalists access to knowledgeable spokespeople who can explain, contextualise and bring a human perspective to the issues that matter.
External voices
The second are the people who speak about your company.
-
Content creators.
-
Influencers.
-
Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs).
-
Partners.
-
Ambassadors.
-
Professional communities.
-
Customers.
-
Independent analysts.
Their role is different. They do not represent your organisation, but they enrich the conversations surrounding it and help you reach new audiences. They bring an external perspective and can generate genuine third-party recommendations.
They help raise awareness of a brand, an innovation or an area of expertise beyond its usual audience.
This form of influence extends the reach of your communication.
How we work with you
Every organisation already has people who can give voice to its ideas. Our role is to identify them, structure and strengthen their public presence and, where relevant, build an influence ecosystem aligned with the company’s objectives.
Our approach is structured around four stages.
Identify the voices that matter
Identify the executives, experts, employees and partners who can consistently represent and communicate your organisation’s expertise over time.
Identify the communities, content creators and external voices that can also help increase your company’s visibility and reach.
Build a human-led communication strategy
Define the topics, formats and audiences for your communications, as well as the role each voice plays in your reputation strategy.
Develop thought leadership and collaborations
- Bylined articles.
- Interviews.
- LinkedIn.
- Blogs.
- Podcasts.
- Conferences.
- Ghostwriting.
- Media training.
Build relationships with content creators, ambassadors and partners where these collaborations support your communication objectives.
Build influence over time
Lasting influence cannot be built through a handful of posts. It requires consistency, coherence and the progressive development of a strong public voice.
We support this process over time to ensure that it makes a lasting contribution to your reputation.
Credibility and reach
These two dimensions are complementary. A company may have outstanding executives and recognised experts, but if their ideas are not amplified beyond the organisation, their influence will remain limited.
Conversely, a company may achieve strong visibility through content creators or ambassadors. But if its expertise is never expressed by its own people, turning that visibility into lasting trust becomes much more difficult.
Internal voices primarily build credibility.
External voices primarily extend reach.
Together, they give reputation a human dimension.
Why StoriesOut connects influence, PR and GEO-SEO
We integrate influence into a broader reputation strategy.
-
PR creates evidence.
-
Influence gives that evidence a voice.
-
GEO, combined with SEO and link building, helps shape how your narrative is perceived and interpreted, an essential condition for being understood, retained and recommended across today’s information environments.
These three disciplines reinforce one another and serve the same objective: building a credible, coherent and lasting reputation.
LinkedIn, the professional social network
The leading professional social platform, LinkedIn is an essential communication channel for brands. We help you strengthen your company’s appeal and build the influence of your executives.
Want to learn more?
Digital PR
Digital PR combines media relations and outreach strategies to connect your brand with highly targeted audiences through influencers and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs).
Social media: the power of high-quality SEO content
Our experienced team creates high-quality content that strengthens your brand and positioning, engages and convinces prospective customers, and improves your SEO performance.
Find out more.
Executive influence
Giving executives the platform to express their voice, vision and distinctive perspective is essential for companies that want to stand out. Influential executives need the right training, ongoing coaching and a strong understanding of the issues that matter to their organisation and their market.
Want to learn more?
Reputation needs people
A company creates a vision, along with the products and services that meet its customers’ needs. People give them a face, a voice and a wider reach.
This belief is at the heart of our approach to influence. Reputation is never built through messaging alone. It also relies on the people who bring those messages to life in the public sphere.
The expertise that makes your company valuable deserves a human voice.
