Definition Opinion Leader. Description.
An Opinion Leader (OL) is an individual capable to repeatedly persuade and influence other people's behaviors according to her/his own preferences.
An Opinion Leader, also known as Influential, is someone who has the power to informally manipulate attitudes and behaviors of other individuals. The concept has been researched by Robert Merton in 1949 and lately developed by Katz and Lazarsfeld.
Opinion leadership is achieved and sustained through a leader’s technical competence, social skills and compliance with values and norms of his current social system. It is a type of informal leadership where the persuasion is indirect and frequent in time. Usually the relationship between an OL and his followers is based on their admiration and willingness to look like the leader.
Often in the followers’ perspective, OLs are of a higher social status, more exposed to international activities and relationships, and more concerned with any forms of external communication. These characteristics are not necessarily true, they could be only the followers’ perception.
Due to their exposure and their influencing abilities, OLs play a fundamental role in society when it comes to spread new ideas, values and beliefs. See also: Persuasion Theory and Persuation Techniques. In addition, they are often exploited to launch new trends and to position products in prospects mind. According to Bass’s Model of Innovation Diffusion OLs are among the first to adopt new hi-tech products. See also: Innovation Adoption Curve.
Types of Opinion Leadership
Marketing and communication literature distinguishes two types of opinion leadership:
- Monomorphic opinion leadership. This applies when a leader’s influence is limited to one specific topic. This is a typical leadership style of modern industrial societies characterized by specialization of roles and division of labor. Nowadays, this is the most common style of opinion leadership in developed countries.
- Polymorphic opinion leadership. This applies when a leader’s influence covers different topics. This is a more conventional leadership style, nowadays obsolescent, typical of traditional societies. In small towns not dominated by industrial logics and media culture, some elder and highly respected people might give advices on a variety of topics manipulating thus behaviors of surrounding people.
Targeting Opinion Leaders
Recent marketing thinking sees OLs as the most powerful tools for advertising. In a world where Word-of-Mouth is challenging media effectiveness, more and more companies are targeting OLs in their marketing campaigns. In a research from Ed Keller and Jon Berry (“The Influentials”, The Free Press, 2003) there is evidence of a shifted preference of today’s consumers towards getting advices and buying inspirations from the neighbor, the friend of the friend, and any individual retained competent in certain fields.
Limitations of Opinion Leaders. Disadvantages
- One limitation in the use of opinion leadership for marketing purposes is the difficulty to identify them at local level and target them according to their influence range. According to Keller and Berry’s research, in the USA one individual out of ten is a good candidate for an opinion leadership position. The characteristics of OLs are not homogeneous as far as social and economical backgrounds are concerned: they might be of any age, social status and adopting any lifestyle as long as they are regarded as leaders in their group or social context.
- Another issue is that even if human behavior tends to cluster among friends and in time, the reasons behind this effect are not clear. Perhaps it is due to one person influencing another, perhaps it is simply based on other phenomena, such as the sociological phenomenon called 'homophily" - people's propensity to associate with others who are like them. According to Sinan Aral (What would Ashton do, and does it matter?, HBR May 2013), to accurately estimate social influence by an OL, for example to determine the effect of some marketing campaign, one needs to distinguish behavioral tendencies from behavioral changes to find the effect of someone's behavior over and above other people's prior probability of purchasing.
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 From Mass to Influencer Marketing
According to some views, today’s marketing is losing its effectiveness and is even considered “broken” (Brown and Hayes, 2008). A possible reason is that it does not contribute to sales in as direct and tangible way as before. The wide public is targ...
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Transformational Opinion Leaders
Opinion leaders who are truly influencial at all levels are also transformational and relate to those above and below them with clarity and focus. They relate to the types of media being used within their organizations and are seen by their peers and...
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The Value of an Opinion of Someone
Everyone with access to the Internet opines. Opinions have value only to its owner and those that choose to share the same opinion. Pundits in the media opine but are not opinion makers, an opinion maker earns the trust of the people whose opinions w...
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Opinion Leader Personalities
I think different personalities can be identified for different leadership aspects. The outcome of their contribution will mainly depend on their:
- subject knowledge
- experience
- what they stand for in the public eye...
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Polymorphic Leadership is Everywhere
This page is really interesting. But I do not agree with the statement, that polymorphic leadership is only present in traditional countries. When I see the influence of pop-stars, the not content-related influence academic titles give, I believe tha...
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Opinion Leaders Special Interest Group
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Social Persuasion: Determining the Potential of Social Influencers
Which consumers are best able to influence others in social groups? What characteristics and what factors identify those consumers with the greates...
Usage (application): Social Media Marketing, Social Influence, Opinion Leadership
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The Importance of Customer Differences in Markets with Network Effects: the Limits of Scale
The network effect ( Metcalfe's Law) is the phenomenon that the value of a product or serv...
Usage (application): Network Effect, Network Strategy, First Mover Advantage, Second-mover Strategy, Customer Intimacy, Market Segmentation
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Opinion Leadership, Worth-Of-Mouth and Buzz Marketing
Presentation with speaking notes about Opinion Leadership, including several related types of marketing. The presentation includes the following secti...
Usage (application): Opinion Leadership, Buzz Marketing, Worth-Of-Mouth Communication, Cool Hunting
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Group Influences and Opinion Leadership
Presentation about Group Influences, including various related concepts such as the Social Comparison Theory and Word-of Mouth Communication. The pres...
Usage (application): Groupthink, Group Dynamics, Word of Mouth Marketing, Sales, Opinion Leadership, Convincing People, Persuation
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The Internet / Social Media Revolution
Video shows how fast social media is growing. And gives a clear status of the position of social media by 2014.
Great starter for a discussion, p...
Usage (application): Social Media, Internet Strategy, Internet Impact, Digital Revolution
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Compare with: Two Steps Flow Model | 10 Commandments for Media Consumers | Online Corporate Reputation
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Special Interest Group Leader
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