People Who Claim to Be Opinion Leaders: Identifying Their Characteristics by Self-Report

Abstract

Opinion leaders are “trusted and informed people who exist in virtually all primary groups.” Because they are “models” of opinion, they can be major influencers on a marketing effort through word-of-mouth communication to circles of relatives, friends, and acquaintances. Are opinion leaders aware of and able to report their own personal influence? This article presents data which indicate they are. People were identified as opinion leaders by their responses to a simple self-report item in a variety of questionnaires. As a group, opinion leaders displayed the major characteristics ascribed to them in the literature.