Finding Opinion Leaders in a Market

Cartesian Logic
Guillermo Linares, Consultant, Mexico
Opinion leaders base their power on communicating their what seems to be personal thoughts or, in a referenced position, this opinion has to be related with people’s mind.
They are well connected with the media, and have enough power to be heard by many.
When they are visible to the crowd, the messages have to be congruent with a certain way of thought of the listener, to alienate any previous judgments.
Where I work, we use a tool named addressed perception to influence the meaningful points of the mass perception, to make the message understandable and also received by the unconscious, in a way the mass recognizes this opinion as their own, although not the same as what they believed before.
In the healthcare market the lead is on the ones who posses power to spread the message in a consistent and accurate way via the people commonly assumed to know something. Government authorities and commonly known researchers are the ones to look for.

Opinion Leader
Rahul Srivastava, Manager, India
Excellent information

How to Find Opinion Leaders
dr vineet banga, Manager, India
- Identify people who are interested in change
- Ask the opinion from senior persons which people are interested / capable in the new field of health management,
- Look for who are the people to whom others listen?

Finding Good Opinion Leaders
Ghulam Muhammad, HR Consultant, Pakistan
Two things are very important in my opinion.
1. Knowledge is power. It means anyone who has more knowledge has more power to influence others.
2. The vision to change something. Leaders set examples to influence others. They are brave.

Hire Opinion Leaders
D P BABU, Strategy Consultant, India
Opinion leaders are knowledge entrepreneurs who extend their vision on a dynamic social, cultural, educational and economic environment and find opportunities for innovation and growth in these areas. Hiring opinion leaders helps educational and business organizations to strategizing their policies for achieving their respective objectives.

Finding Opinion Leaders in a Market: Cultural Aspects
Louis E. Evans, Analyst, United States
Identifying (key) opinion leaders in any market depends on the culture. For example, in individualistic societies, where individual initiative and achievement are rewarded, the opinion leaders are prized for their ability to innovate and stand out. In more collectivistic cultures they will be prized for their ability to bring harmony to their environment. That being said... The individuals with the largest social network... And the ability to continue growing it, will be the ones you want to establish a relationship with. The next identifier, is the individual's level of emotional intelligence... Their ability to connect with others. Finally, I would observe their ability to communicate a compelling vision.

Opinion Leaders n B2C and B2B
Luiz Araujo, Manager, Portugal
In my opinion there's two kinds of Opinion Leaders, one for each market:
A) Opinion leaders in B2C markets where the VIP of society magazines or TV advertisers (football players, movie stars etc), those that some people dream about or like to imitate.
B) Opinion Leaders for B2B markets where the opinion makers are the people who recommend a type of product, or a brand using their direct influence.
Both of them they influence the final option one by imitation the other by direct influence.

Opinion Leaders
PAT O REILLY, Other, Ireland
This is where we use sociology to find the best practice - the theory of sociometry gives good insights into such typology and how we can identify the leaders.

The Opinion Leader
Timo Lahtinen, Strategy Consultant, Finland
I agree with Louis E. Evans about the cultural aspect, the social and communicative characteristics.
From the opinion leader´s own point of view it also means personal willingness to share the knowledge and the experience, to accept the risk and uncertainty of the advice not proving right and involving the personal brand as a guarantee for others.
So what are rewards? In the best case an increasing network, increasing knowledge and the ability to think creatively and innovate based on the interaction - and perhaps some business.
Understanding this, the opinion leaders make themselves identifiable in social media and among more traditional forms of interaction.

Finding Opinion Leaders in a Market
Victor M Guerra Martinez, Student (MBA), Mexico
"Market Opinion Leader": A person who influences others who belong to a social group. The ideas and thoughts of these leaders serve as a guide for others, as people seek leaders for advice and information. They are a group that marketers should seek to reach and use the influence they exert on those around them.
To identify the most prominent opinion leaders on a given market, whether they belong to a region or a country should first determine the area or areas of our interest.
To locate the most outstanding ones, we could go to magazines, where they publish the top ten of marketing of the best selling brands, who are their advertisers that advertise media: print, radio, television, internet, email, etc.
These leaders could be exploited for merchandising campaigns, to reposition a product or launch a new product.

Opinion Leaders Identification
Jahanbakhsh Jahansouz, Project Manager, Iran
These are minimum qualifications of appropriate opinion leaders:
- able to communicate with other people in different levels of the subject society smoothly and in a proper/delicate way - sufficient (general) knowledge about sociology and psychology.
- successful in highlighting potential benefits of the subject service/product clearly to the addressees.
- well-known professional /expert with an acceptable personality, at least in one specific field of the subject discipline e.g. health care.
- good knowledge of statistics/probability science to support/justify findings that needs to be presented.
- not dogmatic and logically accepts/considers the weak points and complains about the service/product that may be raises by customers.
- able to manage conflicts during the marketing sessions/meetings.
- aware of the competitors' potential and market share.

Identifying Opinion Leaders
Wilf Marshall, CxO / Board, United Kingdom
Again we have a good collection of views on a difficult subject to get a real hold on. A first level source I use is the conference circuit. Of course this is at risk from those who are there to simply push their product or ideas, but there are often some regulars who attract an audience and these may be worth evaluating against some of the criteria listed by earlier contributors. Happy hunting!

Opinion Leaders -- Identification, Leveraging to Advantage
Dhiraj Relli, Banking, India
It is very difficult to identify opinion leaders and leverage them to organisation's' advantage. Opinion leaders are more vocal and communicative, their influence depends on the credibility they enjoy in respective knowledge domain.

Identifying Opinion Leaders by their Following
ernest agbenohevi, Consultant, Ghana
Opinion leaders are very influencial persons or groups in a society. They are noted to have a following which makes whatever notion/opinions they hold as very important. Every project (a development project or a marketing project) has elements including stakeholders the it affects and vice versa. Stakeholder Analysis is one important tool for assessing those project beneficiaries or advocates or donors(funders) or managers whose opinion matter as far ensuring maximum project impact is concerned.

Listening to Experts
Allemeersch Johan, Belgium
Every doctor has his true example. Someone form the university or a colleague. The one they call when in times of question. Listening to them will tell you how to come to the right person - opinion leader.