Opinion Leader

Diffusion of innovations - Opinion Leaders 1 Opinion Leaders typically have greater exposure to the mass media, more cosmopolitan, greater contact with change agents, more social experience and exposure, higher socioeconomic status, and are more innovative.

Diffusion of innovations - Opinion Leaders 1 The findings were that opinion leadership tended to be organized into a hierarchy within a society, with each level in the hierarchy having most influence over other members in the same level, and on those in the next level below it

Opinion leadership 1 Opinion leadership comes from the theory of two-step flow of communication propounded by Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz

Opinion leadership 1 Variants of polymorphic opinion leadership include market mavenism, personality strength and generalized opinion leadership

Opinion leadership 1 While the media can act as a reinforcing agent, opinion leaders have a more changing or determining role in an individual’s opinion or action.

Opinion leadership 1 In his article, Elihu Katz answers the question, Who is an opinion leader? One or more of these factors make noteworthy opinion leaders:

Opinion leadership 1 Opinion leaders are individuals who obtain more media coverage than others and are especially educated on a certain issue. They seek the acceptance of others and are especially motivated to enhance their social status. In the jargon of public relations, they are called thought leaders.

Opinion leadership 1 By using opinion leaders, Gore was able to educate and influence many Americans to take notice of climate change and change their actions.

Rate of adoption - Opinion leaders 1 Not all individuals exert an equal amount of influence over others. In this sense Opinion leadership|opinion leaders are influential in spreading either positive or negative information about an innovation. Rogers relies on the ideas of Katz Lazarsfeld and the two-step flow theory in developing his ideas on the influence of opinion leaders.

Rate of adoption - Opinion leaders 1 Opinion leaders have the most influence during the evaluation stage of the innovation-decision process and on late adopters. In addition opinion leaders typically have greater exposure to the mass media, more cosmopolitan, greater contact with change agents, more social experience and exposure, higher socioeconomic status, and are more innovative than others.

Patient opinion leader 1 'Patient Opinion Leaders' (POL) are individuals who are well versed in a disease either as sufferers or care takers of individuals with chronic disorders and share their knowledge on the particular disease with others.

Patient opinion leader - Key roles 1 A systemic review by Doumit et al. (2011) concluded that opinion leaders are individuals who are likeable, trustworthy and influential. Such POLs can have an influence on the health care providers and may help and persuade them to use evidence based treatment or medicines while managing other patients.

Patient opinion leader - Internet use for health information 1 With the number of internet savvy population increasing, the number of individuals looking at internet as a primary source for gathering first hand information about any type of query they have is also on the rise. Healthcare options are widely being tested across social groups and patient opinion leaders are playing a key role in the treatment options being chosen by other individuals. About 23% of the individuals surf the internet more than 2 times a week for healthcare related information.

Patient opinion leader - Internet use for health information 1 The patient opinion leaders can have a significant role in influencing healthcare options chosen by other sufferers. Such POLs would have witnessed or suffered the symptoms of the disease and realised the outcomes of various treatment options personally and can reflect their views onto other sufferers or caretakers.

Patient opinion leader - Marketing 1 Patient opinion leader (POL) refers to an individual who is well versed about his/her disorder and can influence the decision making of other sufferers with his/her writing

Patient opinion leader - Marketing 1 The patient opinion leaders can be sufferers of some chronic illnesses or may be caregivers who have gone through a lot during the course of the illness

Patient opinion leader - Marketing 1 The patient opinion leaders can be considered as a new way of promoting the use of different drugs. The areas of concern would be the local laws about marketing and collaborations between the POLs and healthcare providers. Further, the long term survival of this method would depend majorly on the ability of the POLs to keep consumers glued to their blogs without being identified as a marketing agent.

Peer education - Kelly’s Popular Opinion Leader Theory 1 These opinion leaders espouse a certain lifestyle (such as safer sex, or not smoking, etc.) – and their peers wish to emulate them.

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