In search of opinion leaders

In a pre-internet world it seemed like the influencers in society were few and far between. Some worked for traditional media, like newspapers or magazines. Some were in our midst, friends that were often asked for advice. For some this is still the case. These influencers are called opinion leaders. Opinion leaders are brokers between consumer (aka opinion seekers) and brands. The internet has become such a driving, and dominant, force in our society it is therefore interesting to find out how and if opinion leaders have moved on to the internet. In many cases, these influencers have their own magazine-like platform, blogs. This study tries to discover whether this holds true. Are bloggers opinion leaders ‘2.0’? In order to discover answers to these questions, a survey was created and spread, selectively, online. Additionally, interviews were conducted. Other topics pertaining to opinion leaders and ‘web 2.0’ were also explored. Topics like: the role of traditional media in the face of bloggers (who offer free content), the role traditional media plays in the discovery of new information by opinion leaders, and an attempt was made to find out whether a successful blog can be characterized by its features or the bloggers’ opinion leading status. Research revealed that online opinion leaders in many ways do resemble ‘offline’ opinion leaders. Also, previous characteristics of opinion leaders can be used to discover online leaders ‘in the wild’. However, they still need to be classified in a separate category because online leaders’ characteristics (and motives) are slightly different from offline leaders (as discussed in opinion leader theory). Online leaders’ modus operandi is much different (and advantageous) than offline leaders. Moreover, suggestions are made for future research that helps to broaden an understanding, for both academia and society, of the actual influence and impact of these online opinion leaders, in the hope that the search will continue.