Consistent with the French intellectual tradition of the theatre du tete (theatre of the mind) Social Media Today community member Laurent Francois was blogging about media and society  when he was a student at the Institute of  Political Science in Lyon, France. But it is the ability to take the means of social communication to the next level by bridging languages and cultures that makes him our Blogger of the Week.

After completing university in Lyon, Laurent worked for a period at the French Institute of Athens, contributing to the development of cross cultural sites, and then returned to France and obtained a Masters in European Business (MEB). He got his first major job at Ogilvy & Mather through an online social network that he actually started up with other alumni from the ESCP masters degree program.

"I studied at ESCP Europe, a well-known business school and met a lot of international fellows. We very naturally organised our MEB Alumni network online. At the same time, I started thinking more "business" than before, and I had the chance to start my very first work as a Web marketing/marketing consultant help SMEs answer questions like why an American entrepreneur would trust a German company, if they don't know each other?

"I worked in traditional advertising for a while, learning the difference between light and dark chocolate, and transferred it to social media," Lawrence said "It is the first time I learned to challenge consumers and engage them online. "

Today, Laurent directs the Paris hub of Ogilvy's 360 Digital Influencer Program. "I like to blog in multiple languages, because it reaches out to multiple cultures," he says. "When you form ideas, you have the form of trust and understanding across borders, and that is what social media is all about."

Note: You can read Laurent's posts in French at our sister site: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/fra