Opinion Leadership - Methods of Identifying Opinion Leaders

The Self-Designation Method

Among approaches used for measuring opinion leadership is the self-designating method, developed by King and Summers in 1970. The original 7-item scale gauged the direction of influence between friends relative to a specific product (5, p. 184).

Today, a revised scale is typically employed where individual consumers are simply asked whether they consider themselves as opinion leaders. Although such information can be helpful, it is best to be critical of the data as it is self-reported. Sometimes individuals tend to inflate their importance and influence over others. On the other hand, truly influential persons may underrate their influence or not even be conscious of it. In fact, the transmission of advice does not necessarily mean others heed the advice (24, p. 358). Opinion leadership is defined by receivers, not sources (2, p. 98). Influence is not an abstract attribute of a person, rather it is a process implicating two or more people (17, p. 208).

"The self-designating method is not as reliable as a more systematic analysis (in which individual claims of influence can be verified by asking others whether the person is really influential), but is does have the advantage of being easy to apply to a large group of potential opinion leaders" (24, p. 359). Realistically considered, however, this methodology sacrifices a minor degree on accuracy for the sake of economics and expediency (6, p. 52). As concluded by Rogers and Cartano, the six-item self-designating opinion leadership scale used in the 1957 study of the diffusion of new farm ideas among Ohio farmers is considered reliable, valid, and unidimensional (23, p. 439-441).

Key Informants

"The key informant approach involves first identifying a limited number of people assumed to be knowledgeable regarding the patterns of influence within a group, and then asking them to identify influentials in that group" (9, p. 82). Although key informants are selected subjectively as persons likely to have the ability to identify opinion leaders, this method is employed as it usually produces savings in terms of costs and time when compared to sociometric methods. However, it should be noted this methodology lacks in "applicability to sample designs in which only a portion of an audience is interviewed" (23, p. 438).

Sociometry

Sociometric methods trace communication patterns among members of a group, which allows for the systematic mapping of member interactions. Data is typically obtained by interviewing participants and asking them to whom they go for product information (24, p. 359-360). This method is more precise than the self-designating method, but is more expensive and difficult to administer. Sociometry works best applied in a closed, self-contained social setting, such as hospitals, prisons or army bases (24, p. 360).

The below sociogram shows the pattern of communication among nine medical doctors in a community. Doctor #5 is clearly identified as an opinion leader within this community, as eight other doctors routinely seek his advice (1, p. 439-440).